Capacity Development Forum (CDF)
Through the Capacity Development Forum (CDF), IIHS brings together diverse stakeholders involved in capacity development (CD) in India and abroad to form a ‘community of practice’. CDF’s goal is to enable collaborative practice and enhance the effectiveness of capacity development initiatives through an open access repository of knowledge. The annual flagship event is a gathering of CD practitioners and stakeholders where knowledge is co-created through peer learning, experience sharing, and panel discussions.
In 2021, the theme was ‘Design and Delivery of Individual Capacity Building Programmes’. In 2023, the CDF annual convening deliberated on ‘Enabling Environment for Capacity Development – Mandates, Policies, and Institutional Arrangements’. In 2024, the theme was ‘Capacity Development and Behavioural Insights – Implications for Institutional Design and Public Policy’. This year, CDF 2025 theme is ‘Reimagining Institutional Capacity Development for a Sustainable Future’.
Capacity Development Forum 2025
The 2025 CDF theme is ‘Reimagining Institutional Capacity Development for a Sustainable Future’. This will explore institutional capacity as the foundation for systemic change, shaping sustainable development through policy and governance, communication and implementation strategies, financial and performance management, and monitoring and evaluation. This forum will convene policymakers, academics, development practitioners, and industry leaders to examine institutional reforms, CD strategies, and governance innovations that drive sustainable development and transformation.
Capacity Development Forum 2024
CDF 2024 focussed on behavioural insights and the implications for institutional design and public policy. The convening brought together stakeholders from a range of sectors to discuss how the understanding of human behaviour and motivations is key to achieving larger societal objectives not only at an individual level but also at the institutional one.
Capacity Development Forum 2023
CDF 2023 focussed on the enabling ecosystem and policy environment for capacity development, and examined the approaches and trends in reimagining mandates, structures and institutional arrangements that have shaped development initiatives. The panels brought together important stakeholders from the intersection of various scales, sectors and components of CD to discuss how an enabling environment can address critical challenges, and support innovations for a full cycle approach to capacity building in the development sector.
Capacity Development Forum 2021
The first convening of the CDF, held virtually across 8 – 9 December 2021, focussed on the capacity development of urban practitioners at an individual scale, across different sectors of the Urban. Conversations were grounded in the context of the ongoing pandemic, and its impact on Capacity Development (CD) programmes – how this impacted the shift to online modes of delivery, choice of pedagogical tools and technological solutions, and the overall outlook for future CD practice.