IBP Knowledge Gateway - Share, exchange, transfer and apply knowledge
1. Angela Nash-Mercado, JHU CCP, K4Health
On behalf of Partners of the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Initiative
Implementing Best Practices (IBP)Implementing Best Practices (IBP)
Knowledge Gateway:Knowledge Gateway:
Share, exchange, transfer andShare, exchange, transfer and
apply knowledgeapply knowledge
2. Implementing Best Practices
IBP is dedicated to strengthening the
capacity of the family
planning/reproductive health community
to identify, implement, and scale-up
effective practices through sharing
knowledge and resources, minimizing
duplication, and promoting
collaboration.
3. IBP Consortium Members
Diverse group of partners
Different comparative advantages
Function at the global, regional and country level
Reduce duplication
Harmonize approaches
Identifying and taking effective practices to scale
Catalyze action to managing change
4. IBP Consortium Members
Founding partners:
WHO/RHR
USAID
UNFPA
EngenderHealth
Family Health International
International Planned Parenthood
Federation
IntraHealth
Jhpiego
Johns Hopkins’ Center for
Communication Programs
Management Sciences for Health
Pathfinder International
Public Health Institute
New partners:
Academy for Education Development
Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health
CARE International
Centre for African Family Studies
Centre for Development & Population Activities
CORE Group
East, Central, and Southern African Heath Community (ECSA HC)
ExpandNet
Family Care International
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)
Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University
International Council on Management of Population Programs
John Snow ,Inc.
Marie Stopes International
Partners in Population & Development
Population Council
Population Reference Burearu
PATH
Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care, Makerere University, Uganda
University Research Corporation
White Ribbon Alliance
4
5. To effectively exchange or transfer knowledge, information, expertise, and
experience in order to improve practice
Our Challenge
Overcome gap in
transfer and application
of knowledge
Improve
practice and
health
Unlock and share
knowledge
and experience
7. Knowledge Gateway
Web-based technology to function via:
Email
Online http://knowledge-gateway.org
Every communication is automatically
archived
Access the system from anywhere you have
an Internet connection
Low resolution
Simple to use
Connects individuals and groups to other
communities of practice
8. Knowledge GatewayKnowledge Gateway
WHO/RHR shares the management of the
Knowledge Gateway with JHU/CCP/K4Health.
Both help IBP members and other organizations
and agencies to create and manage
communities of practice and eForums.
WA Research is the IT partner who created and
maintains the Knowledge Gateway platform.
9.
10. Knowledge GatewayKnowledge Gateway
42,673 members from:
220 countries and territories
13,801 organizations
Members participate in hundreds of
communities
More than 60 online discussion forums
conducted
11. Design Principles
1. Link with external resources
2. Accept different levels of participation
3. Develop public and private community spaces
4. Focus on value – to individual members and to
organization
5. Combine routine events with new activities
6. Create a rhythm for the community
12. Role of CoP Leaders
• Foster learning
• Stimulate interaction
• Create new knowledge
• Promote awareness among new
members
• Develop common
understandings
• Identify and share good
methodologies, tools, projects,
etc.
• Build a network of experts in
specific areas of interest
13. Strategies for Fostering Engagement
• Recognize community members’ contributions, helping
peers, sharing experiences, connecting experts, and
mentoring
• Create processes for rewarding knowledge nuggets
captured, created, and shared
• Recognize and market communities internally and
externally
• Organize and conduct online discussion forums
• Can attract new members
• Enables participants to ask an expert in their field
questions to which they can respond over a set period
of time
• Create community eNewsletters
14. clear purpose – what will it be used to do?
creating a safe and trusted environment
committed core group of active participants
being motivated
knowing the needs of participants
having a clear action plan with activities to meet
needs
blending face-to-face and online activities
Nurturing and sustaining the CoP requires
efforteffort and energyenergy from a skilled leaderleader.
What Makes a Successful CoP?
15. Criteria for Successful CoPs
Easy access to the discussion;
The opportunity to interact with a wide range of participants;
The ability to meet one's information needs;
Maintaining or increasing membership and motivation to
participate;
Reaching participants with key information;
Ensuring that discussion threads are clear and easily
understood;
Generating debate that is provocative, interesting and
stimulating; and
Encouraging participants to discover new ways to tackle
problems and to foster sustainable partnerships.
It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Implementing Best Practices’ Knowledge Gateway. The IBP Consortium is an innovative partnership committed to improving reproductive health. Today, my presentation will include: A brief introduction to the IBP Consortium and the IBP Knowledge Gateway Some highlights from our experiences developing and facilitating CoPs on the Knowledge Gateway
A brief history of the IBP consoritum…….
