The KS Story: Chapter Two
What do storymercials, a knowledge bank for rice farmers, and guidelines for the adoption of safe food interventions all have in common?
They are just three of the expected outputs of nine innovative pilot projects that are being implemented by the Knowledge Sharing (KS) Project of the ICT-KM Program. These widely diverse initiatives also happen to mark the beginning of a new chapter in the CGIAR knowledge sharing story.
A few pertinent paragraphs from this new chapter:
Once upon a time, in a CGIAR Center in Penang, Malaysia, Helen Leicht, Director of Business Development and Communications, decided that storymercials, which incorporate an exciting mix of video, audio and images, might make effective CGIAR knowledge sharing tools. Wishing to explore the medium further, she submitted a pilot project proposal to the ICT-KM Program. The months passed, the proposal was accepted, and Helen is now hard at work developing her own storymercial. Historically, stories have always played a pivotal role in the sharing of knowledge and information, and Helen describes good stories as "the ultimate form of persuasion."
Besides demonstrating the effectiveness of the storymercial as a tool for sharing knowledge and increasing the uptake of research results, the project will also develop a toolkit for use by Centers wishing to incorporate storymercials into their communication-knowledge sharing portfolio.
An accessible knowledge bankMore than 1,600km away, in Luang Prabang, Laos, IRRI Scientist Ben Samson is immersed in a collaborative effort that aims to develop a knowledge bank in a form and language that extension workers and rice farmers will be able to access and use. This pilot project will involve researchers communicating their findings to end-users, who will, in turn, provide feedback on the usefulness of this information. This process of engagement will increase the quantity and quality of knowledge bank resources and, ultimately, lead to improved farming practices.
Back to basicsMeanwhile, over in Ghanaian capital of Accra, more than 200,000 urban dwellers put themselves at risk on a daily basis by consuming raw vegetables that have been irrigated with polluted water. To address this problem, IWMI's Tonya Schuetz is leading a pilot project that will support open knowledge sharing among researchers, end-users, and policy- and decision-makers. The project will also support innovative activities that promote knowledge sharing via local radio broadcasts, and training programs that target farmers and food vendors, all of which will help promote safe food practices.
From conception to inceptionThe KS pilot projects came about after the ICT-KM Program made a call for proposals to support activities that would offer CGIAR Centers new opportunities to develop, apply, evaluate and share innovative approaches for making their work more effective. The call, which was sent out in April 2007, resulted in 12 pilot projects: three that focus on institutional knowledge sharing (IKS), six that explore knowledge sharing in research (KSinR) possibilities, and three that will help strengthen virtual teams and endow them with online facilitation skills.
The leaders of the IKS and the KSinR pilot projects were invited to attend a pilot project inception workshop at IRRI headquarters at the end of August 2007. Facilitated by Boru Douthwaite, Simone Staiger-Rivas, Nadia Manning, and Andrea Carvajal, the three-day event was designed to help participants develop Impact Pathways for their projects.
"Impact Pathways show a project's rationale and networks," said Boru, a Senior Scientist at CIAT. "They help communicate what the project is doing, help with planning, and provide a basis for evaluation."
In keeping with KS Project practices, a number of KS tools and approaches, including Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, etc.), were incorporated into the workshop.
Speaking after the conclusion of the workshop, Nadia, who spearheads the KSinR umbrella project, and Simone, leader of the IKS umbrella project, both said the event had been a learning exercise for everyone, themselves included.
"The Impact Pathway methodology was certainly helpful, but some aspects were more challenging than others," said Simone.
Nadia shared these sentiments and added, "The methodology gave us all an opportunity to think deeply and clearly about our projects and what we want to achieve."
The first chapterThe diverse group of new pilot projects feature largely in the second phase of the KS Project. During the first phase, KS principles and approaches were successfully incorporated into several high-profile CGIAR meetings and forums. While these events acted as entry points to help promote change in the institutional culture of CGIAR Centers, they also gave rise to a core team of skilled KS specialists.
The KS Project has now established itself as two distinct umbrella projects. The KSinR Project was created to identify and pursue opportunities to enhance collaborative learning and innovation in research activities, and fills a need that was not addressed in first phase of the KS Project. The IKS Project was set up to support KS at the System level, mainstream KS in all Centers, and foster further development of the community of KS practitioners.
The ICT-KM Program is excited to have the pilot projects on board and looks forward to collaborating with and learning from these initiatives over the next 18 months.
Look out for further updates as the pilot projects progress!
Back
We welcome feedback on the ICT-KM News, so please feel free to contact us at ictkm@cgiar.org