• See the summary of the final project report 
• Project achievements at a glance
• Download the brochure: Institutional KS in the CGIAR, one year later
  

Since 2004 the Institutional Knowledge Sharing Project (IKS) has build on the momentum and the lessons learnt of previous initiatives to work towards broader institutional change. Our overall objective was to contribute to organizational development, and improve CGIAR effectiveness by promoting collaborative learning and innovation, and supporting effective use of KS approaches and tools throughout the CGIAR.

Rational: We can use knowledge sharing (KS) principles, methods, and tools to support our organization’s development. They can help us build internal capacity so that we can work, in even more effective ways, towards our mission and to sustain ourselves over the long term. That is:

• KS can help us recognize and deal with today’s complexities, while strengthening our skills and attitudes. It also supports organizational learning and evaluation processes.
• By incorporating KS tools and methods into its strategic planning and change processes, our management can promote involvement, buy-in, and follow-up action of both staff and stakeholders.
• Systematic KS can make organizational day-to-day business more effective, visible, and transparent. 

The Institutional KS Project supported activities for three strategic areas, and looked at the potential impact of KS for organizational development from both a transformational and practical perspective.

We used the following action framework to plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate our KS interventions in those three areas. The text below also highlights our Project's achievements.

Capacity building, M&E, and Learning: Dealing with complexity to empower staff

KS and Social Media Workshops

• Workshop concepts and design developed; two KS workshops and two social media workshops held.
• Reached 13 CGIAR centers and more than 10 partner organizations, involving 130 participants.
• FAO took the lead for the second KS workshop.
• Eight KS workshop participants co-authored an article to be published in an international peer reviewed journal on challenges and experiences in their areas of work at the time of the Workshop.
• A pool of facilitators and mentors is being built—two workshops had eight facilitators and/or mentors, with four being former participants.
• Read more

• KS activities for Phase I (2004–2006) evaluated in six centers and the CGIAR Secretariat.

• Criteria and indicators for an M&E framework developed.
• See the results
  

Involvement with the KM4Dev community

• Visibility of CGIAR raised among practitioners of knowledge management (Km) for development 
• KM4Dev journal on “KM in Latin America and the Caribbean” guest-edited.
• Sponsorship of two CGIAR staff participating in the annual KM4Dev meeting.
• Participation in the community core group.
• Pool of co-workers and consultants created.
• Visit KM4Dev

Strategies and Change Management:  Promoting involvement in organizational change processes

CGIAR change process and stakeholder engagement

• Support within the organization for strategic meetings (AGM 06, 07, and 08), applying KS principles.
• Advised on and facilitated consultation processes with stakeholders, whether through virtual (e.g., blogs) or actual means (e.g., face-to-face meetings). Contribute and facilitate engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs).
• "A Revitalized CGIAR" - Explenatory video produced

CIFOR pilot project

• Promoted participation of staff and Board in CIFOR’s strategic planning.
• KS approaches used to increase participation, and identify and address common issues and concerns.
• Framework included to monitor and evaluate the implementation of strategies.
• Read More

 Towards a Communications and KM strategy for the CGIAR

• Co-organized, designed and facilitated a workshop on agricultural knowledge management, education and learning, Maputo, Mozambique, December 2008
• Co-designed and facilitated the Strategic Communications Workshop

Problem Solving and Best Practices: Making organizational processes more interactive, visible, and transparent

IRRI and WorldFish pilot projects

• Supported IRRI’s wiki cookbook of good practices for research data managers.
• Sponsored WorldFish “storymercial” video approach.

KS Toolkit

• This resource, in wiki format, targets professionals working in international development. It has been expanded and improved. A user community has been created and membership promoted, particularly through active linkages with the KS Workshop. So far, the Toolkit wiki contains 70 tools and methods for sharing knowledge, receives more than 10,000 visits per month, and has 68 registered members.
• It also contains descriptions, experiences, how-to guides, and relevant links for Web-based applications and face-to-face group processes. It features a “context” page where users can search for appropriate tools and methods by either defining the nature and needs of their work or using keywords (tags).
• FAO has become an offical partner for the Toolkit.
• Visit the Toolkit

KS Project’s website

• Continuously updated through the incorporation of Web 2.0 tools.
• The Toolkit wiki is the main resource featuring on the website.
• A photo gallery, housed in Flickr, contains more than 1200 images (including photos and illustrations). As of October 2008, it records an average of 120 viewers daily.
• The KS blog receives more than 1000 visits per month.
• More than 160 important resources are bookmarked, tagged, and dynamically shared on the home page.
• Users can also subscribe to website updates via RSS feeds.

Our Project information resources

• Social Bookmarks
• Institutional KS Blog
• Photo Gallery
• Project Management
• Google Calendar

Contact

• Simone Staiger-Rivas, Knowledge Sharing Specialist, CIAT, Colombia ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )