Establishing Effective Knowledge Exchange Structures for Africa’s Development Stakeholders

Establishing Effective Knowledge Exchange Structures for Africa’s Development

Stakeholders

Steffen JanusMarch 27, 2011

APDev aims to be:

● A multi-stakeholder forum

● An African-country-led mechanism with an active role for RECs

● An integrated community of practice

● A knowledge base & mutual learning hub

● A network for knowledge, policy & practice links

APDev consists of two basic inter-related building blocks:

EXPERTISE

Knowledge Repository(online database)

Community of Practitioners working for Africa’s

Development

Reports, Statistics, Case studies, guides,

check lists, etc.

Knowledge sharing and collaboration, in

both virtual and physical spaces.

Collaboration and Experience Sharing between Africa’s Institutions

● Not a new thing. Has been around for many years

● But often ad-hoc, bilaterally or focused on specific sectors

Need for more systemic and regular knowledge exchanges amongst Africa’s development stakeholders

Knowledge Exchange: Mutual learning from Practice on what works and what does not.

● Institutional capacity needs assessment needed

● Both cross-sectoral and sectoral expertise required

Knowledge SupplyDemand for Knowledge

Knowledge Exchange: Mutual learning from Practice on what works and what does not.

● African stakeholders have a lot of experience to share

● Much of this experience and expertise is directly relevant to other stakeholders on the continent

Knowledge SupplyDemand for Knowledge

The APDev Knowledge Exchange Initiative

● Systematic Knowledge Exchanges between Practitioners and Policy makers

● Focus both on institutional capacity constraints and thematic issues

● Both virtual and face-to-face dialogues, many facilitated by video conferencing technology

Who are the stakeholders?

● Very inclusive process: All APDev stakeholders can participate

● Initial focus on RECs as key drivers of regional integration on the continent

SADCGaborone, Botswana

COMESALusaka, Zambia

EACArusha, Tanzania

IGADDjibouti

ECCASLibreville, Gabon

ECOWASAbuja, Nigeria

CEN-SADTripoli, Libya

UAMRabat, Morocco

NEPADMidrand, SA

ACBFHarare, Zimbabwe

AUC and UNECAAddis Ababa

AfDBTunis, Tunisia

Map of future virtual regional sites for Knowledge Exchanges via video conferencing

Linking in national-level stakeholders

● Involvement of national governments, civil society, private sector and academia

● Use of Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) to facilitate knowledge exchanges through distance learning technology

APDev Online Community Platform / Knowledge Repository

F2F VC

APDev Dialogues

Monthly Dialogues addressing institutional capacity constraints

Regular thematic knowledge sharing dialogues

• Regular dialogues addressing institutional capacity constraints

• Thematic KE dialogues

Two parallel Knowledge Exchange Tracks

Immediate next steps

● First video-conference based knowledge exchange pilot addressing knowledge management as a key institutional capacity constraint reported by RECs (end April)

● Consultation on pilot thematic knowledge exchange track on Trade Facilitation (May 5-6)

● Subsequent knowledge exchanges (1-2/month)

Linking back to APDev’s objectives

● A multi-stakeholder forum

● An African-country-led mechanism with an active role for RECs

● An integrated community of practice

● A knowledge base & mutual learning hub

● A network for knowledge, policy & practice links

APDev Knowledge Exchanges are BY you and FOR you

● Invitation to contribute additional thematic tracks

● Invitation to sponsor knowledge exchanges● Invitation to participate in all APDev

knowledge exchange activities, both actively and passively

Thank you!