Knowledge Share Fair - Latin America and Caribbean / Second Call for Proposals: Deadline Extended

From 25-27 May 2010, the ICT-KM Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other international organizations will be organizing a 3-day event at the Campus of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali (Colombia) entitled "Knowledge Share Fair - Latin America and Caribbean". We are looking for good knowledge sharing practices in the field of agricultural research and development and food security for Latin America and the Caribbean. We want to know how knowledge sharing practices, methods and tools have enhanced your work and made your project more successful and effective.

In particular, we would like to know about:

*Good knowledge sharing practices with project teams, partners, communities, networks, and end users

*Good practices in making research processes and outputs accessible, available and applicable.

The closing date for submissions was extended to 5 April, 2010.

For more information, please go to: http://www.sharefair.net/.

FAO Climate Change Days: Share and Learn

Following up on the great success of the 2009 Share Fair (http://www.sharefair.net/) at FAO Headquarters in Rome, on June 21-23, 2010 FAO's interdepartmental working group on climate change will host the FAO Climate Change Days: Share and Learn.

The event will bring together practitioners from all levels of FAO who work on projects relating to climate change issues, as well as key persons from other Rome based agencies. The participants will share their experiences and learn new skills from each other that are needed for effective field work, while widening their networks.

The event will apart from networking and sharing sessions also include training sessions, aimed at exposing participants to various tools and skills that are useful in FAO’s work on climate change.

We hope this meeting will result in enhanced connections, co-operation and networking among professionals working with the same kind of issues in climate change, be they in the field assigned to projects, in regional offices or in Headquarters.

You can find more information about the event, and contact details under http://www.fao.org/climatechange/ccdays

A month later: Reflecting on the lessons and feedback from the Share Fair

Only a month ago, during the Knowledge Share Fair, the FAO building and atrium was buzzing with energy and had become a learning and meeting hub for members of management and colleagues from Bioversity, CGIAR ICT-KM programme, FAO, IFAD and WPF.


For three days it was a common sight to see the organizing committee's members of management running into each other, engaging in formal and causal conversations. For three days it was a common sight to see colleagues having an opportunity to engage in casual conversation with members of senior management.


Only a month ago, the knowledge tree in the atrium was experiencing a wonderful spring as participants added leaves carrying their ideas, experiences, words of wisdom and inspiration.

Only a month ago the various meeting rooms at FAO saw meetings held in a different and innovative way and witnessed enthusiastic participants rushing from one session to another.

Only a month ago the e-learning lab and facilitation room witnessing a wonderful buzz as participants were telling each other about the new knowledge sharing tools, methods and techniques they had just learnt.

A month down the road, all of us feel more enriched. We now have bigger networks, new friends and new peers. The Share Fair has managed to demystify KM for lots of people. As a result, the various organizations are embracing and embedding KM methods, tools and techniques in their core processes. There is more awareness about the power and potential of Web2.0 tools as KM enablers which has led to more willingness to use these tools. The Share Fair has also helped create new networks and partnership between and among organizations.

The results of survey launched during the Share Fair shows that 67.3% of the respondents considered the Share Fair as a breath of fresh air, while 55% thought it was innovative. 66.5% of respondents rated the sessions as interesting, 52.2% said that they learnt something new, and 31% considered the various sessions as creative.

The hands-on sessions were a smashing success, followed by the booths and the technical sessions. The poster and video sessions were far from being successful.

The feedback also indicated that there were far too many sessions and a suggestion was put forward to repeat sessions. Another useful feedback came from our non-anglophone colleagues pointing out that they could not fully benefit from the various sessions because of language barrier. All of these are priceless feedback and will help make the next edition better.

Only a month ago we lived the energizing buzz of Share Fair. Together we learnt that is possible to bring about change, convert the KM cynics to KM practitioners. Now the challenge is to keep up the momentum and as Anatole France once said: "Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another." So when are we going to start working on the 2010 edition of Knowledge Share Fair?

A Tree at the Share Fair

The tree is an all-encompassing symbol of creation, knowledge, life, inter-connectedness, wisdom... and most assuredly, one of sharing across cultures. In Africa, in particular, stories are exchanged around a baobab tree, whose trunk is often remarkably reminiscent of human shapes, intertwined and suggesting communication from the roots lying under the soil and the branches above. The tree represents a transformation of what lies unseen and unformed in the dark into concrete outputs represented by its leaves and flowers – ultimately food (e.g. fruit), shelter (e.g. umbrage) and natural energy (e.g. timber). Its seeds are scattered by the wind.

