Institutional assessment in development planning: Assessing local capacities for participation in sustainable programming in northeastern Sri Lanka

This thesis is an investigation of the institutional assessment process. This investigation was done through careful consideration and review of institutional assessment frameworks for practice and attention to a case study of World Vision Canada's Rural Integrated Water, Hygiene and Health (RIWASH) Institutional Assessment in Northeastern Sri Lanka. This study finds that institutional assessments are very relevant practices and contribute to project planning. The process can be used to determine the internal functioning of an institution as well as to profile a system in order to conceptualize the body in question. The products from an institutional assessment are conducive to the emergence of a capacity development framework in the project planning process. In addition to the physical products of an institutional assessment, findings within this study show that the process itself can contribute to capacity development.