Implementing Knowledge Strategies: Lessons from International Development Agencies

This 73-page study seeks to build understanding of knowledge and learning within the development sector. The author describes knowledge and learning as "activities that form the processes by which individuals, teams, organisations and groups of organisations become skilled at creating, sharing, storing and using knowledge in order to achieve positive change and realise their goals."

Three of the key features of the study are as follows: (1) a review of existing sector-wide studies of knowledge and learning leading to the identification of a number of key questions for investigation; (2) research on thirteen distinct development agency initiatives which aim to build knowledge and learning capacities; and (3) analysis to understand ways in which these goals have been achieved.

The eight key questions which frame the study fit into the following categories: organisational knowledge, organisational links, organisational contexts and external factors. Together, these categories make up an emerging framework for devising and revising knowledge strategies in development agencies.

The specific questions include:

• How is knowledge and learning understood and applied within organisations?
• How does knowledge and learning interface with the existing structure of the organisations?
• How do knowledge and learning activities link to existing core functions of the organisation?
• How do knowledge and learning activities link with the existing support functions of the organisations?
• How do connective physical and electronic infrastructures support knowledge and learning strategies?
• How do organisational vision, leadership and management impact upon the effectiveness of knowledge and learning strategies
• What ways are there of measuring the costs and benefits of learning or of not learning?
• How do knowledge and learning programmes address external aspects of knowledge and learning work?

According to the author, a common finding across the case studies is that the learning approach is something that an organisation aspires to, a fact which is corroborated by evidence from many other sectors. Learning is described as a "continuous process of becoming, rather than attainment." The study indicates that much valuable learning in development agencies occur on an informal basis, through a wide range of activities which include brown bag lunches, random conversations and guest speaker sessions.

The study also emphasises that the ideal entry points for knowledge and learning are largely organisational specific and that within this context the suggested Knowledge Strategies framework may help with a gap analysis and priority setting. Specifically, the case studies suggest that when the different dimensions of organisational knowledge, organisational links, organisational contexts and external factors are dealt with in an integrated and coherent manner, strategies may prove more effective.

Ramalingam suggests that knowledge and learning strategies in development organisations need to be clearly and realistically positioned within the broader dynamics of organisational life as well as in the context of the international development efforts as a whole. He points out that perhaps most challenging, but equally unavoidable, is the need to locate efforts in relation to the specific knowledge and learning needs and capacities of organisations and beneficiaries in the South "such that the idea of knowledge transfer to the South is increasingly replaced with learning with and from the South."