The conditions for successful knowledge transfer in development‐aid training programs

The shortage of qualified human capital is a major impediment to development. In the field of international development cooperation, training programs (TPs) have been widely employed to enhance the capacity of workforces in developing countries. This paper investigates the conditions in which these programs can contribute not only to individual human resource development but also to organization‐level reform and innovation in developing countries. The methods were regression analyses of training monitoring records as well as follow‐up e‐mail interviews with former participants of information and communication technology TPs sponsored by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. The research reveals that bilateral communication between training participants and the home organizations during the training plays a key role in increasing the probability of successful organization‐level transfer of individual‐level learning, irrespective of the original level of organization's absorptive capacity. The researchers examine the differences in transfer factors between the development aid context in their research and the paradigm case of the business organization found in much of the transfer literature.