The current Work Plan of the Group on Earth Observations Capacity Building Committee includes Task CB-09-04b (CB0701c in previous work plan): Harmonise, develop & implement capacity building Performance Indicators. The IOC, as one of the task co-leader, is hosting this page that will report on the achievements in this task.

The kick-off meeting for this task was held in Sevilla on 14 September 2007, following the GEO capacity-building symposium and the 5th meeting of the capacity-building committee of GEO (kick-off meeting participants). The group discussed the experiences on evaluation of capacity development in different organisations, and how this experience could be applied to GEO capacity-building and the need to liaise with the performance indicator systems for GEO as whole. The importance of keeping this process as participatory as possible was reaffirmed. Finally, the group decided to begin the process with a practical application to itself - designing indicators for the evaluation of the performance of the task force on indicators.

The participants reviewed and updated the Task Sheet for CB-07-01c and nominated three task co-leaders:

• Noureddine Filali Boubrahmi, Direction de la Météorologie Nationale, Morocco
  
• Ulrich Ranke, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Germany
  
• Joannès Berque, Intergovernmetal Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO

Following the second meeting of the task team (Hannover, 12 February 2008), it was proposed at the 6th meeeting of the Capacity Building Committee (Hannover, 13-14 February 2008) that a very simple set of questions be added to each task sheet. The additional expense of time in filling this questionaire should remain small, and the survey should provide first order information on how much capacity development is undertaken in GEO, in which areas, and in which way. In addition, the survey should provide information on what aspects of GEO are or would be most useful to member organisations' capacity development activities.

Relevant documentation:

GEO Task sheet CB-0904b: Harmonise, develop and implement capacity-building performance indicators. Last update February 2009.

Presentation by Dr. Ulrich Ranke during the Kick-off meeting, 14 September 2007, and presentation during the 6th Meeting of the Capacity Building Committee (CBC6).

note on GEOSS capacity development , Ulrich Ranke, BGR - include initial discussion of indicators

draft scorecard on for measuring GEOS capacity development, Joannès Berque, UNESCO/IOC

IOC Principles and Strategy for Capacity Building - as accepted by the 23rd Assembly of the IOC, June 2005. The document outlines the initial principles and strategy that have guided the implementation of IOC capacity development.

Evaluating Effectiveness of Capacity Development in Marine Sciences - the document proposes some guiding principles for the development of indicators for evaluating capacity development performance. This article was published in the October 2006 issue of the International Journal of Island Affairs.

Report on Best Practices in IOC Capacity Building - in 2005 the IOC conducted a study of best practices in its long experience of capacity development. This document reports on identified best practices and provides recommendations to enhance capacity development activities at IOC.

GEO Document 26 - GEOSS Outcome Performance Indicators . This draft document provides useful background information on the framework within which fit this task's activities 

GEO capacity-building committee website.

More resources on monitoring and evaluation of capacity development is available from the IOC web page on evaluating IOC capacity development.

Kick-off Meeting group photo