Assessing the Safe Youth Worldwide Initiative in South Africa and the Dominican Republic and Strengthening MSCI’s Organizational Capacity Building Technical Assistance for Partner Organizations in Develo

Margaret Sanger Center International (MSCI) seeks to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide by strengthening local partners in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific. The Capstone team worked with MSCI to enhance the quality of its technical assistance in the area of organizational development, which includes strategic planning, financial management, program development, monitoring and evaluation, fundraising, and partnership building. The team assessed the outcomes of MSCI’s technical assistance for partner agencies in the Dominican Republic and South Africa and identified the strengths and weaknesses of the Safe Youth Worldwide capacity-building initiative in each location. The Capstone team drew on the interviews and observations from the site-visits to write an Assessment of Organizational Capacity-Building to assist MSCI in future technical assistance programs. Based on these findings and an extensive literature review of current best practices, the team also developed a Resource Guide for Technical Assistance which includes definitions of key concepts in managerial development, checklists for organizational capacity, and resource lists for technical assistance training guides and tool-kits.