Knowledge management, experience capitalisation, communities of practice
Knowledge management has in recent years become a buzzword in the development community. With the increasing diversity of interventions, the decentralisation of programme conceptualisation and management, and the frequent changes of staff, systems and mechanisms to systematically deal with knowledge and experiences within and between institutions, and between people working in the same thematic domains, have become urgent. Specialist knowledge is increasingly dispersed and much of the practical know-how and experience is located in programme and with partners in the field. How can all this knowledge be effectively managed, and experiences be capitalised to be used by others working on similar challenges?
The analysis, processing and dissemination of know-how and experiences has already been a focus of AGRIDEA before knowledge management explicitly became a development cooperation theme. Thus we are now in a good position to contribute to resolving knowledge management and experience capitalisation challenges, for example Communities of Practice as a helpful mechanism for knowledge management among peers.
OUR CURRENT AND RECENT ACTIVITIES
- Backstopping mandate on knowledge management
We operate a backstopping mandate for exploring and developing knowledge management approaches and methods for the Knowledge and Research Division of SDC. Within this mandate we are maintaining two websites:
Communities of Practice - with conceptual materials and links on CoPs as a central knowledge management and learning approach as well as a CoP coaching service offer
Dare-to-Share - with a collection of knowledge management tools (among other materials)
- Training and workshops on knowledge management, experience capitalisation and Communities of Practice
On demand we design and conduct training and workshops for people and organisations who would like to get an introduction on KM issues or want to improve their own KM systems.
SDC's knowledge and research division also offers a range of trainings on knowledge management topics.
- Cross-sectional studies and analysis of experiences
We conduct studies of case examples on particular rural development topics, analyse their approaches and experiences and synthesise the insights gained into practical easy-to-read publications.
- Publication of Rural Development News
Twice a year we publish our journal "Rural Development News" (on behalf of SDC), which provides a showcase for practical experiences from the field and for new ideas and innovative ways of doing things in rural development work.
CONTACT
Ernst Bolliger (Knowledge management general, Communities of Practice)
Sylvia Brunold (Rural Development News)elisabeth.katz ( at ) agridea.ch