BME capacity building programme can create “real added value” with considerable investment

Run by the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO), the impact of the programme has been assessed by the Charities Evaluation Service (CES) in a new Joseph Rowntree Foundation report. The five-year £2.5 million scheme was funded through the Single Regeneration Budget, with the aim of enabling a group of London based minority ethnic voluntary and community groups to build their organisational capacity and become sustainable. CEMVO’s programme was delivered by 15 MBA-qualified capacity building officers who worked with 302 community-based organisations.

The CES review found this programme reflected the Government’s policy emphasis on the role of the voluntary sector in the delivery of public services. CEMVO’s focus on the needs of minority ethnic groups as well as its rigorous approach to capacity building met most success in organisations that were semi-developed and often medium sized. Feedback from organisations participating in the programme showed 57% of the first year groups and 76% of the second year groups felt the input of the capacity building officers to be ‘very important’ or ‘important’.

The programme operated in a complex local policy environment but where there was good local authority support for the black and minority ethnic voluntary sector and for more general capacity building, this was an important enabling factor. The strategic approach of working with infrastructure organisations and networks as ‘host’ organisations for capacity building officers was found to have the potential to add value and greater sustainability to capacity building.

The funding body measured success using government-defined outputs. However, these did not capture or value some key elements of capacity building – the organisational shifts, strategic approaches, building of alliances and addressing of power balances. Work to strengthen the profile of black and minority ethnic voluntary and community sector organisations and their representatives, to link them with local councils, funders and commissioners and to place them with local partnerships in order to create a sustainable effect was an important element.

One of the main lessons to emerge from the review is the need for a long-term strategic approach to capacity building specifically aimed at the minority ethnic voluntary and community sector. As the report indicates, “considerable investment” is required centrally for such a programme to provide “real added value”.  In addition, the review emphasised the complex environment in which capacity building took place, including the difficult process of engagement between grass-roots groups and their capacity building officers as well as changing conditions on the ground.

Report co-author Jean Ellis said, “Funders wishing to make an effective investment in capacity building the minority ethnic voluntary sector need to take such environmental conditions into account so that realistic targets and timeframes are set. They also need to value qualitative as well as quantitative measures of success.”

Reflecting on the significance of the programme, Krishna Sarda, Chief Executive of CEMVO, said, “Minority ethnic grass-roots groups often experience a disproportionate lack of long-term funding, skills and resources that prevent them from adequately responding to their constituents’ needs. By enabling community-based groups to grow, develop and become sustainable, CEMVO’s capacity building programme is not only fostering social entrepreneurship, but addressing the deeper socio-economic inequalities affecting our sector.”