The European Commission Toolkit defines capacity in terms of "abilities", "attributes" and a "process". "Capacity is the ability of people, organisations and society as a whole to manage their affairs successfully. It is an attribute of people, individual organisations and groups of organisations. Capacity is shaped by, adapting to and reacting to external factors and actors, but it is not something external — it is internal to people, organisations and groups or systems of organisations. Thus, capacity development (CD) is a change process internal to organisations and people. CD is the ‘process whereby people, organisations and society as a whole unleash, strengthen, create, adapt, and maintain capacity over time’."