Knowledge Management @ FAO : Partnerships | USAIN 2008 FAO as a Knowledge Organization - Leveraging on Partnerships to Promote Knowledge Exchange in Agricultural

Knowledge Management @ FAO : Partnerships | USAIN 2008

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

[email protected], [email protected]


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!



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.”

From “Learning to Fly”, Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell, Capstone Publishing:



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



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


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?


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...


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


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

in ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, ARABIC, CHINESE... and now since 2008 also RUSSIAN!


FAOSTAT

KIMS

INPHO

GEOWEB

InformationSystems

Bibliography

Databases

ExpertProject

Organizations

Databases Databases

Databases

Directories

Specialised Applications

Database Search Engines

Metadata Metadata Metadata

Doc. RetrievalApplications

Map Retrieval Systems

Web+InformationFinder Applications

Core Metadata

Core Metadata

CoreMetadata

Portal Search/Dissemination InterfacePortal Architecture DiagramStandardisation in InformationCollection and Dissemination

AGROVOC

SubjectCategories

DTD

AGROVOC

SubjectCategories

DTD

Web PagesFAO-On-line

Web PagesCOAIM

Workshops

Document Repository

Photos

Maps

DTD

AGROVOC

SubjectCategories

DTD

Data Collection Sheets

Input Sheets

TemplatesGIS+Graphics Documents

Work-Flow Systems

WAICENTResource Finder

Country Profiles

Community Directory Systems (CDS)... in Theory


... in Practice


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


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


Back to the Beginning..

Back to the Beginning..


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


FAO as a Knowledge Organization - Model

Leveraging solutions throughpartnerships with MemberNations, other agencies,

banks, NGOs, private sector

FAO: a knowledge organization in the information age

Acquiring and processing information in response to Members’ needs and priorities

Sharing knowledge through press, conferences, website and reports

Identifying trends by progress monitoring, assessments and early warning systems

Implementing solutionsthrough policy analysis andadvice, technical know-how,training and capacity building

to fight hunger and poverty and promote sustainabledevelopment at International, Regional and Country levels

Building consensus and commitment asa neutral forum and to mobilize resources

Sustaining FAO body of knowledge and strengthening FAO “Centre of Excellence”

LearningOrganization

learningfrom and

incorporatingknowledge

andexperience

Strengtheningknowledgenetworks & communitiesof practiceto promote

collaborativeproblemsolving

andinnovation


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


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.


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.


Examples of possible collaboration areas


First Steps towards KM


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



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.



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


http://aglr.aua.gr


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


Participating Organizations


established February 2008

>110 members - 26 countries and 16 organizations

75 in organizations with digital LOR

Working with European Expert group mapping metadata APs (European Committee for Standardization)

e-Conference on agricultural LORs - May 2008

Workshop on Learning Technology Standards - Sept 2008



Co-funded by the European Commission

eContentplus programme

Organic Agriculture (Organic Agriculture (OAOA) & Agroecology () & Agroecology (AEAE))


Users

Web Portal Module

Semantic Services Module

Content Providers

Learning Resources Exchange Module

Federation of Learning Resource Repositories

Learning Repository Management Module

Public Resources

BIO@GRO

Intute

School

ENOAT

Organic.Edunet Federation of Learning

Repositories

ECOLOGICA/COMPASS


AgriFeeds


News / Latest Developments


Events related to Agriculture


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


Thank you!

[email protected]