Rome, 15 May 2024 – IFAD should ascertain its role in elevating the operational knowledge it generates to a global level in order to inform the rural transformation debate. The forthcoming corporate-level evaluation (CLE) on knowledge management (KM) carried out by the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) recommends that the Fund take tangible steps in this direction, in response to the challenges that the report uncovered. These shortcomings and their respective remedial actions were addressed during a learning seminar on 15 May 2024.

“Knowledge will be key for IFAD to raise its relevance as a development player. Knowledge is vital matter to ensure organizations exist at the forefront of rural transformation. IFAD can play a major role in translating knowledge from operations and contributing to the global understanding of how rural transformation can happen”, affirmed Dr Indran A. Naidoo, Director of IOE.

The seminar discussed how the IFAD has leveraged its knowledge base to underpin rural transformation, in particular at country level, and reviewed to what extent its existing strategies, structures and functions have supported its ambition to contribute to transformative change in partner countries. The period 2016 to mid-2023, which the evaluation focused on, saw major strategic developments and organizational reforms. The extent of these changes, and their disjointed nature, made it challenging for IFAD to discharge a forceful organization-wide KM initiative in line with the ambitions of its 2019 KM strategy.

“KM is definitively central to IFAD and to IFAD13’s business model. Knowledge generation, dissemination and use allows IFAD to adaptively manage its operations portfolio as well as respond to implementation challenges and steer project performance. Secondly, the generation use of knowledge is also central to drive policy engagement and ensure long-term sustainability of IFAD’s interventions on the ground. Thirdly, KM is the basis for collecting, curating and applying lessons learned to enhance future development impact”, said Dr Donal Brown, Associate Vice President, Programme Management Department.

Organized by IOE, the on-line virtual seminar brought together members of IFAD’s Senior Management, including Dr Brown and Dr Jyotsna Puri, Associate Vice President, Strategy and Knowledge Department. Over 100 participants joined the event, from many IFAD departments across headquarters and field-based duty stations. The seminar included presentations, and afforded IFAD Management an opportunity to present their response and follow-up actions to the evaluation’s recommendations. The seminar also featured a live Q&A session, which drew inspiration from knowledge management practices that worked in regional divisions. These included knowledge packs in East and Southern Africa, knowledge clinics in Asia and the Pacific, sub-regional knowledge sharing in West and Central Africa, and integrating South-South and triangular cooperation and KM in Latin America. Zenda Ofir, IOE Senior Advisor, provided comments and further insights.            

Discussions highlighted that KM practices were often effective in their contribution to country programmes. Clear KM frameworks and strategies aligned with needs on the ground, and country strategic opportunities programme priorities enabled success. Moreover, evidence from the country case studies demonstrates that IFAD has the potential and knowledge to deliver highly transformative KM practices at country level, which can support rural transformation, and which in some cases has been delivered.

“The CLE case studies found positive cases where KM practices have shown results in countries. But overall, they require more support. IFAD’s internal structures and mechanisms have not been conducive to effective and efficient KM practices throughout the organisation.  The absence of evidence on KM effectiveness was a particular concern for this evaluation, and this was related to insufficient KM capacity and senior guidance ”, explained Dr Johanna Pennarz, IOE Lead Evaluation Officer, and lead author of the CLE report.

Unfortunately, there is no consistent body of experiences being leveraged in any country to build the foundational capacity for KM during design or implementation. Approaches are typically one-off or ad hoc, and they are to a large extent related to individual capacity and motivation. CLE findings presented during the seminar point to the fact that IFAD’s institutional set-up for KM is not adequate to position itself as a knowledge player on rural transformation within the global landscape. The formal KM architecture remains centralised and does not support the organization-wide nature of KM and the diversity of KM roles in IFAD.

“I really want to acknowledge the challenges in implementing the KM Strategy 2019 which, as the report says, in its overall framing and assumptions is very strong. However, it is very important to understand the extent to which we have the financial and staff resources for translating this strategy into practice. Within the CLE findings, I really want to acknowledge the fact that organizational reforms within IFAD have challenged the implementation of effective, organization-wide KM initiatives”, noted Dr Puri.

The 2019 KM strategy has been a state-of-the art document at the time it has been draft. During the following period, the organisational changes and ongoing decentralisation reforms have clearly limited its effectiveness as a corporate document. Limitations include unclear KM roles across organizational levels, lack of attention to indigenous knowledge, and assumptions on resourcing and incentives at decentralized levels that did not hold. The assumption that there would be sufficient human and financial resources for KM did not hold. High workloads, understaffed country offices, vacant positions and the knowledge drain resulting from reassignment and turnover of staff  undermine sustained KM initiatives. In the same vein, the evaluation noted the absence of systematic plans for capturing and transferring tacit knowledge before staff departure in many countries.

The KM architecture defined in the strategy was lagging behind the unfolding of IFAD’s decentralization process, which has seen the Fund making substantive progress in enhancing its field presence since 2019.

There is no consistent approach for budgeting on KM and the cost-effectiveness of KM practices and products is not monitored. IFAD’s knowledge products are biased towards research and are available only in few languages, limiting their utility for country stakeholders. Technical knowledge makes up the largest share of IFAD's knowledge products, while experiential and policy knowledge from country programmes remains minimal. The country case studies only found very few cases the systematic generation and sharing of knowledge has enabled effective policy engagement.

In the same context, while IFAD collaborates in some networks, it does not fully leverage platforms discussing contemporary KM concepts like local knowledge and decolonization. The Fund has also has not sufficiently addressed demands for knowledge from the Global South. .

To address these challenges, seminar participants discussed several of the recommendations that the CLE put forth to help IFAD build on the potential that it has to deliver highly transformative KM practices. Firstly, IFAD Management should initiate a decisive shift away from its overly centralized KM architecture and allocate sufficient human and financial resources across decentralized levels. Secondly, IFAD Management should monitor KM effectiveness and focus on KM practices and products that provide the best value for money at global and operational levels. Thirdly, IFAD’s next Strategic Framework should define how knowledge would enable IFAD to position itself as driver of rural transformation within a global context of uncertainty and crisis.  

The evaluation is expected to inform the ongoing deliberations on the Thirteenth Replenishment of IFAD’s Resources.

For further information, please contact Dr Alexander Voccia [here]

• To access the agenda of the learning event, please click here.
• To access IFAD’s Knowledge Management Strategy 2019-2025, please click here.

• To access the brochure ‘More than a journey | 20 years of independence, please click here.
• To access Fabrizio Felloni’s interview on the evolution of independence of IOE, 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.

ioe.ifad.org

Independent Magazine

Twitter

Youtube

Linkedin