Roundtable: Capacity Building – Strengthening Agreements

Capacity challenges are facing many First Nations as they reach to realize new opportunities. To seize these new opportunities, First Nations are agreeing to many new partnerships and advantageous relationships. Many agreements are characterized by commitments to increase opportunities for indigenous peoples’ engagement, as employees, contractors, vendors, or partners.

As First Nations deploy their human resources to these opportunities, typically all the available capacity gets mobilized but demand for capacity exceeds supply. Another outcome for some First Nations is that many people prefer these ‘corporate’ jobs to the work within the band office and the band office loses capacity which makes it even harder to advance the broader goals of the First Nations related to governance building and other important strategic goals.

Several First Nations and organizations are developing sustainable internal capacity to grow their own governments and corporations as well as take advantage of external opportunities.

This roundtable will discuss how to best plan for the attainment of opportunities, which maintaining and growing First Nations governance, new models of partnership are contemplated and existing and new solutions for remote bands considered.