Published on Sustainable Cities

South-South and practitioner-practitioner knowledge exchange: An effective way to share, replicate, and scale up solutions to development challenges

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There is a growing demand from World Bank clients and partners to learn about development solutions from fellow practitioners, particularly those who have faced challenges similar to the ones they are confronting in their own countries.

Whether they take the form of:
  • two-country exchanges through Study Tours or Expert Visits,
  • or multi-country exchanges in the form of Technical Deep Dives,
  • Conferences,
  • or Workshops,
South-South and practitioner-practitioner knowledge exchanges are proving to be a highly effective approach to sharing, replicating, adapting and scaling up successful development solutions and for avoiding repetition of failed approaches.  Practitioner exchanges are particularly effective for sharing “how-to” or tacit knowledge about solutions, as such tips and tricks tend not be fully recorded in written descriptions or case studies.

In addition to growing recognition of the power of knowledge exchange, there is also growing evidence of the importance of good design and of attention to results.

The Art of Knowledge Exchange Guidebook

With this in mind, the World Bank compiled “tips and tricks” drawn from research on knowledge management practice and from the experience of several hundred South-South knowledge exchanges financed by the multi-donor South-South Facility Trust Fund. The resulting guidebook, The Art of Knowledge Exchange, offers a practical, step-by-step framework for design, implementation and monitoring of results-focused knowledge exchange.

With support from the Government of Japan through the Tokyo Development Learning Center, the World Bank’s Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global Practice has recently published a customized version of the guide for practitioners in the urban, social, land, and resilience sectors.
While the guide contains information that is of value to all those involved in knowledge exchange at local, national, regional, and global levels, it is particularly geared to those who are engaged in brokering of knowledge exchange between seekers and providers of knowledge and expertise on development challenges and solutions in the areas of urban and social development, land administration, and resilience.

It includes case studies and examples of successful knowledge exchange initiatives drawn from the experience of World Bank staff, partners such as the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Network and other development practitioners who have successfully integrated knowledge exchange as a part of a larger change process.

In this video, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director of the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice discusses the new guide with Phil Karp and Hywon Cha Kim from the Practice’s Knowledge Management and Learning team. [[avp asset="/content/dam/videos/ecrgp/2018/jun-19/art_of_knowledge_exchange_hd.flv"]]/content/dam/videos/ecrgp/2018/jun-19/art_of_knowledge_exchange_hd.flv[[/avp]]

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Authors

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez

Former Regional Director, Africa, Sustainable Development Practice Group

Philip E. Karp

Lead Knowledge Management Officer, Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience Global Practice

Hywon Cha Kim

Senior Knowledge Management Specialist

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