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The purpose of this paper is to observe whether measurement of social capital is an effective tool or can be used as a standard tool for community‐based initiatives (CBI) evaluation. It also points at the significance of social capital in the health related grass root initiatives.

CBI is an integrated socio‐economic development approach implemented by the organized communities, supported by inter‐sectoral actions for improvement of quality of life and health of the people. Support by WHO's office of Eastern Mediterranean Region, Islamic Republic of Iran implement programmes like basic development needs, healthy cities, healthy villages and women in health and development, that are evaluated during 2005‐2006. Social capital, that includes the networking, sharing norms and cooperation amongst communities, is measured as one of the indicators during the evaluation, by surveying 240 households in three CBI and three control villages, using the World Bank's, Social Development Department's Social Capital Assessment Tool for data collection.

The evaluation results reveal that the social capital indicators like affiliation percentage; trust reciprocity; and collective action are better in CBI areas than their controls. CBI areas have a better access to public services, are more peaceful, people are more willing to help others and there is less segregation due to income and social status.

The evaluation findings support the use of social capital indicators for investigating the impact and affectivity of CBI for health and development, and underlines the need for their consideration during implementation processes and further investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to review the Government initiative for developing the in‐country capacity of the National Public Health Management Centre (NPMC) in Tabriz. The UNDP definition of capacity has been used as a framework for assessment with the primary focus of the current assessment being on the training component.

The paper shows that Iran, which is a lower‐middle income country, has a network of training institutions for both pre‐service and continuing education of its human resources in health. This collaborative initiative between NPMC, Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development (NCIHD) and World Health Organization (WHO), attempted to create conditions for designing, organising and conducting a training programme in health planning and management for mid‐level health managers in Iran.

The paper finds that the experience of capacity development through training, described here, is in contrast with usual practice, where candidates are sent abroad for training. Overall, the process for developing in‐country capacity of a local institute by a foreign institute was well thought out. However, there are some lessons to be learned from the process.

The paper shows that capacity has been built in NPMC for organising in‐country short course on health planning and management for health sector reform. The paper concludes by arguing that, in order to sustain these training programmes over a long period of time, in addition to including training in its mandate, NPMC should: consider networking with allied institutions in the country and beyond for sharing knowledge; and make twinning arrangements with a foreign institute for continuously upgrading the knowledge and skills of its trainers.