The IBP initiative is supported by a diverse range of partners from donors like USAID, international organizations like WHO and UNFPA and organizations and institutions from developing and developed countries. We possess a broad spectrum of skills in the field of research, program management and technical support to countries. Our goal is to network with networks at the global, regional and country level to reduce duplication of effort, harmonize approaches and maximize the use of resources to ensure that the best and most appropriate practices are identified and scaled up to improve access to quality reproductive health care, particularly family planning services, maternal and neonatal health care, adolescent reproductive health services and integrated STI/HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. IBP member organizations all have funded country programmes. We all have materials, tools, experience and lessons learned to share. If we work alone, we are just individual islands of excellence. Working together we can become a powerful force, a community of practice, with resources capable of achieving greater economies of scale. Within individual countries, the IBP partners can also act as catalysts for action. We use the power of our IBP partnership to network under the leadership of the Ministry of Health or other local partner. We are able to pull together different organizations and agencies at the regional and country levels, all of whom are working in the field of reproductive health, but not necessarily working with each other. We form a community and locally grow our activities to meet common performance improvement goals.
(double check membership list)
We know both from our experience of working in countries and the literature reviews that we and others have undertaken that our biggest challenge is not producing new knowledge, but rather finding a way to more effectively transfer, exchange and apply knowledge with the goal of changing and improving practices.
The solution – communitites of practice Advantages of Communities of Practice Time spent together is a good investment – CoPs save time Increase self confidence of members Help members with specific problems Members can learn from what others are doing Explore new technologies Share and exchange information, insights, advice Jointly create tools, standards, manuals, etc. CoPs promote collaboration Cops encourage sharing best practices, lessons learned, experiences (KNOWLEDGE) Cops facilitate exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge related to a domain CoPs can cross boundaries of time, distance, organization, and hierarchy People: Increase people to people interaction Knowledge: Share tacit and explicit knowledge Value: Knowledge sharing, increased productivity, innovation and leadership
The WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research in collaboration with JHU/CCP INFO project and IBP partners researched, designed and launched the IBP Knowledge Gateway in September 2004. This is a simple tool that uses adapted web-based technology to function through emails to support establishing knowledge networks some times called communities of practice. It is designed to work in technically challenged countries and enables people to share, exchange, transfer, discuss, debate and access knowledge in and across countries. The IBP Knowledge Gateway is a dynamic electronic communication tool designed to support multiple virtual communities of practice. It was developed to improve access to published resources (reports, manuals, tools, etc) and promote the sharing and exchange of information and knowledge among countries through virtual communities of practice linked to virtual workspaces. It was launched in 2004 at a regional IBP meeting in Uganda in collaboration with WHO, Div of RHR, INFO Project (now K4H) based at JHUCCP, WA Research and other partners of the IBP Consortium
The IBP Knowledge Gateway is one part of a comprehensive knowledge management strategy developed by the IBP to share technology, processes, and information/knowledge. In addition to leveraging funding, WHO does a lot more. It supports and manage the KG. Each year we support a programme of enhancements that are available to all organizations and agencies that are managing their own customized, branded, owned and managed communities on the KG. For example, the HPV Vaccine group has just evaluated their community, written it up with us and prepared a poster. WHO also employs a staff person to work on the KG at least 50% of the time. Last year WHO also supported a number of global discussion forums, such as HPVaccine, Reproductive Aid, Migration. In addition WHO has brokered, taught, facilitated and supported the establishment of at least six independently managed communities, including D Groups, UNHCR, DSW, Realizing Rights, and the establishment of Spanish communities. WHO is also supporting a collaborating centre in Chile to establish a regional hub in Spanish.
We support other organizations and agencies to establish, launch and manage their own customized branded virtual CoPs. What you see here are the online spaces but an important aspect of the Knowledge Gateway is the ability for a user to just gain access to their CoP via email. This is particularly useful in settings where individuals have sporadic access to the web but easy access to email.
These are the current statistics for the Knowledge Gateway
Design features and principles to keep in mind when developing and moderating an online community of practice: As the community evolves, so does the structure – you may need to change or update structures depending on what the community is used for Open a dialogue between internal and external perspectives – you need to find a way to link the community to outside sites, experts and other communities. Recognize and accept different levels of participation – most CoP members never openly participate Develop both public and private community spaces – encourage people to communicate one-on-one as well as through the group Focus on value – both to individual members and to the organization Combine routine events with new, exciting, milestone events Create a rhythm for the community. When the rhythm is strong the community is strong.
Once you have a core group of dedicated members, you can begin to identify potential members and to keep existing members engaged. Just as a teacher in a classroom plans activities to keep his students engaged, a CoP leader must think about activities to keep their members engaged and enthused about the online community Sending out a short online survey or an email-based questionnaire periodically can help gauge the interest of members in discussing new topics or focusing on new activities Engaging and maintaining a CoP requires similar considerations when developing any kind of community. Remember to stay focused on the goals and objectives of the community and to keep information current. Members are more likely to refer the community to others and continue participating in a community that evolves with updated information and technology. In addition, it is the CoP leader ’s responsibility to: Support sociability, relationship and trust building Seed and feed discussion topics Maintain and sustain the communities health Direct knowledge nuggets for capture and reuse Work to network community members Provide basic help as needed with the tools Report CoP activity – metrics, evaluations Ensure the space is kept "tidy" and navigable Monitor success criteria and impact
Why does a person engage with a CoP? Attractive purpose grabs and retains attention Perceived benefits: Socialisation Co-learning, knowledge sharing and co-production Each person chooses to be a member Volition Joining in – and leaving !
The important thing to remember is that this CAN be done via email………