Assessment of capacity building efforts carried under GEF-UNDP global solar water heating project (GSWH) in India
Student name: Ms Kritika Gulati
Guide: Dr Akash Sondhi
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Vaibhav Gupta
Abstract: This study investigates a capacity building project carried by Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in India. With developing countries seeking constant support to build capacities to contribute towards climate actions, the realised benefits are not prominently visible. Capacity building is a constant process, which requires actions for the immediate planning for the long-term sustenance of acquired support. But the projects carried under the same certainly lack to create any such impact. There could be some arguable reasons behind these projects not achieving the overall goal of building or strengthening of one country’s capacities. One end of the problem is of course lack of adequate support (long-term); however, we can’t deny the poor retention rate within the beneficiary countries in terms of assimilating support into respective domestic systems. Speaking of specific project(s), there is lack of country drivenness to the impose a long-term sustenance of capacity development goals. In addition, donor agencies are still seeking full transparency of project implementation in an easy-going manner. Most often, the elements of long-term sustainability of outcomes were found missing from the project plans. Thus, developing nations fail to build and sustain national capacities and still remain caught in the loop of seeking more funding. To understand how capacity building efforts under projects are carried by donor agencies and how these are retained, this study was carried through which gaps in retaining those capacities built were identified.
