Rome, 24 February 2025 – IFAD’s institutional set-up for knowledge management (KM) should further improve in order for the Fund to position itself as knowledge player on rural transformation within the larger landscape. Although there is evidence of positive cases where KM practices in countries have shown results, overall, they require more support. These findings emerged from the corporate level evaluation (CLE) on IFAD’s KM practices, which Dr Nick Bourguignon, Evaluation Officer a.i. in the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE), presented during a session of the UN inter-agency working group on KM, on 24 February 2025.

Over 130 participants and KM practitioners from across different UN agencies attended event online. Arno Boersma, Advisor in IFAD’s Impact Assessment KM unit, opened he discussion by presenting IFAD’s work and perspective on KM, IFAD’s KM strategy, and the ongoing work on IFAD has embarked on since the CLE was published.

Speaking on behalf of Mikal Khan, Evaluation Officer at IOE, Dr Bourguignon generated a considerable amount of interest on various elements of the CLE. These included aspects of the theory of change, whether it was feasible to measure the impact of KM in IFAD, what were the difficulties of measuring the effectiveness of KM, and how the evaluation overcame cultural challenges. The evaluation was commended for finding ways of incorporating local and indigenous knowledges within its framework and across the organization.

Dr Bourguignon also recalled some of the main recommendations of the CLE, including the need for a decisive shift away from IFAD’s overly centralized KM architecture, with a view to allocating sufficient human and financial resources across decentralised levels, as well as the importance of monitoring KM effectiveness and focusing on cost-effective KM practices and products at global and operational levels.

The UN inter-agency working group on KM facilitates a coordinated inter-agency “One UN” approach to support the delivery of KM strategies and related work plans across UN agencies, programmes and funds.

For further information, please contact Dr Alexander Voccia, Senior Evaluation Communication & KM Specialist [here].

• To access the corporate-level evaluation of knowledge management practices in IFAD, please click here.
• To access Dr Bourguignon’s presentation, please click here.

• To access the brochure ‘More than a journey | 20 years of independence, please click here.
• To access the latest edition of Independent Magazine, please click here.
• To learn why independent evaluation makes IFAD a more credible institution, please click here.

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