Capacity-building refers to the process of developing the skills, knowledge, and systems necessary for individuals and groups to effectively pursue their goals. While the term originally gained traction in international development, where it focused on improving self-sufficiency in governance and economic projects, its meaning deepens significantly in the context of systems change and collaborative innovation.

Capacity-Building as Enactment in Systems Change

In the bioregional systems evolution and Web3 civic infrastructure work Prisma is committed to, capacity-building is not just about skill acquisition. It ties into the concept of enactment, where participants engage in the ongoing process of co-creating and evolving systems. This is a practice-based approach where participants aren't merely learning pre-defined methods but are developing the capacity to self-organise, adapt, and innovate in complex, living systems.

Building Collective Intelligence

Capacity-building here emphasizes collective intelligence—the ability of groups to work together, share knowledge, and make decisions that align with the complexity of the systems they are nested within. This goes beyond individual skills, focusing on the group’s capacity to collaborate effectively, resolve conflicts, and make decisions through methods like sociocracy, holacracy, and other collaborative governance models. The collective learning process equips participants with the capacity to navigate uncertainty, respond to challenges, and co-create sustainable solutions.

Onboarding to Web3

For many non-technical participants, capacity-building includes onboarding them into Web3 technologies. This isn't just technical training but also contextual education—helping them understand the philosophical, social, and economic potentials of decentralized tools like Holochain, self-sovereignty, and commons-based governance. This aspect of capacity-building prepares communities to engage with new technologies that can enable local resilience and self-determination.

Creating the Conditions for Emergence

Capacity-building in these contexts also means creating the conditions for emergence. It’s not a linear process but one that nurtures the ability to experiment, adapt, and learn from novel systems dynamics. Rather than simply acquiring technical or governance skills, participants develop the capacity to respond to the evolving needs of their bioregions and adapt as they encounter new challenges. This aligns with the idea of enaction, where systems are continually created through the actions and interactions of their participants.

Regenerative Practices

In the framework of regenerative design and development, capacity-building enables communities to align with living systems principles. This means building capacities for stewardship of the environment, deep listening to local contexts, and developing holistic, adaptable solutions that reflect the interdependence of systems. The capacity-building process in this sense is one of becoming attuned to the rhythms and needs of local ecosystems, as well as fostering solutions that regenerate rather than deplete these systems.

Strengthening Resilience

At its core, capacity-building in this context is about strengthening resilience. It enables individuals, teams, and communities to navigate uncertainty, handle crises, and sustain long-term impact. When experimenting with new governance models, local currencies, or decentralized economic systems, participants must learn to adapt in the face of failure and redesign their strategies as they go. Capacity-building, therefore, involves developing the mental, emotional, and organizational flexibility to thrive in complex, evolving systems.

Capacity-Building for Place-Based Civic Innovation Teams

In your work, capacity-building plays a key role in incubating place-based teams that can carry forward innovations after the event. These teams need to develop a range of capacities:

1. Social and Relational Capacities: Building strong networks of collaboration within the bioregion and with external supporters (like the non-local community of practice).
2. Technical Capacities: Learning how to use Web3 tools (e.g., Holochain) for decentralized applications and applying these tools to implement civic infrastructure aligned with regenerative principles.
3. Governance and Decision-Making Capacities: Mastering decentralized governance models, learning how to make decisions collectively, and ensuring that systems remain adaptive and resilient over time.
4. Evaluation and Sense-Making: Developing the ability to reflect, assess, and continuously improve through developmental evaluation. This is about making sense of the emergent value being created and iterating on designs and practices as the work unfolds.

Capacity-Building as Dynamic, Iterative, and Co-Creative

Unlike traditional views, where capacity-building is often seen as preparation for action, in this context it becomes an integral part of the enactment process. It is about cultivating capacities as participants actively co-create new systems, learn from their interactions, and adapt to evolving conditions. This dynamic and iterative approach enables participants to move beyond merely applying pre-existing knowledge, into building new structures and practices that reflect the complex, living nature of the systems they are transforming.