Former IRC Programme Officer
Over the past days we discussed the conditions that have to be in place for a Resource Centre Network (RCN) to act as a vehicle for WASH sector learning. One of the conditions is to have a strong facilitator or coordinator in place . RCN facilitators in the ideal world have the right background,... Read more...
This week has brought a lot of reflecting and sharing about the ways that WASH Resource Centre Networks facilitate sector learning. Today, we spoke to Ton Schouten about the approach undertaken by the Triple-S project. Triple-S has developed a Service Delivery Approach for achieving sustainable... Read more...
How different or similar are the activities and outcomes of the Resource Centres Networks (RCNs) that IRC is collaborating with on strengthening sector learning? What the resource centres from Ghana, Nepal, Uganda and Burkina Faso have in common is that All resource centres are carrying out... Read more...
The term 'sector learning' has been coined and promoted by IRC as a key element in improving the ability of WASH sector actors to provide sustainable services to all. It is an elusive concept with multiple meanings and layers or perhaps no meaning at all (some say that s ector learning does not... Read more...
IRC has supported WASH Resource Centre Networks in 5 countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras, Uganda and Nepal) since 2003. In April 2011, we came together as a group to share our reflections about sector learning, theories of change and visions for the WASH sector. Read more...
I've been thinking about that we actually mean by development, and came across this really good presentation on Slideshare which, I think, sums up the main issues and approaches commonly used to define development. Read more...
Knowledge management (KM) originates from the business sector (see Sveiby link below). The quest for more efficiency and effectiveness use of resources and the recognition that all knowledge - being the fourth production factor besides land, money and labour - resides in peoples' heads, lead to... Read more...
Change at sector level, requires change by constellations of individuals and institutions. Learning alliances are an approach to change that brings together representatives from government, civil society, research institutions and the private sector to do joint research, find solutions and take... Read more...
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector is facing serious challenges: 2 billion people are without sanitation and 800 million lack water services. And when services are provided, most are unreliable, of poor quality and prone to failure. In South Asia alone, 570,000 children die every year... Read more...
Recently for a number of professional and personal reasons I decided to revisit an old intellectual ‘love’: Appreciative Inquiry ( AI) In the past I experimented with this method in developing a somewhat static knowledge center into a proactive learning and facilitation center, and I remember well... Read more...
Documenting change is a vitally important activity for learning from and improving upon the work carried out in development initiatives. Read more...
Significant investments in water and sanitation continue to be made, but it is not clear that these investments have made significant improvements in water and sanitation service levels. Maps are a highly useful tool for visualising data to reveal patterns, trigger action and enable better decision... Read more...
Approximately one in three rural water supply systems in developing countries does not function at all or is performing well below its expected level. Failure on this scale represents hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted investment and millions of people who have had to return to fetching... Read more...
The dissemination of knowledge in a way that is useful and convincing is just as important as producing this knowledge. Read more...
We all know the value of face-to-face discussions to inspire and engage. but how do you effectively involve people who cannot be there, and how do you capture a multitude of sessions, viewpoints and impressions? Read more...
Ewen Le Borgne shares his reflections from the 2011 Share Fair, and three very interesting and complementary sessions on a) the IFAD experience of putting KM and learning into practice (#218) b) using social media for development (#206) and c) IKM-Emergent's idea of a knowledge ecology (#173). Read more...
Documenting change is a vitally important activity for learning from and improving the work carried out in development initiatives. Read more...
How to measure the impacts of knowledge sharing? Are the platforms and processes we use for learning and knowledge sharing leading to change? To better ways of working? How can we demonstrate the Return on Investment of Knowledge Management? Read more...
Next week Monday the second global ShareFair is kicking off in the IFAD buildings in Rome. Read more...
Changes to the WASH sector in Burkina Faso Read more...