Building the capacity of communities to deal with their own problems and development is an important aspect of the work for the government and Civil society organizations. The importance of broadening the scope of stake holders to help citizens to sustain their community challenges they live in is widely recognized as a way to faster economic development. This may mean offering advice services, giving small resources to communities to kick-start community-led initiatives or facilitating the bringing-together of expertise and experience in the community to deal with particular problems. All of this can go to promote the skills and capacities of communities and their members to better deal with the kinds of problems they may face.
When we talk about community capacity building (CCB) we are basically referring to 'local solutions to local problems' which enable communities to deal with problems, ultimately without relying on external resources. To take a simple but flexible definition of it we can see it as a series of grassroots process by which communities organize and plan together, develop healthy lifestyle options, empower themselves, reduce poverty and suffering, create employment and economic opportunities, achieve social, economic, cultural and environmental goals together.

 

Communities are therefore enabled to see what skills they have and to identify the kind of problems they want to resolve through common action, supported by workers in organizations and the government, which may have the capacity to bring these skills together and enable them further. CCB has also been linked to effectively programs that have reduced local crime rates. More specifically CCB can be employed to build capacities like Levels of trust, connectedness, resilience and enterprise, including the ability to join together in common crisis, Civic engagement, local and political participation, the strength of local networks, Pride of place and self-worth, Presence and role of community leaders , Use of community facilities, public amenities and open spaces e.g. parks, Respecting difference, political advocacy and conflict resolution, Willingness of those better off to assist those who are worse off or in crisis. Such interventions among them can help to overcome poverty and unemployment amongst them selves.