KM champions have a big impact on IFAD’s effectiveness. They advocate and spread compelling messages on the benefits of KM within IFAD and with our partners. They also generate interest and endorse KM initiatives in projects. They are knowledge brokers by default because they connect teams and programmes by breaking down silos. KM champions are not nominated based on their job profiles, they naturally work their way into the role through experience and by gaining the trust of their peers and managers.
Would you be interested to become a KM champion? We need knowledge champions in IFAD so that we can use the best solutions available to address challenges to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. Knowledge champions not only advocate about success stories to different parts of the organization and beyond, they bring along a strong learning agenda that allows innovations to emerge in projects. Any staff can receive training on how to become a knowledge champion. Being a KM enthusiast is just one of the prerequisites. Also important, are facilitation and influencing skills as well as story-telling, the ability to bring people together, listening and grasping the big picture. KM champions in action at IFAD Knowledge sharing is a fundamental activity that is easily embedded in what each one of us is already doing. For example, by sharing project stories of success and failure across countries and regions, you are acting as a knowledge broker and champion and contributing to scaling up what works into another geographical context. During the KM Interact in July 2019, Nigel Brett, Director of the Asia & Pacific division gave us an example of an IFAD-funded project with the Government of Kenya on graduation models for the ultra-poor. The government was aware that IFAD had a similar project in Bangladesh involving BRAC, the world’s largest NGO as a partner so the country portfolio manager at the time, proactively recruited an outstanding knowledge broker consultant as part of the design team. The knowledge broker not only contributed to identifying suitable partners for the project, she also facilitated south-south cooperation and knowledge flows by demonstrating that what worked in one region can easily be adapted to another region. This created a duplication of successful graduation models in two regions, furthering the benefits to the ultra-poor. It’s safe to say that KM champions are also change agents. When projects are aware that there are solutions to the same challenges elsewhere, it is easier to re-use those same lessons. If you think about it carefully, lessons are really not learnt unless they are re-used in other geographical contexts, in other projects or even taken-up by other organizations working for the same cause. By sharing their experiences in IFAD’s internal KM Community of Practice, KM champions triggered organizational learning and dialogue while contributing to IFAD's COVID-19 response on important issues like project repurposing, remote supervision, digital solutions, financial services and remittances. KM champions, the more the better IFAD is a knowledge-driven organization based on evidence and trust. Our objective is to have many more KM champions to spread the word on how to do good and less time-consuming KM and make project successes and innovations visible to the world. However, we know that time is everyone’s biggest barrier. One way to overcome this is to help colleagues understand that by sharing experiences and lessons, by promoting collaboration and learning and by improving KM skills, you can actually make your work easier and save time! Help us make it a reality to un-hide IFAD’s gems. If you’d like to know more about what you can do as a KM champion, contact your regional KM resource person here. Comments are closed.
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