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20th Anniversary Summit of the ACBF, Kigali, Rwanda

Building Capacities for Knowledge Management and Development Results in Africa – Busan 2011 and beyond. Connecting Communities of Practice for Relevance and Impact Thomas Theisohn, LenCD. 20th Anniversary Summit of the ACBF, Kigali, Rwanda

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20th Anniversary Summit of the ACBF, Kigali, Rwanda

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  1. Building Capacities for Knowledge Management and Development Results in Africa– Busan 2011 and beyond Connecting Communities of Practice for Relevance and ImpactThomas Theisohn, LenCD 20th Anniversary Summit of the ACBF, Kigali, Rwanda ‘The Future of Africa is Now! The critical Role of Capacity Development’ 8&9 February 2011’ www.LenCD.org

  2. Overview Building Capacities for KM & DR … … in Africa Connecting Communities of Practice Knowledge Management Development Results Africa’s Future is now Busan 2011 and beyond www.LenCD.org

  3. Building Capacities Knowledge Management for CD for KM needs to take full account of CD learning www.LenCD.org

  4. Capacity Development Enabling Environment Training Transformation ownership trust Competence Change management Incentives choice of inputs “HOW” partnership alignment transparency interest solidarity Complex Systems power Political economy Experts harmonization accountability managing for development results TC www.LenCD.org

  5. A shift in paradigm External support e.g. ACBF Demand Supply Context Inherent logic AcquisitionTransfer / “Delivery” Political economy Technical rationality Horizontal Vertical LearningAccountability Long-term Impact Short-term Results Complexity /System Skills / organizations Home-grown www.LenCD.org

  6. Capacity Development For Knowledge Management in Africa There are regional instruments to join up efforts www.LenCD.org

  7. Leadership Trans-Formation Integrated Plannng & Implementation Approaches Citizen Trans-formation Managing capacity development processes Capacity Of Capacity Builders Knowledge - Based And Innovation - DrivenProcesses Ultilising african potentials, skills andresources for development AU/NEPAD Capacity Development Strategic Framework CD Strategic Framework: https://sites.google.com:443/site/lencdorg/documents-1/AU_NEPAD_CDSF.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 www.LenCD.org

  8. Cornerstone 3: KNOWLEDGE-BASED AND INNOVATION-DRIVEN DECISION AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES: What are promising strategies and processes to bring about change? • Strengthening of knowledge and information networks for sharing, joint programming and across the actors for better economies of scale and scope. • Development of knowledge management systems within and across organisations. • Re-thinking and renewal of administrative processes and systems for efficiency. • Re-orientation of knowledge and scientific organisations towards more holistic and integrated approaches to science and technology including research and development. • Development of a learning, sharing and feedback culture in African organisations. • Re-thinking the interface between research/science and practice along the lines of integrated assessments in development thus institutionally reconfiguring the rules of engagement. CD Strategic Framework: https://sites.google.com:443/site/lencdorg/documents-1/AU_NEPAD_CDSF.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 www.LenCD.org

  9. Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness A COMMITMENT TO DEVELOPMENT RESULTS IN AFRICA “The goal of the Africa Platform is the achievement of development effectiveness through SSC, AE and CD in African countries. Development effectiveness is about development results.” Core objectives:      • platform for consultation, dialogue, information and knowledge sharing • supporting African countries and RECs in the implementation PD/AAA • Africa common perspective and a voice on issues in development cooperation • African information and knowledge base of issues, practices, experiences and cases  • determining, monitoring and reporting on priority capacity needs • guide to capacity developing institutions for the focus of their interventions.   • engagement with existing related initiatives (OECD/DAC WP_Eff, TT-SSC, UNDCF • Advance African ownership and leadership as advocated by the AU & NEPAD.   www.LenCD.org

  10. Connecting Communities of Practice Build on what is there! Connecting the knowledge communities www.LenCD.org

  11. Connecting Communities of Practice “Horizontal CoPs” Public administration & management Capacity Development Organization development Leadership development Knowledge Management Governance and Accountabiliy Change management DISASTER RISR REDUCTION HEALTH ENVIRONMENT LAW AND JUSTICE EDUCATION TRANSPORTATION AGRICULTURE “Vertical CoPs” - Sectoral, thematic application areas www.LenCD.org

  12. Horizontal Communities of Practice • Horizontal CoPs comprise professional disciplines that have influenced capacity development thinking and practice. • Examples include public administration and organisational development, but there are many more (see diagram). • While they do not necessarily embrace an explicit capacity development perspective, they underpin its theory and practice. www.LenCD.org

  13. Vertical Communities of Practice • Vertical CoPs typically include groups such as civil servants, professionals and interest groups that come together around a specific sector or thematic development challenge, such as health, education or rural development. • While capacity development may not be their main professional area or focus, it remains an important cross-cutting issue that all need to address to achieve development results. www.LenCD.org

  14. Development Results are a function of Better Understanding of CD = Better Support to CD Development Results “Technical knowledge” www.LenCD.org

