What is cooking for the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair #sfrome: 26-29 September 2011 at #IFAD HQ

When I interviewed Willem Bettink - one of the co-organizers of the Second Global AgriKnowledge Share Fair just before he left for his well deserved summer holidays, I could not imagine that we would all have an intense working holiday.

As it turns out, those of us on the road and those in the office, have been glued to our computers, Blackberries and emails. And we've done so with gusto and pleasure!

So, you are wondering what the share fair steering committee is up to? Well, apart from being glued to our electronic devices, the organizing committee composed of colleagues from Bioversity, CGIAR, CTA, FAO, IFAD,and WFP, is finalizing the share fair programme which promises to be an exciting four day event, taking place from 26-29 September 2011 at IFAD headquarters.


We love suspense, so you need to wait a bit more to get the full-fledged programme, but in the meantime just to whet your appetite here are some of the highlights of this unique event:

• a number of prominent personalities will share their inspiring experiences and insights


• colleagues from all over the world in over 150 sessions, will share their knowledge and wisdom on a variety of rural development and agriculture related topics such as: food security, climate change, environmental friendly innovations, emerging trends in use of ICTs, new technologies and innovative agricultural and farming practices, market access, water, livestock, knowledge sharing, networks and communities of practice


• participants can benefit from numerous training sessions on knowledge sharing methods, social media tools, emerging trends and lessons learnt


• stunning art for AIDS exhibit


• lots and lots of social reporting - you will see knowledge sharing methods and social media tools put to practice.... We WALK the TALK!!

We'll be webcasting the plenary sessions and a team of social reporters will bring you live this four day event. We'll be using a number of social media channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and more. Make sure you follow #sfrome.

And we hope to see you all in Rome. If you do not want to miss this event, please make sure you register. For now goodbye and good night. A presto as they say in Italian!

Session on Working Across Geographically Distributed Environments

Session on Working Across Geographically Distributed Environments, 20 January 13.45 - 15.00 in Flag Room

Comments by Cristina Sette

Jamie Watts and Cristina Sette presented an activity that the Institutional Learning Change Initiative has implemented, called Laboratory for Learning: new approaches for facilitating innovation for poverty reduction. The laboratory was formed by a group of professionals (manly from the CGIAR) who knew each other and have been working with collaborative research. The group members are located in several parts of the world and is composed of 7 cases and those cases are linked with numerous other networks. Each case/project has their own funds and research agenda or workplan. The knowledge activities happening within the group, promoted by ILAC, are as following:

• Face-to-face meetings
• Participatory impact pathway analysis (PIPA) to bring diverse partners together under a common planning framework
• Interactive website (with blogs, project pages, intranet, etc)
• Selected and targeted online resource center
• Training workshops
• Publications
• Learning oriented participatory monitoring and evaluation
• Small grants to each project
• Email discussions (DGroup)

The Learning Laboratory activity started with a face-to-face meeting, where trust was built. However the group has been interacting virtually, the face-to-face interaction is important and is planned for once a year, together with other opportunities for interactions during visits and training workshops.
The website was developed based on an assessment made during the first planning meeting. Cristina assessed the participants (and future users of the website) what information would be relevant for them to have available at the website, additionally their familiarity with technology and connectivity. Based on that, the more appropriate technology was chosen, web development companies contacted and the website was developed. The majority of the content for the resource center within the website came from the Learning Laboratory members themselves. The next step is to plan guiding sessions with each member of the Learning Laboratory (about 20 people) and take them through a virtual tour to the website. This activity is planned for the month of February 2009.
As part of the knowledge sharing and learning activities, ILAC plans an annual reflection exercise, where participants will be asked by a facilitator several questions to stimulate the discussion and capture the lessons learned during the first year of the initiative. The survey will be applied within the next few days.
More information about ILAC and the Learning Laboratory can be found at the ILAC website www.cgiar-ilac.org

The session was attended by the following people:

• Adrian Marbaniang, NERCRMP, buggieblues (at) yahoo.com
• Cristina Sette, Bioversity, c.sette (at) cgiar.org
• Elizabeth Goldberg, Bioversity, e.goldberg (at) cgiar.org
• Jean Louis Blanchez, FAO, jeanlouis.blanchez(at)fao.org
• Jorge Chavez-Tafur, ILEIA, j.chavez-tafur (at) ileia.nl
• Helene Fournols, FAO, helene.fournols (at) fao.org
• Helen Schneider, IDS, h.schneider (at) ids.ac.uk
• Jamie Watts, Bioversity, j.watts (at) cgiar.org
• Lottie Erikson, FAO, lottie.erikson (at) fao.org
• Oonagh Darby, Bioversity, o.darby (at) cgiar.org
• Patricia Weaver, IDLO, pweaver (at) idlo.int
• Simon Chapter, GreenInk, s.chater (at) greenink.co.uk

Steps towards improving our impact!

The ShareFair scheduled for January 2009 will be another step in our path towards finding innovative ways to do our jobs more efficiently and effectively.

The most asked question when we try to introduce Knowledge Sharing approaches is: "If this does not help me do my job, don't talk to me about it!". Fair enough! We are all busy, some very very busy. We have no time for "nice to have's", we only want to learn about things, those "need to have's" that are going to make us work smarter and have more impact.

Well, Knowledge Sharing is about learning to do things more smartly...and have fun doing it! There is always a better way of doing things, you can always find someone who is facing an issue like yours, who has been through the same situation and has learned a good way to deal with it....as the old saying goes...it is not what you know...it is who you know! A single tree does not make a forest!

So, we create opportunties to learn from others, to build parthernships, not to waste energy, time and money trying to reinvent the wheel (and getting frustrated while doing it!).

We have been doing a number of things already: from designing, developing and delivering a very succesful Knowledge Sharing workshop, and giving an opportunity to our staff to learn and experiment to carrying out a second workshop with a partner: FAO KS Workshop, to planning to deliver more next year.

We have been working collaboratively develop a Knowledge Sharing toolkit to empower those who want to find ways of doing things differently.

We have been extending the application of innovative knowledge sharing approaches to improve the impact of our research along the whole cycle.

So, it is not a once off experiment. It is a set of strategic interventions.

The Knowledge Fair in January is a new step towards building the momentum in the CGIAR to use knowledge sharing approaches to do things smart!