Is Quality in Capacity Building and Training Institution Development Matters the Most? Setting Benchmarking Process and Benchmark Standards for Training Institutions, WALMI Bhopal a Case in Point

Water and Land Management Institutes across country had a very specific mandate to cater the needs of the specific target group like land and water managers, irrigation engineers, civil engineers, water management specialists, agriculture specialists, gender and social development experts, professionals, para – professionals, community leaders, water users and farmers. Over time the WALMIs in different states took larger responsibilities and widened their network, venturing in natural resources development and management, community based institution development and management, monitoring, evaluation, learning and documentation in the cross sectoral setting. The WALMI, Bhopal in its recent past have been at the fulcrum of the training and institution development in the state of Madhya Pradesh. WALMI, Bhopal being one of the key training institutions aspire to evolve a broad framework of quality management in the training and development, with the sole objective of setting benchmark standards for state level training institutions, it conducted a National Workshop at Bhopal. The present paper outlines the purpose, process and products that may suit the current and future requirements of the state level training institutions in the state and elsewhere. The workshop proceedings led to the internal churning and ignited the process of coining the benchmark standards for academic qualities, enabling infrastructures, standard operating processes to conduct and manage the trainings and forging the inter – institutional linkages in the current and future institutional eco – system. The paper also provides the opportunities for the readers and professionals interested in training and capacity building of the human resources at various levels to contribute and enrich the process of adopting and adapting to the new benchmarking system and benchmark standards. It provides an opportunity to provide the best practices evolved over time and mainstream the key learning by converting the best practices in to indicators. The paper also highlights the critical gaps and underlines the information requirement to satisfy the necessary and sufficient conditions for effective measurement and monitoring framework for quality management at such training institutions.