Capacity building

This chapter opens with a definition of capacity building and the history of its emergence as a concept. It outlines how capacity is required at the level of the environment, within organizations and individuals in order to enable individuals, institutions and societies to function. It goes on to describe the process for capacity building and provides examples of three attempts to integrate institutional capacity building into a larger long-term non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention strategies. The chapter includes a discussion of a systems approach. Just as the problem of NCDs exists within a highly complex system, responses need to be complex and viewed as just one of many pieces of a solution. The chapter outlines the levels where public health interventions can be made and discusses challenge of translating NCD interventions from one setting to another.