 Knowledge management is a new phenomenon recently branded “Wikinomics” demonstrating how the internet has made possible a new, more cost-effective way of organizing work – through collaborative, trust-based relationships, rather than traditional hierarchy-based relationships. These knowledge networks or Communities of Practice (CoP) are defined by Wenger and Snyder as “groups of people informally bound together by shared experience and passion for a joint enterprise” . They further emphasis on the crucial and promising role of CoPs by stating “Communities of Practice are the new frontier. They may seem unfamiliar now, but in five to ten years they may be as common to discussions about organizations as business units and teams are today.”
The World Bank , the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) , the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have already embraced the concept and launched knowledge sharing initiatives in 2002, 2003 and 2005 respectively, which involved development practitioners in Ethiopia.
In addition, since 2003, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has institutionalized knowledge sharing practices at corporate level and created several practice-specific knowledge networks whereby UNDP’s staff from more than 160 countries connect and share knowledge, experiences, best practices and lessons learned on a daily basis. These global knowledge networks have significantly improved the delivery of UNDP’s development programs as well as its continued support to local governments and development partners make knowledge-based decisions to replicate successful programs, avoid failures and strategically invest resources where the chance of success is optimized.
Progressively, UNDP has supported the UN Country Team in India extend its corporate knowledge sharing practice to development practitioners outside UNDP staff. Led by the UN Resident Coordinator in India, this country-wide knowledge sharing initiative branded “Solution Exchange” was launched by the UNCT in India in 2004 and counts today 11 theme-specific Communities of Practice around the priority areas of the MDGs such as HIV/AIDS, Poverty (Micro-finance and Work and Employment), Food and Nutrition Security, Gender, Maternal and Child Health, Water and Environment and Education.
Building on the existing knowledge sharing initiatives stated above and particularly learning from the successful experience of Solution Exchange India, the UN Country Team in Ethiopia is envisaging to launch a similar country-wide knowledge sharing initiative in Ethiopia. The regular face-to-face peer-learning workshops and thematic electronic discussions will result in gradually and jointly building the knowledge repository of best practices and lessons learned to systematically capture and share them amongst development practitioners from government and non-government organizations. This enhanced dialogue and knowledge (data) base will contribute to the harmonization and coordination of development efforts in Ethiopia to effectively and efficiently tackle priority development areas outlined in the Ethiopia 5 years development plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) as well as other measures needed for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Ethiopia.
For further information please contact Ms. Amal Redwan (amal.redwan@undp.org) or Ms. Genet Awlachew (genet.awlachew@undp.org) |