This article discusses a process of facilitating capacity development in the Africa Adapt network using a systemic approach. The author reflects on the extent to which the context of Africa Adapt enabled a systemic approach, and how the practice of facilitating capacity development in this context differed from the theory on which it was based. The article argues that a systemic approach to facilitating capacity development has been enabled by the complicated context of Africa Adapt. However, the approach would have been strengthened by ensuring a more dynamic understanding of the system, and a more explicit acknowledgement of the positional power of capacity development facilitators within this context.