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Twinning as a means of capacity development — explanatory note
Twinning in the vocabulary of development co-operationmeans that an
organisation – in a donor country – is paired with its equivalent in a partner
country with the aim of strengthening the institutional development of the
organisation in the latter. The institutional strengthening takes place through
a combination of exchange of staff, training, short-term and long-term advisers,
study tours etc.
The basic idea behind the twinning arrangement is that the two ‘sisterorganizations’
should have a high degree of similarity in mandate, role in
society, functions and responsibilities. The staff should be able to meet as
professionals with a common basis of knowledge and professional culture. In
a successful twinning project a high degree of mutual confidence is developed,
making it possible for the ‘donor twin’ to also identify and discuss
sensitive development issues.
Twinning has been used by Sida since the 1980s as a means for capacity
development in strengthening/building government institutions in the South.
The Swedish institutions involved in the twinning projects have been inter
alia the Central Bureau of Statistics Sweden, the Swedish Tax Authority,
the Swedish Auditor General, and the Swedish National Police Board and
Swedish University departments.
Twinning as a concept has been broadened and is now also used to characterize
co-operation in other fields than government institutions. Co-operation
between municipalities in developed countries and twin municipalities in
other parts of the world sometimes falls under this heading.
Twinning has proved successful for building professional capacity in
an organisation either to create a basis for organisational changes or
organisational development or as direct input into on-going organisational
development. Twinning seems to have been less successful as a method for
management development or the change/development of managerial or administrative
systems.
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a David and Goliath situation. The NSC has a permanent staff of 54 persons
while SCB has over 1,200. NSC (including its predecessors) is a young
organisation while SCB is the world’s oldest national statistical institute.
However, even though the partners are very different they share many of
the problems encountered by national statistical institutes all over the
world.
The objectives
The ultimate objective on a national level for the project is to support the
NSC to develop a well functioning statistical system, capable of producing
statistics in the different areas required. To fulfil the ambitions stated as
national objectives, the NSC has to: