Second High- Level Meeting on

Country-led Knowledge Hubs Seoul, South Korea in June 23-26, 2-14

Introduction to Country-led Knowledge Hubs

For decades, development cooperation has been about transferring money, technology and

solutions from the rich in the North to the poor in the South. That North‐South paradigm is no longer

valid. Today, solutions come from anywhere, and increasingly from the South, from countries and

regions that have achieved economic growth and social progress which seemed unimaginable just a

few years ago. South‐South Cooperation has become an important cornerstone of development

cooperation.

Countries, from all income levels, want to learn from the practical experiences of their peers: the

pitfalls to avoid, the practices to adopt. Practitioners want to be connected to each other, across

countries, across regions. It stems from a belief that development solutions work best when they

are designed in interaction with peers and partners who have gone through, or are going through,

similar problems, facing similar constraints. That is why there is such a demand to learn from the

successes of developing countries, be it the Social Protection programs in Latin America or the

Community Driven Development programs in East Asia.

At the same time, countries with interesting development experiences to share are increasingly eager

to do so. For many countries, sharing their knowledge and experience is a way to develop meaningful

international partnerships. As their experiences grow, they increasingly seek better conditions to

exchange knowledge in a predictable way and at a larger scale. They want to develop Knowledge

Hubs.

So, what is a Knowledge Hub?

Knowledge Hubs are organizations or networks that have developed capacities to capture, document

and share development experience with domestic and international partners in order to accelerate

development.

Thematic Knowledge Hubs are often hosted at sector ministries or government agencies focusing on

specific areas of development (such as urban development, water resource management or

agriculture). They play an essential role in connecting to peers and partners working on similar issues in

other countries.

In many countries thematic Knowledge Hubs exist already but often lack knowledge management and

development learning capacity. Further strengthened, they can facilitate mutual learning about

successful approaches to deliver results that may be adapted and scaled up elsewhere.

Second High- Level Meeting on

Country-led Knowledge Hubs Seoul, South Korea in June 23-26, 2-14

Why shall we meet to discuss Knowledge Hubs?

Since the First High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Country-Led Knowledge Hubs that was held in Bali,

Indonesia in July 2012, institutions around the world have been investing in their institutional and

operational capacities to exchange knowledge, often supported by multilateral and bilateral

development partners. As envisioned in the Bali Communiqué, Knowledge Hubs have come to the

center of the future development system, where knowledge exchange/knowledge sharing is a vital

complement to existing technical and financial cooperation in a multipolar world.

Since the Bali HLM, hundreds of practitioners from knowledge exchange institutions are exchanging

institutional experiences and operational innovations through the first-ever Community of Practice

focusing on knowledge hubs, hosted at www.knowledgehubs.org . Enriching this unique process,

partners such as the World Bank are conducting analytical work on national and sector-level knowledge

hubs, looking into the options to build a smart institutional and operational set-up for large-scale

knowledge exchange.

While there is an ample consensus on the role and potential of Knowledge Hubs as pillars of effective

knowledge exchange, the attention has been increasingly drawn towards sector and thematic

institutions. Complementing the vital role of national coordination entities (such as development

cooperation agencies), these thematic Knowledge Hubs have accumulated expertise and started to

systematize (or ‘package’) their solutions to be shared with peers in other countries. Critical

development areas attended by Knowledge Hubs include disaster risk management, public transport,

statistic, water management or tropical agriculture. And the truth is while challenges are becoming

more complex, smarter solutions are also available in many parts of the world, often backed by decades-

old practice and striving innovation. The question today is how these solutions can be packaged,

connected and shared among institutions, in order to help accelerating development. And one of the

key answers to this question is to create and strengthen Knowledge Hubs capable of sharing solutions

on a large scale.

Fully acknowledging the vital contribution of thematic Knowledge Hubs, a core group of governments

and multilateral institutions, under the lead coordination of the Republic of Korea and the World Bank,

is now preparing a follow-up HLM. Building up on the outstanding results of the first HLM, this second

edition will be informed and inspired by Knowledge Hub experiences from around the world, which will

be captured through a case story process that was launched in January 2014. Furthermore, the HLM2

Second High- Level Meeting on

Country-led Knowledge Hubs Seoul, South Korea in June 23-26, 2-14

will draw on the collective energy of the online Community of Practice, where contents and

methodologies will be validated and enriched. With these contributions from hundreds of practitioners

and policy-makers, the HLM2 will become a key milestone in the Knowledge Hubs of the next years, by

providing an inspiring and energetic space for shared future actions to take advantage of one of the

most inspiring opportunities of today’s world: the ability to learn from each other.

The focus of the HLM2 will be particularly on government agencies working on service delivery in a given

sector. The event will address the critical questions of how systematic knowledge sharing can: (i)

enhance institutional performance towards more effective service delivery; and (ii) enable acceleration

of domestic and international development through adaptation of what has worked elsewhere and

avoiding mistakes from the past.

What are the HLM2 Objectives?

As part of an ongoing process of mutual learning among practitioners and policy-makers, the HLM2 aims

to enable participants to:

- Take stock of the path initiated in Bali around knowledge hubs and share experiences of

ongoing initiatives in the area of knowledge hubs,

- Engage in an evidence- and practice-based dialogue and exchange on institutional and

operational experiences to systematically capture, package and share development solutions in

critical development areas, and

- Agree on shared next steps of development partners to fully support and engage with thematic

knowledge hubs as key pillars to scale up knowledge exchange at the sector level

Who will participate?

The HLM2 is expected to bring together policy-makers and practitioners from country-led thematic

knowledge hubs as well as representatives from bilateral and multilateral development partners

supporting knowledge hubs in middle- and low-income countries, desiring to share their experiences

and identify possible next steps for thematic knowledge hubs. All participants are expected to bring

their lessons learned to the exchange during the HLM2, and specific attention will be drawn to the

experiences collected and systematized through the case story process.

In addition, decision-makers from government institutions in charge of coordinating South-South and triangular knowledge exchange at the country level (such as development cooperation agencies) will

Second High- Level Meeting on

Country-led Knowledge Hubs Seoul, South Korea in June 23-26, 2-14

bring in the view on public policies and connect the Knowledge Hubs agenda to regional and global policy arenas. While the focus is on government institutions, the HLM2 will also be attended by a number of non-governmental knowledge hubs from the Global South, including centers of excellence from civil society, academia and private sector.

What will happen during the HLM2?

Based on experiences gathered in case story process and other analytical efforts, the HLM2 will provide

a dedicated space for exchanging experiences on the institutional and operational development of

thematic knowledge hubs. During the first two days, contributions from both governments and

development partners will enable participants to share lessons learned with the key how to’s of

knowledge hubs, based on practice and evidence. The third day will focus on the pioneer experiences of

Korea and its partners around the world with knowledge sharing as an effective development tool. A

fourth and final day will provide a number of practice-based workshops, in particular drawing on existing

offerings from bilateral and multilateral development partners.

Methodologically, these components will be prepared and conducted in the following formats:

Day 1 – Taking stock and shaping the agenda

With the aim of setting the context for the HLM2, the morning of the first day will consist of high-level

segments and panels providing an overview of the role of knowledge hubs in a multipolar world, the

design of public policies for knowledge exchange, the political mandates for knowledge hubs at the

national level, the support of development partners to these institutions, and the role of knowledge

hubs in ongoing international policy discussions, for example at the level of the G20 and the Global

Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation. The speakers in these sessions, to be held in TV

show format, will be high-level representatives from development cooperation authorities, as well as

bilateral and multilateral organizations. For each session, a brief concept note will be prepared, detailing

guiding questions for each of the speakers.

The afternoon of this day will feature a session dedicated to the analytical work on knowledge hubs,

providing a comparative summary on institutional and operational experiences, as well as briefly

introducing thematic knowledge hubs that were selected from the case story process. This component

will be framed by a close coordination of the team on charge of the case story process which will not

only prepare the summary of results, but also provide guidance for case story representatives to share

their experiences. The session is expected to generate an open debate among all HLM2 participants, as

well as to lay the ground for the second day, focusing on specialized exchanges among knowledge hubs

representatives.

Second High- Level Meeting on

Country-led Knowledge Hubs Seoul, South Korea in June 23-26, 2-14

Day 2 – The practice of Knowledge Hubs

The second day of the HLM2 will be dedicated to the exchange of practical and evidence-based experiences with developing knowledge hub’s institutional and operational development. Drawing primarily on the case story process, the so-called eight knowledge hub pillars will be discussed, including the transformation of existing institutions into knowledge hubs, the organizational models, financial sustainability and budgets, and international partnerships (in the area of institutional development), as well as the design of knowledge catalogues, the packaging of development solutions, the planning and implementation of knowledge exchanges, and the monitoring and documentation of results from knowledge exchange (in the area of operational development). To this end, at the beginning, a plenary session will set the scene of key challenges and opportunities for knowledge hubs to become strong players in development cooperation, taking up the contents of the last session of day 1 and explaining the overall dynamic for day 2. Following this session, participants will split up in parallel roundtables discussing each of the eight knowledge pillars, which will gather 30 to 50 participants each and will be facilitated/moderated by partners engaged in supporting knowledge hubs. Each roundtable will feature three specific experiences in the respective area, which will be shared by representatives of thematic knowledge hubs. In preparation of the roundtable, short guiding notes will be drafted, clarifying the area to be discussed and key questions to be looked into.

At the end of this day, participants will gather again in a plenary session sharing the key messages from each roundtable in a fair-style format. Optionally, to bring this day to a closure, the Core Group might present a Conclusions document from the HLM2.

The methodology for the Roundtable Sessions is outlined in a separate note.

Day 3 – Korea as a knowledge hub pioneer

Complementing the vivid exchange of experiences during day 2, this day will be hosted by the

Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) of the Korea Development Institute (KDI). It will showcase the main

features and lessons learned with the institutional and operational development of the KSP as one of

the world’s first fully-fledged knowledge hubs for development solutions. KSP partners from around the

world will provide further insights in the advantages of the KSP in offering and receiving development

expertise. These segments and their specific design will be developed by KDI.

Day 4 – Practice-based workshops for knowledge hubs

The last day of the KLM2 will focus on workshops, courses and other learning offerings related to

Knowledge Hubs in particular, and systematic Knowledge Exchange in general. In particular, bilateral and

Second High- Level Meeting on

Country-led Knowledge Hubs Seoul, South Korea in June 23-26, 2-14

multilateral development organizations will be conducting learning events developed specifically for the

needs of Knowledge Hubs (such as the Art of Packaging for Learning and the Art of Knowledge Exchange

of the World Bank). In addition, based on the demand emerging from the online Community of Practice,

a specific session will look into current and future work on good practices of Knowledge Hubs.

The design, content and learning objectives of each workshop are described in a separate note.

Want to know more?

Although knowledge hubs are still a young institutional model, there is already some interesting reading

material for those who would like to dig a bit deeper:

The G‐20 Issues Paper ‐ Emerging Lessons on Institutionalizing Country‐Led Knowledge Sharing

shares insights into the five functional areas mentioned above.

The Good Practice Paper – Towards Effective South‐South and Triangular Cooperation provides

practical guidance on how to ensure the effectiveness of knowledge exchange.

In The Art of Knowledge Exchange, prepared by the World Bank Institute, readers can find a

comprehensive toolkit for designing, implementing and monitoring knowledge exchange.