And so the Fair had its tree... born from the hands of Nancy White. A tree with bare branches in need of leaves... thoughts... inspiration. A tree in winter, which was able to make passers by stop, and fill it with leaves. A strange process was enacted: the more someone would clothe the tree, the more they would expose their own ideas, revealing their feelings and attitude towards sharing. Leaf after leaf.

During the three days of the Fair, everyone passing by the Tree would either stop to read what others had written or, wrote something on the spot, as inspired by the question appended to its foliage: What are your thoughts and ideas about knowledge sharing and the Fair?

Following the outline of the tree leaves, one could find that barriers no longer were there, as an entirely new geography had been designed. One where Asian wisdom (“Of all one’s riches, wisdom is the best gift” – in Hindi) lay close to European poetry (“Do you know the land, where lemon trees grow?”- in German). For sure, one would see that "knowledge is not power..... sharing is!" And so, let us cultivate ways to nurture this spirit of sharing. How? For instance, strengthening the contents of what we share (interview to Margaret Zito, FAO Library). Talking about what we can do (Patrizia Cocca, Global Environment Facility). Bringing back home new beginnings and projects, as arising form the contacts we’ve made at the Fair (Paul Quek, Bioversity International). Mindful that sharing challenges our beliefs, the silo we are confined in and the barriers we have grown fond of. Ultimately, sharing requires daring, for “only creative people can work for sharing” as Ryszard Kozlowski, Editor of the Journal of Natural Fibers, has stressed – in Polish and English.

The tree also benefited from the insights received from the Going Green Group based at FAO. Instead of keeping their initiatives and tips confined to their stall, members of GGG brought spring to the tree, adding a lot of thoughts on how to respect the environment – directly on the tree branches. Many thanks to GGG for sharing directly on the tree!

Further to all this, the tree did one other thing – silently, gently, the tree transformed the Atrium into a garden, into the garden of sharing. And what is a garden?

A garden is a room populated with trees and plants. For some, it is a room to be shared with friends or relatives, a room which can be visited and where time is spent. Many things occur in a garden - the changing of seasons, the aging of trees, the withering of leaves from green into yellow, the blossoming of buds on barren branches, shadow and light… anything happening resumes images from our life.

The experience of the garden is one of true sharing among living beings, between nature and man. So much so that zen practitioners can see gardens buzzing with activity and life even in barren surroundings. More correctly: as springing from barren rocks and sand. How can they do it? Is that why some are talking about the zen of knowledge sharing?

The tree is currently hosted in the FAO Library.

The Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development and Food Security : an unqualified success for FAO!

This is a summary of the Share Fair, written for FAO Senior management :-)
***
From January 20 to 22, FAO was the stage for an innovative event called the Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development and Food Security. This initiative was co-organized by Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP.

700 registered participants roamed the building, taking part in the numerous activities on offer. The 112 sessions covered various agricultural development and food security issues but focused on the knowledge sharing aspects of the initiatives. The sessions also used innovative and interactive means of presenting projects, focusing on experiences and lessons learned, as well as engaging other participants in discussions. Overwhelmingly, the sessions elicited a positive response from both presenters and participants. This alternative way of organizing an event struck a chord and is completely in line with the cultural change that is currently underway at FAO.

The Share Fair also proposed a variety of trainings on tools for sharing knowledge, such as blogs and wikis. The trainings were completely booked even before the Fair started, so the organizers acted quickly to add extra sessions to fill the need. There is definitely scope for organizing more of this type of training, due to the incredible enthusiasm and curiosity expressed by participants. Already, FAO has received requests for more trainings. In all, 400 people participated in the 20 tools sessions.

The Atrium turned into the nub of the Share Fair, was the place to meet people. The Bar set up for the occasion greatly contributed to creating a convivial atmosphere, conducive to starting dialogues. In the 12 booths, Fair participants found all types of informative materials but also, and perhaps most importantly, they found people eager to talk about their project experiences. Over 50 people took the "90 second challenge", explaining the value-added of knowledge sharing in a short digital video, which are available on the Share Fair website. The Tree of Knowledge stood majestic in the Atrium, each leaf representing ideas and thoughts on knowledge sharing, handwritten by the participants themselves.

A team of social reporters documented the event in a variety of tools, such as the Share Fair blog and Twitter. Through these means, thousands of people were following the Fair at a distance, in real time. Over 250 photos were put on a photo sharing website called Flickr.

Overall, the Share Fair garnered incredibly positive feedback. Participants felt they had a better understanding of knowledge sharing, concretely saw the benefits of interaction and dialogue, established new contacts and networked, shared experiences with others and learned a few new things, all the while having fun.

The Share Fair over but this is just the beginning for FAO!

Who made the Knowledge Share Fair possible?