  15. Knowledge Management Knowledge Sharing The human and social dimension is at the core www.LenCD.org

  16. “Knowledge Management (KM)” • “… comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences.” (WIKI) • There are lots of technological tools that support knowledge management including electronic bulletin boards, discussion forums, knowledge directories, groupware, databases, intranets, intelligent search engines, personal web pages, electronic mail, virtual conference rooms, libraries, corporate yellow pages, among many others. • But the technology does not guarantee any sharing of knowledge. There are many obstacles! www.LenCD.org

  17. Obstacles that prevent knowledge sharing Mindsets Culture Incentives Conducive processes • “Knowledge is power” / and money • “Want to be perceived as expert” • “Success of other is not mine” / “Not invented here” • “Look less knowledgeable” / Failure to admit to failure • Job security concerns “unwilling to share mistakes and failures” • Corporate cultures that discourage open communication • Failure to see the benefits  • Lack of trust, Lack of incentives • Lack of time / Activity trap / Complexity • Lack of a disciplined collaborative process (eg. CoP) • Narrow results-orientation www.LenCD.org

  18. Development Results A results straight-jacket ? Institutional turf destroys collective learning for results www.LenCD.org

  19. “Development Results” Results orientation is useful also for capacity development. BUT, … … short-visioned results logic and pressures to deliver can create perverse incentives and seriously undermine sustainability. www.LenCD.org

  20. Results orientation can (and oftendoes): • ... create an incentive to emphasize the delivery of short-term tangible results over process dimensions of (transformational) change • … discourage risk taking and experimentation, critical to any learning process, and leave little space to accommodate emergent demands • … privilege the collection of hard quantifiable data over softer qualitative data • … reward fast disbursement rates, timely reporting, and good records rather than the impact of activities on capacity. An in terms of donor-funded activities, some additional reasons: • Tendency to substitute rather than addressing capacity challenges • Focus on outputs, rather than knowledge exchange and learning. • Obligtions crowd out building relationships, understand & adapt www.LenCD.org

  21. & undermine collective learning Within organizations • there are tremendous problems of mainstreaming CD in sector work (“silo mentality”) • At least corporate means exist to shift to a knowledge sharing culture Between organizations • incentives tend to be stacked against sharing • institutional turf and flags, search for attribution, fragmentation, duplication of efforts, competition rather than synergy, products rather than process … www.LenCD.org

  22. Africa’s Future is now ! It is time to connect The choices made now will decide on what will evolve www.LenCD.org

  23. Connecting Communities of Practice “Horizontal CoPs” Public administration & management Organization development Leadership development Knowledge Management Governance and Accountabiliy Change management DISASTER RISR REDUCTION HEALTH ENVIRONMENT LAW AND JUSTICE EDUCATION TRANSPORTATION AGRICULTURE “Vertical CoPs” - Sectoral, thematic application areas www.LenCD.org

  24. Connecting Communities of Practice “Horizontal CoPs” Public administration & management Organization development Leadership development Knowledge Management Governance and Accountabiliy Change management AfDB ACBF IDEG CODESRIA APRM PSCBS NEPAD “Vertical CoPs” - Sectoral, thematic application areas www.LenCD.org

  25. Network of connectivity The image highlights the network of connectivity between popular capacity development websites, as reported by Google's database of related sites and visualized in seconds using TouchGraph.com to graph the results for “capacity development”. Scoping Study: Rationalizing the CD knowledge architecture www.LenCD.org www.LenCD.org

  26. Connecting for Relevance and Impact How? Getting beyond “business as usual” and silos Requires leadership and smart processes www.LenCD.org

  27. Beyond business as usual • Regional Knowledge Integration Build on what is there, e.g. APDev rely on partners • Apply CD knowledge to KM • Codify and share experience ”in heads of people” • Use knowledge of others • Establish incentives TOR & Performance Reviews • Make CD&KM leadership priority www.LenCD.org

  28. Beyond knowledge silos • Nurture Connectors / go-betweens to help cross-fertilise and carry knowledge back and forth.    • Use CD advocates that help inform mainstream development efforts • Multi-disciplinary education: Combine technical with horizontal skills at university • Connect CoPs at the country level around specific strategic and operational challenges • Sector development as priority www.LenCD.org

  29. Beyond institutional islands • Corporate decisions to shareeg ACBF take active stake in APDev, manages elements for the collective effort … • Recognize institutional incentives be realistic about what is possible, seek win-win • Rationalize the CD knowledge architecture build synergies, complement, combine, don’t duplicate • Apply technology with little additional transaction cost, eg. RSS feeds, Drupal, social networking, .. • Conducive processes for knowledge sharing Closing learning loops, Blogs, Learning processes www.LenCD.org

  30. Busan 2011 and beyond The critical Role of Capacity Development Just do it ! www.LenCD.org

  31. Busan 2011 and beyond: Just do it ! Paris principles and AAA go a long way but need to be translated into meaningful practice Reform results frameworks to be more conducive to sustainable CD take off straight-jacket Make sector development more effective based on a CD perspective connect CoPs Invest in KM / Knowledge Sharing (!) as driver of development results in organizations, regions, globally Mutual accountability on country level for serious collective efforts for CD and KM for Development Results www.LenCD.org

  32. Evidence Practice Policy Thank you! Make it happen www.LenCD.org

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