enhancing food security and physical activity for maori, pacific and ...

Enhancing Food Security and Physical Activity for Māori, Pacific and Low-income Peoplesas central to capacity building: (a) physical, human, organisational, social, and culturalcapital; and (b) empowerment. Each of these is defined in turn.Physical, human, organisational, social and cultural capitalBuilding capacity in its broadest sense encompasses the development of physical,human, organisational, social and cultural capital. All are important and all requireattention in the planning, implementation and evaluation of development projects, suchas culturally-specific physical activity programmes. Viewing capacity building through thelens of different levels of capital implies concern with resources and possible powerdistribution.Within these different levels, physical capital relates to infrastructural needs (computers,equipment, internet resources etc.). Human capital refers to individual change throughskills acquisition. Organisational capital relates to the internal structure, systems,strategy and skills of an organisation. Very little research refers to the development ofsocial capital; however, if human capital refers to individual change through skillsacquisition, social capital comes about through changes in the relations among personswho facilitate action. Finally, cultural capital refers to the habitus of cultural practices,knowledge, and demeanour learned through exposure to role models in the family andother environments. 10 Empowerment is vital to building capacity. It is necessary that theparties involved believe they have, or can acquire, the knowledge and skills and powerto help others make change.From the nursing literature, there a number of examples of building capacity for nursingpractice and research. 10 15 16 An international collaborative project 10 between theUniversity of Alberta in Canada, and the Department of Nursing in Ghana sought todevelop capacity by addressing the various forms of capital highlighted above, andempowering nurses. Initial verbal communication between the respective parties wasfollowed by reciprocal visitations which provided the foundation for a mutuallyempowering relationship. From this starting point, identification of existing capacity washighlighted, with identification of appropriate strategies for encouraging participationbetween the two organisations, and ways of addressing physical and human capital.While the initial strategies were deliberately planned, organisational, social and culturalcapital strategies were more organic. This project aimed to develop capacity amongnurses at an individual, group and organisation level through a collaborative approach,and provides a useful example of a theoretically grounded systematic approach tocapacity building.The development of nurses’ research capacity was a frequently addressed topic in theinternational literature. A review 15 highlighted the factors that have influenced thedevelopment of research capacity among nurses in low and middle income countries.Barriers to conducting research included lack of training and education in this area,scarcity of resources, which was also driven by lack of funding, and hierarchies of power,which limited exposure to research opportunities. The authors of the reviewrecommended a three-pronged approach to help build capacity. The first was to providegreater opportunities and access to graduate and post-graduate training. This couldinvolve research and policy practicums, establishment of training opportunities, includingPhD programmes, and exposure to essential research skills such as writing peerreviewedpublications, developing knowledge translation skills, and improving grantwriting abilities. The second approach was to develop and enhance mentoringstrategies. Opportunities to work alongside senior researchers, on-site and with distance152