Participatory Institutional Capacity Assessment and Learning Index

The Participatory Institutional Capacity Assessment and Learning Index is an assessment tool used to evaluate and monitor four themes of institutional capacity development, namely:

• Demand for Institutional Performance
• Organizational Learning Capacity
• Administrative Capacity
• Institutional Strengthening Capacity

This tool is intended specifically to support USAID/DRC's efforts to monitor and continuously improve its efforts to advance Development Objective 1 (DO1) of the CDCS that selected national-level institutions more effectively implement their mandates. This tool can be used to:

• Obtain an initial assessment of organizational units' current level of capacity – to inform the articulation of specific long-term capacity-building goals, identification of short-term capacity building priorities and the specification of capacity-building assistance to be provided by USAID/DRC to these organizations – as well as to provide a baseline for the management of these efforts and an assessment of their contributions;
• Engage leaders within organizational units in the initial assessment of long-term and short-term capacity-building priorities; the specification of assistance to be provided to move these institutions toward these capacity priorities; and the monitoring and continuous improvement of these capacity building efforts. This would serve as a means of supporting indigenous ownership of and demand for improved capacity and performance of these organizational units, as well as supporting these leaders to raise their level of understanding of capacity building;
• Monitor progress of USAID/DRC's capacity-building interventions toward their intended results with the selected national-level organizational units to inform improvement of the implementation of these initiatives; and,
• Report on the results of USAID/DRC's efforts to build the capacity of the selected national-level institutions to promote greater transparency regarding the national institutional capacity-development needs of the DRC as well as to inform the development of broader knowledge and understanding of national institutional capacity-building.