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Knowledge for Development
The Challenge
For more than four decades USAID has been providing foreign assistance and humanitarian relief to the developing world. Throughout this period, the Agency has developed innovative ideas to assist a world in need. As a result of these efforts, USAID is a recognized leader in development knowledge.
USAID collects, organizes, and maintains online records of more than 117,500 current reports, analyses, and technical and program documents, as well as more than 7.6 million pages of additional materials in microfiche format. This "explicit" knowledge (mission and bureau databases, strategies, evaluations, reports, communications, and email) is an invaluable Agency information resource.
By 2007, nearly 60% of the Agency's Foreign Service Officers and 30% percent of its Civil Service employees will be eligible for retirement. USAID anticipates that it will undergo continuing high levels of retirement over the next five years-particularly among the most senior, experienced, and hard to replace employees. Those retiring are taking much of USAID's institutional memory with them. Much of what USAID employees learn over their careers, including ways of operating, negotiating, and solving problems, is tacit knowledge learned on the job. Codifying and retaining both tacit and explicit knowledge requires innovative "knowledge management" strategies and capabilities.
USAID's vast reservoir of knowledge stretches across not only the Agency itself but also across USAID's "extended enterprise," which includes its federal partners, international donors, contractors and grantees, recipient countries, development organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations (PVOs), and even its retirees. To ensure that the Agency and its extended enterprise benefit from this information USAID is taking steps to create systems, processes, and an institutional culture that advances knowledge sharing.
The Response
USAID's knowledge is a valuable resource that informs how development goals are accomplished, maintained and preserved for use by future generations. USAID has created the Knowledge for Development initiative (KfD) to improve knowledge sharing and collaboration within the Agency and among its business partners. KfD will synthesize knowledge sharing activities and resources already in use, provide easier access to this knowledge, and enable Agency staff and partners to better use relevant knowledge and generate new ideas. The KfD initiative draws on USAID's knowledge of the foreign aid environment to empower employees overseas and in Washington, DC to make informed decisions and advance the National Security Strategy in the implementation of development assistance policies and programs.
As a key component of USAID's business transformation plan, KfD seeks to generate, capture, and disseminate knowledge and information that is relevant to the Agency's mission. KfD supports the Strategic Management of Human Capital goals of the President's Management Agenda which include establishment of effective knowledge management systems to preserve organizations' institutional knowledge for future generations.
Key KfD Outcomes
Goal: Ensure that the Agency's information and knowledge resources support superior development and decision-making at all levels and meet the needs of business partners.
- Develop mechanisms for preserving institutional knowledge to compensate for rapid staff turn-over and to orient new staff in the conduct of USAID's business (e.g., designing, implementing, managing, and evaluating development programs)
- Offer a "one-stop shop" for Agency staff to obtain most of the relevant knowledge needed to do their jobs;
- Accelerate the application of innovative ideas for Agency decision-making, learning, and partnering to achieve USAID objectives and goals
- Promote linkages between knowledge sharing communities in Washington, D.C. and the field and provide links to other external knowledge sources relevant to USAID's mission.
KfD outcomes will enhance USAID's broad-based and effective sharing of expertise, lessons learned, best practices, on-the-ground experience, and other institutional knowledge.
Achievements
KfD Strategy - A Roadmap to Preserving Knowledge and Tapping Innovation
USAID has designed a multi-faceted KfD strategy that addresses the different requirements and goals of knowledge sharing for staff in the field, staff developing long-term strategies, and staff providing vital support to USAID's daily operations. This strategy - approved by the BTEC in Spring 2004 - will continue through FY 2008. The KfD strategy provides the framework for implementation of "knowledge management" tools, techniques, and methodologies such as communities of practice, collaborative software, expertise directories, and on-line repositories for lessons learned.
Communities of Practice - Sharing Ideas, Methods & Best Practices
Under KfD, a series of communities of practice pilots were launched to support knowledge sharing throughout the Agency. Communities of Practice are groups of professionals who come together around a topic or "domain of knowledge"- either virtually or in person-to share ideas, insights and information, help each other solve problems, and advise each other. A series of best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations for integrating communities of practice into the KfD strategy resulted from these pilot activities.
Agency On-Line "Yellow Pages" - Development Knowledge Anytime & Anywhere
A "KfD Yellow Pages" pilot provides an on-line listing of subject matter experts and knowledge sharing tools throughout the Agency.
Next Steps
A key component of the KfD initiative is collaboration throughout the USAID extended enterprise - a particularly complex task given the diversity within the extended enterprise and the intricacy of a global organization. Faced with the integration of geographically and globally dispersed teams and colleagues, USAID is in the process of reviewing collaboration tools for use Agency-wide. Collaboration software provides a set of web-based functions that support the 'virtual' meeting places where ideas and documents can be shared.
As USAID conducts future pilots and rolls out new tools to support the KfD efforts, the Agency will rely on employees in the field and in Washington to help with implementation. A Knowledge Coordinator (KC) will be established in each USAID overseas mission to identify and catalogue existing knowledge sharing capabilities, document knowledge sharing needs that have not been met, and deploy KfD solutions to meet those needs.
USAID and State are coordinating to identify joint Knowledge Management initiatives to advance the goals of both the USAID KfD initiative and State's Knowledge Leadership program. A pilot project was completed that provides access to economic databases between both organizations. Another joint activity goal is to improve the search engine capability for both organizations. As new activities are identified and implemented, milestone accomplishments will be reported to the State/USAID Joint Management Council which meets on a quarterly basis.
Summary of Knowledge For Development Achievements
& Benefits
FY 2001 - Present
| Initiative |
USAID Employee Benefits |
U.S. Taxpayer Benefits |
BTEC approved KfD strategy that establishes roadmap for an integrated knowledge management system to gather development information and experience and share it with internal employees and external business partners.
USAID Knowledge Fairs held in 2002 and 2003.
Mission Knowledge Coordinator training developed and piloted with southern African missions at Regional Center for Southern Africa in 2004 (to be expanded).
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Standardized methods and tools for knowledge capture, classification, retrieval and sharing.
Reduces time spent searching for correct information.
Improves identification and acquisition of knowledge needed to perform effectively.
Improves ability to collaborate with development colleagues/innovate and solve problems more quickly.
Increases sharing of knowledge leveraging of solutions across Missions.
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More efficient Agency operations.
More re-use of knowledge/less redundancy of knowledge.
Increases responsiveness to constituent needs.
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| Communities of Practice launched. |
Facilitates access to knowledge and expertise
needed for Agency operations. |
More efficient Agency operations.
Increases responsiveness to constituent needs.
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| Knowledge Inventory established.
Pilot Knowledge "Yellow Pages" under development. |
Enhances awareness and access to existing Agency knowledge assets. |
More efficient Agency operations. More re-use of knowledge/less redundancy of knowledge. |
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