Communities of Practice

Two Communities of Practice are now piloted: Institutions & Policies and Health.

Knowledge sharing strategies for research projects

This area is being addressed mainly through the newly developed ‘Knowledge Sharing in Research Pilot Project’. 

Knowledge Sharing in Research can be defined in two largely complementary ways:

1. Knowledge Sharing among researchers, to improve the research process itself, for example through a ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP).
   

2. Knowledge Sharing between researchers and users (policymakers, intermediaries and end-users), used to increase the interaction between all stakeholders and most importantly increase the impact of research.

This KS in Research Pilot Project is primarily concerned with the latter (the former will be addressed through the larger efforts of the KCI).

The project is a joint effort between IWMI and the Challenge Program on Water and Food to identify, analyse and promote best practice in innovative knowledge sharing and science communication in research projects.  It works with a set of about 10 case study projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

Capacity Building

Proposal Development Training Workshop for African NARES partners & CG Scientists

This project was part of a CGIAR Marketing Group (MG) campaign to ‘Strengthen alliances with NARES & Civil Society’.  While it was a MG project it was implemented by IWMI Communications and Knowledge Sharing.  The project was co-sponsored by the CGIAR MG, IWMI and the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food. The training workshop was one of three projects within the campaign. 

The aim was to increase the capacity of African NARES in developing project proposals with communication and outreach components.  It would enable African NARES to become stronger partners in alliances with CG Centers to implement MG Campaigns. 

The outcome sought was to increase the capacity of NARES to develop research proposals with a strong communication and outreach component, whilst building alliances between NARES and CGIAR centers.

The project was held at the IWMI Pretoria office in South Africa, November 2003.  The training was attended by 23 participants from African NARES and 4 participants from CGIAR Centers. 

The training included:

• How to write a good research project proposal that might appeal to development donors
  
  
• The importance of a communication and knowledge sharing component in a proposal
  
  
• How to prepare unsolicited concept notes and proposals
  
  
• How to respond to competitive grant programs, with some emphasis on the CGIAR Challenge Program on Food and Water.

The training allowed participants to apply new learning by working in small groups to produce draft proposals. These proposals were subject to frequent peer review.

Organizational Learning

Organizational learning was strengthened by linking and harmonizing the Impact Assessment initiative, the Project Management guidelines and QMS to make sure that project impacts and project lessons are captured. Also attention was paid to improving the Performance Appraisal formats. Next attention will be paid to simple methods to capture, disseminate and follow up on general lessons.

Information Systems and Resources

• Work on database warehouse and data storage pathway has continued in particular with a view to prioritize actions in these projects.
  
  
• E-Publishing: ongoing 
  
  
• Shared library services through a collaboration with World Fish, CIFOR and FAO. 
  
  
•  Intranet services, Web services

Strategic Communication

The Communication and Knowledge Sharing (CKS) department held a number of planning sessions to focus their services. That has clarified issues sufficiently to now focus on implementation of those ideas and the project-based budget and management approach, with a view to improved performance and delivery on key communication efforts. A few key points:

1. IWMI website and intranet management has now moved from ICT to CKS – with technical support and development through ICT. The Webmaster is part of the CKS team and responsible for maintaining content and good turn around times. We believe this will improve the level of communication both internally (between Colombo and the regions) and externally. The website and intranet are currently going through re-development to improve the information architecture and the general look and feel of the sites.
   
   

    A new approach by properly implementing project based budgeting and management will also improve the output of IWMI Strategic Communication. This is a key aspect for this department where virtually all work is project-related. 
   
   
2. Corporate communications (use of logo, key IWMI messages in all media etc) are being implemented in a more focused way with an appointed Project Leader now in place.
   
   
3. Leading on the implementation of the Knowledge Sharing in Research Pilot Project should also support developing better linkages with the Research group.
   

KCI Home Page

Events

      Knowledge Fair 2004

Progress

Components and Activities

KCI Share Point Site
(This is a virtual work space which allows our work groups to collaborate more efficiently)