One common factor, which is essential for the success of CPED, is the importance of capacity building and sustainability of key institutions involved in program implementation. Experiences over the years in Africa and in Nigeria in particular have shown that one of the major problems that have militated against the successful implementation of development programs has been poor institutional and capacity base of implementing agencies. This problem which has hitherto been characteristic of the public sector and which has led to the reliance of many international aid agencies to channel their assistance through non-governmental organisations is also becoming a problem in civil society sector. This is due to the fact that capacity building in most African countries has focused largely on the public sector. Little or no attention has been given to strengthening and empowering non-state actors, especially at the local level. Moreover, most donor assistance tends to focus on physical results, such as health improvement; credit availability etc. while less attention is paid to capacity building of key civil society organisations. In some cases the NGOs have disappeared with the founding leadership of the organisations. It is against this background that CPED believes that the process of strengthening partner organizations including community based organisations must be a key mechanism for the achievement of its mandate. This includes the strengthening of CPED to be able to fulfill its mandate. The capacity building of CPED and its partners will entail the following:

The capacity building of partners will entail the following: