Building capabilities for performance. The Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)

Readers need to understand three boundaries to this case. First, the analysis looks at the achievements of ESDU in building its capabilities for performance, including both the 'how' and the 'why' aspects. Simply put, it focuses on strengths. It does not dwell on ESDU's weaknesses except for a brief section towards the end of the paper. This emphasis on analysing strengths is in line with the general direc- tion of the ECDPM research. Second, the focus is on the development of ESDU as an organisational unit. The analysis does not devote much attention to two other important issues - the organisational relation- ship of ESDU to the wider OECS, and the capacity development strategies that ESDU itself used in sup- porting the environmental work of the OECS Member States. Both these issues are important and merit a separate analysis. But shortage of time and resources did not permit giving them much attention for the purposes of this case. This case study is not a man- agement review or an overall organisational assess- ment of ESDU. It looks back not forward, its purpose is explanatory, and it makes no recommendations or proposals for future action, although we hope the insights will be helpful for future activities.