Beyond technical applicability: A place-based governance diagnosis for climate technology ODA site selection in Indonesia

Existing ODA feasibility assessments for climate technology transfer focus primarily on technical and resource conditions, while the governance capacity of recipient communities is rarely assessed systematically. However, previous research has demonstrated that the local socio-institutional context is critical to the success of technology transfer projects. To address this gap, this study applies a place-based approach derived from regional development theory to site selection for climate technology ODA. Specifically, it adopts the three criteria proposed by Marsh et al. (2017), who drew on Sabel and Simon’s (2011) experimentalist governance framework to formulate operational conditions for place-based practice: localised context, embedded learning, and reciprocal accountability. These criteria are reinterpreted from normative principles of successful practice as ex-ante diagnostic standards for assessing the governance conditions of candidate sites. Using a multiple-case study design, we compared three candidate sites for a coffee waste-to-energy ODA project in Lampung, Indonesia. Although the sites shared a coffee-industry base and basic technical applicability, they differed markedly in their organizational foundations, learning patterns, and external partnership structures. These differences produced three distinct governance profiles: foundation-building (nascent, with no external network), concentrated capacity (federated but concentrated around a leader), and asymmetric innovation (individual innovation without an organizational channel). Each profile requires a different ODA intervention pathway. No formal reciprocal accountability structures were identified at any site. This absence appears to stem less from site-level deficiencies than from the multiple centers of authority involved in ODA. The finding suggests that reciprocal accountability, which is based on a single central-local relationship, should be reconsidered in the context of ODA’s multilayered governance. Overall, governance diagnosis should be incorporated into climate technology ODA design alongside technical assessment.