This resource offers recommendations to enhance development practitioners’ own capacities to facilitate local capacity development, including those of USAID staff. In doing so, it begins to make connections between conceptual lessons found in the development literature and programmatic learning emanating from USAID Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD) activities.

This exploratory analysis draws from two related efforts:

• USAID’s Paper Series on Capacity and Capacity Strengthening, particularly Inquiry 4 on Development Practitioners’ Own Capacities, and

• A synthesis of recommendations from nine evaluations and final reports for HICD activities posted on USAID’sDevelopment Experience Clearinghouse.