The CGIAR is identifying and testing ways to improve the effectiveness and impact of its research through better knowledge sharing.

The Centers and Programs supported by the CGIAR create with their many partners a wealth of knowledge to help improve agricultural productivity and the livelihoods of poor communities in developing countries. The knowledge the CGIAR produces is vital to addressing food insecurity around the world.

A key challenge is ensuring that this knowledge reaches its intended audience, be it policymakers, investors, implementers or the farmers themselves. If the findings of CGIAR research and the recommendations that stem from it are to bring positive change to the livelihoods of the world’s poor, they must respond to needs and conditions on the ground. While much is already being done to make this knowledge more available, accessible and applicable, further opportunities exist to ensure that research effectively achieves development outcomes.

A missing element between the generation of knowledge and its application is appropriate knowledge sharing. This involves working with stakeholders to identify the information gaps, collaborating and learning with a variety of actors throughout the knowledge-generation process, and effectively delivering knowledge in ways appropriate to the various groups whose decision-making and actions the CGIAR seeks to influence or support. This requires better understanding and use of new knowledge systems and knowledge-sharing approaches.

The CGIAR’s Information Communication Technology and Knowledge Management (ICT-KM) Program initiated in 2007 a 2-year project entitled Knowledge Sharing in Research (KSinR). The goal of KSinR is to improve the effectiveness and impact of CGIAR research by providing options and lessons regarding good practices in knowledge sharing in research. The project recognizes that a prerequisite for implementing knowledge sharing in research is acknowledging that research Centers often have valid reservations about undertaking activities outside their sector of the research-to-development continuum. KSinR therefore looks at how to integrate appropriate knowledge-sharing activities directly into the research process to improve the way research is carried out and to strengthen its impact without compromising Centers’ adherence to their research mandate.

KSinR’s main learning vehicle consists of six on-going CGIAR research projects, which are piloting various knowledge sharing approaches integrated at different stages in the research process.

• Collaborative multi-stakeholder frameworks for conducting more coordinated innovation and research-to-action processes are being tested by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) through its use of the Learning Alliance approach in its project ‘Wastewater, Agriculture and Sanitation for Poverty Alleviation(WASPA)’.
• The Farmers’ Conference Project of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas(ICARDA) is providing lessons on mechanisms for sharing knowledge and learning from farmers to improve the design and execution of plant breeding.
• The pilot lead by the Center for International Forestry Research(CIFOR) is exploring good ways to share methodologies for assessing research priorities, as well as experiences in using them, to provide support to Centers in determining which research options promise the greatest impact.
• The pilot led by the International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) is developing the Laos Rice Knowledge Bank as a mechanism to make research in that Asian country accessible to extension agents and, through them, to farmers.
• Another pilot also lead by IWMI is using radio programs, training videos, curricula and flip charts to convey good practices in wastewater use to farmers, local food caterers and extension agents, with the aim of testing diverse methods of research delivery for their ability to improve uptake and adoption.
• The pilot project of the WorldFish Center is testing alternative methodologies for monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment, with the aim of finding better ways of learning together with stakeholders throughout the research process.

One lesson emerging from KSinR is that using these knowledge-sharing approaches in research requires funding, time and personnel that are sometimes beyond the current capacity of projects and Centers. Knowledge sharing is nevertheless providing a number of benefits to projects. Better insights are being gained into problems on the ground, which help improve the relevance of research. Greater buy-in is being achieved by working more closely with stakeholders. More is being learned through knowledge sharing with stakeholders. Finally, more appropriate ways of sharing knowledge with target groups is improving their access to knowledge and stimulating stakeholders’ uptake and use of research-generated knowledge and technologies.

Results from across KSinR and all of its pilot projects and other activities will be documented in a variety of media including the Knowledge Sharing website and blog as well as practical how-to documents to be presented at upcoming forums of the CGIAR and other organizations.

For more information, please contact Nadia Manning-Thomas, KSinR Project Leader (n.manning@cgiar.org).

KSinR is hosted by IWMI in its Nile Basin and East Africa Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.