Knowledge Sharing

Since its inception, the ICT-KM Program has striven to embed a culture of knowledge sharing in CGIAR events and has successfully mainstreamed knowledge sharing principles and tools in CGIAR Centers and programs since 2004. It has also helped showcase the work of some CGIAR Centers, such as that of The WorldFish Center, which produced two storymercials (1.5 to 3 min video clips) that are helping attract donors and investors to the Center’s work.

Pilot initiatives at CIAT and CIFOR resulted in the Centers organizing and conducting their annual staff meetings differently. CIMMYT’s pilot led to the formation of an integrated team of scientists who share knowledge and information and work towards common goals, while IWMI’s pilot helped the Center launch its own pilot project to embed knowledge-sharing principles in the research cycle.

A the end of 2008, the Program helped facilitate the CGIAR 2008 Annual General Meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, the third such meeting that saw active, strategic participation from the Program. The following are just some of the other CGIAR events that incorporated knowledge sharing methodologies:

• CIAT’s recent Annual Knowledge Sharing Week (KSW09), held in Cali, Columbia
• CGIAR Strategic Communications Workshop, held in Penang, Malaysia
• Web2fordev Conference, held in Rome, Italy
• KS Pilot Project Inception Workshop, held at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
• Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev) Meeting 06, held in Zeist, Netherlands

• Knowledge Fair held during the Annual Meeting of CIFOR

The Program also focused on the good practices of knowledge sharing that can be used within research projects/programs in order to improve the effectiveness and impact of CGIAR work. Towards this end, six pilot projects integrated various KS approaches into the different stages of the research process.

For example, the IWMI project on Wastewater Agriculture and Sanitation for Poverty Alleviation piloted the use of ‘Learning Alliances’ as a way of bringing together relevant stakeholders in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to discuss the issue of wastewater and to find ways to better coordinate activities, including generating the knowledge necessary to help support solutions. The project used radio programmes, training videos and flip charts with printed messages and visuals to convey good practices to farmers, caterers and extension agents.

Synthesis of the results of these pilot projects and other activities are documented on

In terms of tools, one of the most popular online knowledge-sharing resources is the KS Toolkit. Developed in collaboration with FAO, the toolkit contains 70 tools and methods for sharing knowledge and receives more than 20,000 visits per month.