Knowledge Management and Capacity Building in Development Networks: The case of Oxfam-Quebec and its partners

Canadian NGOs involved in developing countries in supporting local developmental NGOs in accordance with the knowledge-based approach to development cooperation often operate in the context of partnerships and networks involved in building the capacities of local organizations. Nevertheless, the description and analysis of the relationship between networks and intentional development are still limited and research in this domain has neglected the importance of these networks operating in the field. Although Canadian NGOs which support development operate more and more within such networks, they have limited means to monitor their partners' capacity building, measure the impact of their actions on them, and determine what knowledge management practices implemented within the partnership or the network have contributed to the results achieved.;Our research aims at understanding the contribution of knowledge management practices to the capacity building of organizations that are members of development partnerships and development networks. This is a multiple case, longitudinal and retrospective study. It describes and analyses, over an 8 or 9 years' time frame, the capacity building process of three West-African NGOs which are partners of Oxfam-Québec and members of national and regional development networks that were set-up by Oxfam-Québec.;The research identifies three patterns of best practices for the capacity building of the partners and sets the optimal conditions of their effectiveness. It also establishes that the learning of the partners within the networks is basically explained by their absorptive capacity and that the main contribution of Oxfam-Québec in this respect was to support those partners in developing this specific ability.;Our study adds new elements to the absorptive capacity model of Zahra and George (2002). Furthermore, the results gathered have led to the construction of an empirical model that can account for the relationship between the strategic intentions of the actors, the knowledge management practices implemented within both the network and the partnership and finally, the development of partners' capacities.;Keywords (5): capacity building, absorptive capacity, development network, knowledge management, NGOs.