Managing IFAD's Western and Central Africa portfolio

1.INTRODUCTION: In April 2007 the board of IFAD adopted a new KM strategy. A product of the action plan. You will think : yes again a new strategy from IFAD …new guidelines …more work for us. This one is a bit special because managing knowledge is what we are doing, maybe without knowing, on a daily basis in rural development projects. All our work is based on knowledge acquisition and transmission : ifad project bring new techniques, new institutional arrangements. You know that because you are practicing in projects. Now do we ensure a coherent and consistent km so far. This is the question. KNOWLEDGE is a mix of information used for our professional purpose and skills and know how. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary ) variously as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education ; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as &quot;justified true belief&quot;.
3. KM CYCLE: In order to properly manage knowledge we have to set up a virtuous cycle. A 3 step process : Learn Share Communicate Let’s keep it simple and effective. There are many theories and literature about KM. what we want is learn/share and communicate to have better impact in getting rural poor out of poverty. THIS CYCLE PROPOSE A SIMPLE VISION OF KM. This apply to many of our technical activities : Agriculture production Rural finance systems Market linkages Etc… KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IS NOT INTERESTED IN MANAGING KNOWLEDGE PER SE , BUT TO RELATE KNOWLEDGE AND ITS USAGE IN THE FIELD TO ACHIEVE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE AND IFAD MANDATE.
4.KM IN COUNTRY PROGRAMME: Now how do we want to streamline the process ? We have to be careful : we don’t want a one way process, top down from headquarter to projects. On the contrary we want field experience to feed IFAD knowledge. Actually, it should be a two ways process: Share between projects and countries in order to improve project impacts and efficiency Feed IFAD in order to refeed other networks To be successful and to comply with IFAD partner and target groups needs (Governments and rural poors) and corporate needs (IFAD headquarter and international development community), the IFAD KMI strategy should be a two fold approach : at field level, managed by project and country programme, for proper harvesting and sharing of knowledge with IFAD stakeholders, for direct use at operational level. at corporate level, managed by IFAD headquarter to distil corporate knowledge through a combination of core portfolio cycle, proper information management for easy access by users, proper sharing internally, and proper communication channels for dissemination at international levels. In IFAD Action Plan, the country programme is at the centre of the new Operating Model . So does the KMI strategy: IFAD Knowledge management system is to be built upon IFAD field experience : we don’t want a theoretical complex system. WE HAVE SUCCESSES IN THE FIELD LET THEM KNOWN, LETS PROMOTE THEM TO SHARE EXPERIENCE AND GET MORE PEOPLE BENEFITING. Regional strategies derive from IFAD strategic framework, and define regional priorities. COSOP derives from regional strategy on one hand (on the other hand COSOP is build on the national PRSP and local stakeholders consultations). COSOP defines the country programme. The country programme is made of projects on loans and grants and policy dialogue. Knowledge lie in these project implementation experience. Projects/Operations during implementation phase are producing knowledge and innovations to be harvested and disseminated.
10. NETWORKING: Beyond simple KM us and communication tools, the whole system will work only if we share knowledge through networks. Naturally we all use networks to communicate and learn : family, friends, institutions and bureaucracies. What we need know is to better structure development networks among ifad projects in ESA, in Africa and globally. By exchanging info. Face to face meetings. Visits to other places. E-learning is becoming more and more important. Internet capability . Electronic Forums. IFAD KM STRATEGY INSISTS OF THE NEED TO SETUP VARIOUS NETWORKS LOCALLY-REGIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALY
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Managing IFAD's Western and Central Africa portfolio

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