Well, it looks like all our efforts and hard work of the last 10 months was worth every bit of it. The Share Fair seems to have been a positive and rewarding experience and has created a certain buzz. On Friday my colleagues came up to me saying: "The Share Fair was great, I learnt so many new things, met interesting people and caught up with old friends and colleagues".

We are running a survey to assess the impact of the Share Fair and to find out the overall perception of the participants so that next time we can do a better job.

Many colleagues, facilitators and volunteers worked hard and long hours to make the Share Fair a success. A big thank you to each and every one of them (see slides 7-9).

And then there is Gauri Salokhe alias "Share Fair Mother Teresa" who made it all possible. Without Gauri we would not have made it. She is an amazing lady. I learnt so much from her. I was amazed how she never lost her calm, how she always had a smile on her face, how she continuously reached out to everyone, how she was always tactful and understanding with everyone, how she did what she could to please everyone, how she never shied away from taking on new tasks, how she took charge, how she never said "no", how she was there for everyone, how she had an innovative solution for every challenge and how she never lost her wonderful sense of humour. For the last 10 months Gauri was our beacon. We all have a lot to learn from her. A very special and heartfelt thank you to GAURI SALOKHE.

At the end of the day, the Share Fair provided us not only an opportunity to learn and share rural development experiences but also to learn from colleagues such as Gauri and others how to effectively work and collaborate with others.

So, now that we all feel enriched, when shall we start planning the next Share Fair?!

Session Report: Role of KM in Rural Development Projects

Session on Role of KM in Rural Development Projects, 23 January, 2009, 10.45 to noon at facilitation room

Comments by Cristina Sette

Session had four presenters, Emerson Ndovisai Zhou (IFAD - PAMA), Danilo Saavedra (FUNICA), Adrian Marbaniang (NERCORMP), and Kevin Gallagher (FAO).

Emerson (IFAD) presented a work he is involved in Africa, with market chain and support to farmers. The KS activities his project is currently carrying out are:

• Disseminate what they were doing
• Bring stakeholders together
• Document lessons
• Record what goes inside the project
• Use consultants
• Workshop
• Printed documents (e.g. policy briefs)
  
• Reflection
• Disseminate what is working
• Media (radio, video/tv) to bring awareness; publish stories (newspaper) at national and IFAD level
• Training
• Local workshops
• Forums
• Reach farmers
• Platforms (national level) for discussions
  

Lesson: when to introduce the instruments of KM?

• There isn't a KM department or a focus person for KM
• Right KM tools
• Involve stakeholders (local stakeholders)
• Web as repository
• Project implementation team (consultants)
• One department taking the leadership
• KM is important to improve project; feeding into M&E cycle
  

Danilo from FUNICA in Nicaragua presented a project related to food security in Nicaragua. He emphisized that the project had the incentives they had for KM were the following:

• Resources/investments
• Technological assistance
• Improve the organization

The methodologies for KM were:

• Farmer field school
• Farmer to farmer (lead by National farmers organizations. They have their own methodologies)
  

Some of the lessons were:

• Involve other institutions to support the project
• Each institution look at KM to reduce poverty
• Work with farmers

Adrian from NERCORMP in India presented a project they call "Systematization" which is a participatory tool for evaluate projects, which builda pool of knowledge and documents lessons learned. Website: www.enrap.org.in
The project phases are:

• Preparatory
• Grounding
• Documentation (achieved through field visits, reporting, and post documentation)
  

The project activities are:

• Identify areas/topics
• Facilitators for each topic
• Team assigned to an area
• Team plan activities and present for feedback
• Field visits by the team where they interact with the community
• Reporting/documenting (it is a challenge)
• Look at all resources (other types of reports)
• Present
• Pos documentation
• Policy briefs

Some of the lessons were:

• Participatory tool. Community evaluate themselves
• Disseminate to other project areas
• Identify topic must be done carefully
• Sometimes we sounded too vague and we were not sure what to do
• Make people write is difficult
• Timing must be planed carefully
• Having a KM specialist is good
• Communication must be linked with M&E
• The topics are chosen at district level
• We asked ourselves if after the project if has been any changes
• Doing this exercise requires time and funds

Kevin from FAO presented his work with farmer field schools in Sierra Leone.
The project consisted of introducing different methods with the FFS approach, build confidence/groups, and transfer knowledge.
Kevin's expereince with KM were as following:

• Farmers own the knowledge
• Farmers build business schools (agricultural business center)
• Takes time to develop the processes and to build confidence
• Focus on integrated pest management
• FFS is a group of people who meet in the field
• Farmers facilitate the procecss
• Experts can present
• Self organized
• Cost
• Radio
• Up taking low in some countries (no promotion at international level, e.g. FAO and World Bank)
• Info available but documentation expensive