Linking research with action

Thanks to the recommendation by a colleague, I have just been reading a paper on Linking agricultural research knowledge with action for sustainable proverty alleviation: what works? written by a group of 19 people from Harvard University and the International Livestock Research Institute. The size of the group of authors in itself seems to indicate an [...]

Managing knowledge

This is my first post - I am trying to follow the various uses of the idea of knowledge on the Giraffe, learning the local language as it were.  So I am asking,  whose knowledge/truth are we managing?  Our own?  A community’s?  A profession’s ?,  An organisation’s?  or emergent ideas that  no-one owns yet?  Or all of them? 
I am having some trouble with information-knowledge. I don’t [...]

To assess or better not to assess?

It should be a conscious choice whether impact of a knowledge management intervention needs to be assessed. Why or why not? Not measuring does not mean there is no impact. On the contrary, a formal process of measurement can undermine the very goal you are working towards. Take the example of a level of trust needed [...]

Are we tired of measuring?

Despite the enormous experience and attention in the development sector for monitoring and evaluation of projects and programs, there is little development in the practice of measuring the impact of knowledge management interventions. Several organizations in our interviews admit that this is something they have not done systematically (enough). The fact that there is little [...]

Complexity Theory, Development and IKMemergent.

I was at an IDS seminar last Friday – “Knowledges, Capacities and Learning for Development: Insights from Complexity approaches”.  If the title is alarming then this ODI paper is an excellent primer, “Exploring the science of complexity Ideas and implications for development and humanitarian efforts”. An even shorter introduction comes from this post by Duncan [...]

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?

Another interesting presentation at Nijmegen – again the CIDIN celebrations on 19 September – was by Roger Ridell, who was director of Christain Aid until very recently and author of the book Does foreign aid really work? (You can read a critical review of this book by Simon Maxwell here). I’m going to try to paraphrase Roger [...]

The knowledge bank

At Nijmegen last Friday, where CIDIN was holding its 25th anniversary conference and celebrations, I briefly talked to Ben Fine – a member of staff at SOAS where I studied many years ago. Ben is the author – with a large amount of assistance from Philip Larkin – of a really hilarious poem on social [...]

Cartoons and complex messages

At Context this week, a terrific cartoon newsletter has been circulating among my colleagues. It represents a 12-page distillation of CDRA’s self-evaluation over 5 years. I really think this is great – and is such a brilliant way of communicating complex messages. It reminds me a bit of Dr Kumar, the manager hero, in the FAO’s IMARK module on [...]

Welcome to two new bloggers

This message is to welcome two new bloggers on The Giraffe. They are Ivan Kulis of the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) who is interested in blogging with us, and Serafin Talisayon of the Centre for Conscious Living Foundation Inc who is being commissioned to produce one of the two IKM Emergent stuides on monitoring [...]

What happens if you don’t share knowledge…

Well, people interpret or invent for themselves how things work. Reinventing the wheel, we sometimes call this. But when applied to justice, for instance, this can lead to interesting results… Have a look at this news item from the very serious BBC.
DR Congo frees goats from prison
Deputy Justice Minister Claude Nyamugabo said he found the [...]