Most CBOs that play a meaningful role in development processes have been empowered through the capacity building work of NGOs or external agents. NGOs can enhance community skills in leadership, literacy, public speaking, teamwork etc., such that communities are able to formulate and articulate decisions confidently in unfamiliar environments. At an organisational level, capacity building activities by NGOs may mean making an organisation or activity financially sustainable (for instance, the day-to-day operation and maintenance of a communal water-tap). In some partnerships, this may mean that the NGO takes on a role in ensuring that the CBO is formalised. In the BoTT in the Eastern Cape in South Africa (see Boxes 6.11 and 6.12), the NGO Mvula Trust is one of the partners of the contracting consortium, and they are specifically responsible for institutional and community development.
By and large, business organisations with their profit-maximisation goals are comparatively heavy-handed at working with communities, and are not interested in their capacity. The capacity building role of an NGO may also include capacity building for the partners. The lack of skills in relation to social and institutional dimensions, and in terms of interacting with poor communities, suggests there is a critical need for greater flows of information from competent NGOs to the private sector. This requires a society-friendly environment and a desire on the part of the other partners to learn.