A short presentation given at a Knowledge Sharing workshop held in Hanoi, Vietnam, 26 – 28 September 2011.
The KS Tools and Methodologies for Effective Knowledge Management training workshop was co-organised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Rural Development Centre (RUDEC) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Vietnam.
2. Our new working paper on KM Commissioned a KM expert to draft a working paper: KM COSOP 2013-2018 Document being finalized Recommendation: Our role as a knowledge broker
3. What is Knowledge Management? The honey bee is a good example of KM Knows the location of flowers/nectar/pollen Performs elaborate dance to share this knowledge with fellow bees Knowledge sharing benefits the whole community (the hive)
4. What is our KM goal? KM Goal: affect change that helps alleviate poverty
5. What does a knowledge broker do? Foster links between people and institutions Connect people and groups Help build relationships and uncover needs Provide knowledge sources To help make knowledge available to those who need it when they need it and in a form they can access and use.
6. What does a knowledge broker do? (cont.) Share ideas Facilitate knowledge sharing Demonstrate how knowledge sharing improves effectiveness, efficiency and impact Provide knowledge itself on public sector investment to alleviate poverty
8. Expected outputs Project stakeholder capacity built around knowledge/experience sharing and various forms of capturing The knowledge/experience captured and successfully disseminated to key stakeholders Knowledge partnership, linkages and dialogues strengthened
9. Expected outcomes Up-scaling project innovations Policy messaging around identified themes Improving governance and providing a voice for smallholder farmers and poor rural households Having a poverty impact
10. Expected results KM – a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Equip IFAD to fulfill its mission of enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty
11. Q & A Thank you for your time. Any questions please?
Editor's Notes
Good morning everyoneThank you for an opportunity to update you on our Knowledge Management Strategy.
In the past few months, we have commissioned a Knowledge Management consultant to draft for us a working paper on Knowledge Management COSOP from 2013-2018. The document is to be finalized in the near future.IFAD does not generate and provide technical knowledge directly, instead we are advised to position ourselves as brokers of other people’s knowledge. We will play a key role within Vietnam by building project stakeholder capacity around the sharing of knowledge and experience, stimulating knowledge creation and facilitating knowledge partnerships and dialogues.
The honey bee is a good knowledge manager. One bee discovers the locations of suitable flowers for obtaining pollen and nectar. It communicates its knowledge of these locations by performing an elaborate dance. This knowledge is shared for the benefit, even the competitive benefit of the whole community.
The overall goal of the strategy is to connect people, organizations and networks (i.e. the public and private sectors) to learn, share experiences and together innovate ways of reducing rural poverty.
This means we can foster linkages between people and institutions. As knowledge broker, IFAD not only connects people and groups and help build relationships, provide encouragement to interact and collaborate. We will foster strategic knowledge partnerships with government, private sector and civil society.
Part of devising KM is understanding our stakeholders. An analysis like this can provide a clearer understanding of stakeholders with resulting insights on how to best engage them. Boxes A, B and C are our key stakeholders. We could list all our key stakeholders by using “post-it” notes to divide them into the four quadrants.The ultimate strategy target group are the rural poor of Vietnam. They will benefit most from knowledge-sharing by learning to improve the effectiveness of their projects and programmes. The network will operate primarily between stakeholders such as: All thestaff of IFAD supported projects and programmes (directors, M&E officers, thematic component heads, field officers and other key staff); country programme management teams, IFAD-supported regional thematic networks and contracted service providers. Rural organizations, including farmers’ organizations, networks of local actors and NGOs, and other regional and thematic networks related to rural poverty reduction.
It’s important to keep in mind that KM is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Ultimately, KM will equip IFAD to fulfill its mission of enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty