ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter lays out the context for the book, providing a snapshot of how capacity building has been utilized in international development cooperation efforts and in international environmental treaties, and in climate change in particular. In the process of telling this history the results/outcomes approach of past and current capacity-building initiatives, in which millions have been spent by donors, are challenged. What is the end result today? How much and what capacities have been built? Who led the process? Was it demand- or supply-driven? Are these efforts adequate to the problem at hand, which is developing the ability of a whole national society to respond to the crisis of climate change? Have any sustainable systems been left in place? If not, what are the gaps and lacunae in the process? This introductory chapter argues that with the Paris Committee on Capacity Building established at COP21, it is time to think of a fresh approach to framing a global strategy that can overcome existing inefficiencies and ineffectiveness and devise a long-term sustainable capacity-building system in the developing countries. Local universities are proposed as the logical focus of future capacity-building initiatives, taking a new, long-term approach to supporting faculty and staff development, locally-run training programmes and research and educational programme cooperation with universities and agencies around the world.
