This applies both for mitigation and adaptation technologies. Comparatively little consideration has been given in a systematic way to what capacity building is required for adaptation to climate change. There are many failures of technology transfer that result from an absence of human and institutional capacity. This makes adequate human capacity essential at every stage of every transfer process. The transfer of many ESTs demands a wide range of technical, business and regulatory skills.
Capacity is needed to assess, select, import, develop and adapt appropriate technologies.
Accumulated technology transfer experience indicates that developing countries enterprises are not always able to effectively exploit the diversity of available technological options and services. Policies aimed at ensuring the availability of these skills locally can enhance private international investments through which much technology is diffused. Implementing such activities involves different responsibilities for developed and developing countries. The donor agency understanding or concepts of capacity building have frequently been that they can be developed or strengthened along the lines of management and organisational models of the donor countries. However, the experiences and results of over three decades of capacity and institutional building in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, suggest that these assumptions or concepts do not necessarily hold.