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FAO as a Knowledge Organization - Leveraging on Partnerships to Promote Knowledge Exchange in Agricultural Domain

What is Knowledge Management?. A catchy/trendy modern term, but is elusive as a concept!Everyone has an intuitive sense of what it is about, but there is no universal definition. Entire books are written about it!. What is Knowledge Management?. It is about capturing, creating, distilling, sharing and using know-how. That know-how includes explicit and tacit knowledge. Know-how is used as shorthand for know-how, know-what, know-who, know-why and know-when.It's ... about the communities that 224

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FAO as a Knowledge Organization - Leveraging on Partnerships to Promote Knowledge Exchange in Agricultural Domain

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    1. FAO as a Knowledge Organization - Leveraging on Partnerships to Promote Knowledge Exchange in Agricultural Domain Gauri Salokhe, Stephen Katz Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division Gauri.Salokhe@fao.org, Stephen.katz@fao.org

    2. What is Knowledge Management? A catchy/trendy modern term, but is elusive as a concept! Everyone has an intuitive sense of what it is about, but there is no universal definition. Entire books are written about it!

    3. What is Knowledge Management? It is about capturing, creating, distilling, sharing and using know-how. That know-how includes explicit and tacit knowledge. Know-how is used as shorthand for know-how, know-what, know-who, know-why and know-when. It’s ... about the communities that keep know-how of a topic alive by sharing what they know, building on it and adapting it to their own use. It is not snapshot of what is known at a single point in time, but an evolving set of know-how kept current by people who regularly use it.”

    4. What is Knowledge Management? A complex set of functions involving processes, people and technology interacting together. Not about doing something new but doing things in some new ways. Partially about information technology and tools but mostly about process and empowerment of people

    5. What is Knowledge Management? In summary, KM is about: connecting people together to create, share and exploit knowledge more effectively connecting people to the information they need to develop and apply their knowledge in new ways connecting people to the tools they need to process information and knowledge

    6. Pulp Fiction vis-à-vis KM Non-Linear, Out-of-Sequence How, where and when do you start? Requires a different mind-set (If-then-else/loop-until structures don’t apply!) Unconventional Approach Top-down or bottom-up? Maybe both?

    7. Can appear at times to be a mechanism for like-minded people to come and “hug trees” together. Perhaps too much “hype” associated with it What’s the fuss all about anyway? FAO has been doing knowledge management for over 60 years. Why does FAO need to do Knowledge Management? It’s just more work on top of the too many things I already have to do And if you want to be cynical: Is KM really the right terminology? Is knowledge really something you can manage, or is it something you share, adapt and apply on a case by case basis? Knowledge Management...

    8. What is FAO? With KM concepts now crystal clear, a brief note about FAO: FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations with its own independent governance 190+ Member Countries 2008-2009 core budget of US$ 868 million and almost an equal amount of external funding HQs in Rome, Offices in over 80 countries Around 4000 staff World-Wide

    9. Knowledge Exchange & Capacity Building Main Areas of Work Support to the FAO web-site (http://www.fao.org) Knowledge Management Services (http://www.fao.org/KnowledgeForum/) WAICENT - World Agricultural Information Centre Portal (http://www.fao.org/waicent) Electronic Publishing – all FAO Publications on-line Standards for Information Management - AGROVOC Thesaurus, AGRIS Classification and metadata exchange schemes Field Programmes Capacity Building and E-Learning Library Services

    11. ... in Practice

    12. Independent External Evaluation Released in October 2007 after two years of work A team of International experts, core team of 6 Divided into 4 areas: Technical Work Management and Administration (KM was here) Governance FAO’s Role Externally Report: More than 400 pages, 109 recommendations Available from the FAO Home Page: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/012/k0827e02.pdf

    13. 2) FAO is in a serious crisis which imperils its future 3) If FAO was to disappear tomorrow, much of it would need to be reinvented 8) As a knowledge organization, FAO should support Members in ensuring that needs are fully met – not necessarily to undertake each task itself. It must ensure that the world’s knowledge of food and agriculture is available to those who need it when they need it and in a form which they can access and use Independent External Evaluation Key Messages

    14. Back to the Beginning..

    15. Why is KM Important Information/data without applied knowledge (i.e. analysis, interpretation, adaptation within context) cannot resolve problems on their own Most of an organization’s knowledge assets are located within the heads of people. That is, the so called “tacit knowledge” Do’s and Don’ts are “tacit knowledge assets” not readily available Many international institutions have adopted knowledge management approaches as a corporate strategy (e.g. The World Bank and UNDP) Those who are not equipped to be part of the emerging global knowledge society will be left behind. FAO currently is not entirely a “knowledge organization” but an organization with a lot of knowledge

    16. FAO as a Knowledge Organization - Model

    17. Towards a KM Strategy Main Issues are divided into four categories: Staff and technical expertise (Internal) Member States and Partnerships (External) Organizational structure and culture Technology and Infrastructure Ian Wooler, http://www.tfpl.com/Ian Wooler, http://www.tfpl.com/

    18. Issues and Recommendations Members & Partnerships (External) Issues: FAO is quite internally focused but itself produces only a fraction of the knowledge required for addressing the world problems in poverty and hunger. There is an increasing need to work in partnerships and networks. FAO nevertheless needs to know where appropriate and authoritative knowledge is to be found and how it can be accessed. FAO and its partners are both suppliers and consumers of knowledge.

    19. Issues and Recommendations Members & Partnerships (External) Recommendation: Foster strategic partnerships and networking to facilitate KS To do this, there is a need for: FAO to become more of a facilitator and concentrate its actions as a doer in its areas of comparative strength. FAO to help ensure that the world’s knowledge of food and agriculture is available to those who need it when they need it and in a form which they can access and use. Strong partnerships need to be established with partner UN organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Universities, Governments and private organizations to assure knowledge sharing and collaboration.

    20. Examples of possible collaboration areas

    21. First Steps towards KM

    22. Opportunities for Collaboration A coordinated network of Question and Answer Services at national and regional levels Common metadata sets for sharing Q and A using technologies such as RSS or XML Direct linking to specialized Q and A services

    23. Opportunities for Collaboration Learn from the each other’s experience, both successes and failures. Create and share “Good” Practices which: have been adopted successfully in more than one region are interdisciplinary in nature, reflecting the complex nature of the problems addressed.

    24. Opportunities for Collaboration Create a network of partners/specialists to share and support resolve issues Ensure: Demand-driven Support and sponsorship from management Ensure proper membership (mix of experts) Continuous facilitation Flexible approach (i.e. tools, size, timeframe) Recognition to staff time dedicated to this activity

    26. Objective developing – adapting – repurposing learning resources on topics related to agricultural and rural development worldwide LORs with reusable learning resources and interoperable metadata LORs with open standards and technologies global federations of LORs

    27. Participating Organizations

    32. AgriFeeds

    33. News / Latest Developments

    34. Events related to Agriculture

    35. USAIN and FAO Inform and involve Subject Specialists from the United States into Thematic Knowledge Networks Increase involvement into the “Coherence for Information in Agricultural Research and Development (CIARD)” initiative Work together on information sharing standard, development of tools, capacity building materials Get Resources from American agricultural research into AGRIS FAO’s multilingual resources are available for reuse Collaboration between FAO and USAIN in projects in developing countries and to share experiences New Interest Group? Regular exchange of information through F2F events

    36. Thank you! Gauri.Salokhe@fao.org

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