Traditional knowledge- to what extent has it been tapped into?

I think have had interests in agriculture for the better part of my life, only that I did not consider it seriously for a long time. I grew up in the outskirts of Nairobi where my parents engaged in part-time farming besides their formal jobs, to supplement the family income. I therefore found myself having to participate in the shamba in one way or another but to say the least, I never enjoyed it. In addition, during our times (unlike in the current Kenyan curriculum for primary education), agriculture was offered as a subject in school from primary level where it was compulsory all the way to secondary school. Upon joining secondary school, I could not wait to get to form two so that I could ‘drop’ the subject and opt for another alternative. I thought I had gotten rid of agriculture in my life forever as I didn’t even consider it as an option when selecting a degree course to undertake during the university selections and I ended up being admitted to take a bachelors degree in biological sciences.

Fast forward to post university and I am looking for a job, I end up being offered a job with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and I am posted to Kisumu. Even though at that time this would not have been my first choice of sector to work in and much less in the rural parts as opposed to working in the capital city, it was a blessing in disguise and exposed me to the opportunity to fall in love with agriculture! Yes, working as a research officer with KARI gave me the opportunity to work closely with farmers especially small-scale farmers and I developed an interest in their activities and over the years cultivated my passion in agriculture, communication, knowledge for development and how to ensure these aspects are catered for along the agricultural value chains. It was during this period that I discovered the gap between the research results/knowledge generated from research and the intended user. While we would develop numerous technologies for farmers, these same farmers had no information whatsoever about those technologies. At one time we conducted a study on adoption levels of a maize variety that was tolerant to Striga, a weed which was really a thorn in the flesh for many famers; although the variety had been in existence for at least two years, not even the farmers within the immediate surroundings of the research centre knew there was a solution to the striga menace. This triggered my interest in agricultural information and communication and prompted me to take a masters degree in Agricultural Information and Communication Management (AICM).

Back to my subject for today, I guess you can never run away from your destiny -I have found myself going back to part-time agriculture just like my parents and among other things, I keep indigenous poultry with which I have been facing some challenges mostly with diseases and stock increase and have tried a number of interventions to solve the problems. Being the professional that I am with all the exposure to information, I thought I had or could access all the relevant knowledge needed to solve my problems as a farmer. However, it was not working as well as I thought and at some point, I lost all my stock to disease outbreak and I had to start afresh! Well this time, I paid attention to every detail and I am not doing so badlyJ.

I recently wanted to increase my stock of poultry and I identified a trusted source to get chicks from- an old man in one of the estates in Nairobi who also keeps poultry in big numbers, despite the fact that he only lives in a city estate with ‘no’ land to carry out his farming. When I was ready to collect my chicks, the old man decided to engage me in how I take care of my chicks. I was amazed at the wealth of knowledge possessed by the old man. He took me through a whole lesson of poultry rearing from feeding, to egg handling, to medication, housing and the entire package! On top of the fact that all the information I got from the old man was new to me, he has never been to any agriculture class and neither has he ever taken any poultry rearing course! All this was Traditional knowledge, a concept which is has been debated quite a lot in the past. As I left the old man’s place, I could not help but think of how much knowledge he’s endowed with that could go a long way in solving other farmers’ problems.

My encounter with the old man triggered some questions in my mind. Albeit not new issues, I ask myself, what steps have we taken to tap into the existing stock of traditional knowledge to drive our innovation processes? I believe there are many more people out there like the old man who sold me the chicks. There’s a saying that when an old person dies, an entire library burns. Even with the increased interest in knowledge for development and the need to cultivate a knowledge sharing culture within and among organisations, the interest and advocacy for open publishing and open access to research results, how much attention is being paid to traditional knowledge?

How can we implement or apply the same concept of open access to traditional knowledge, even with the debate on intellectual property and traditional knowledge? Even though the issue of traditional knowledge is not new, I think it has been neglected and I believe there are steps we can take to tap into the existing stock of stock of knowledge embodied in elderly indigenous people and apply these for improved productivity with respect to any sector, agriculture not an exception.

Traditional knowledge is valuable- re-affirm to the elderly/indigenous people that the traditional knowledge they possess is valuable and they should use it more often. some may doubt the authenticity of their knowledge, stemming from lack of confidence due to neglect over the years. Traditional knowledge could hold many answers to the challenges facing farmers today, if taken up and improved! Various scholars have acknowledged the importance of traditional knowledge: Gleb Raygorodetsky in his article on Why Traditional Knowledge Holds the Key to Climate Change, argues that community-based and collectively-held knowledge offers valuable insights, complementing scientific data. He further argues that indigenous knowledge provides a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation and mitigation actions towards climate change!

Give out the knowledge and get the power! – The age old saying that ‘knowledge is power’ should be rephrased to ‘knowledge sharing is power’. Encourage the elderly people to share and demonstrate that knowledge is only of value if it is shared and used. Ewen Le Borgne in his blog shares a very insightful piece on “Open knowledge, working out loud, sharing ideas and our mind at large” where he emphasises that the earlier we share our ideas, the earlier others can use them and reflect on them, and the more likely we are better off with enriched ideas. I believe that this same argument holds for indigenous knowledge embodied in the minds of many indigenous people in our societies.

It has been said that people learn best from people like them whom they trust. In this view, encourage the young who co-exist with the elderly in the same environments and settings, to make use of the available knowledge in the elderly and interact with them to learn from them on best practices

Collaboration and partnerships- Create conducive conditions and platform for them to pass on share their knowledge- involve them in projects, programs and various activities to allow them the space to share their knowledge which more often is in tacit form.

All knowledge is valuable if given some consideration and put into context. Let’s give traditional knowledge a chance, and by so doing we will not be preaching water but drinking the proverbial wine as far as knowledge brokerage and translation is concerned!

Collaboration and partnerships among stakeholders in development: what could be the magic ingredient for sustainability?

Responsibility needs to be accompanied with authority for partnerships to work in fostering innovation process. Innovation, collaboration, partnerships and interactive learning have become the new buzz words in the recent past that dominate meetings, workshops, plans, and proposals and suffice to say, virtually every aspect of development discourse. It can be argued that innovation and the need to innovate is the driving force behind any initiative taken towards promoting development and improved livelihoods. For innovation in rural development to be successful, there needs to be integration of perspectives, knowledge and actions of different stakeholders around a common theme. To effectively manage and implement this interactive learning and promote innovation among the diverse actors in rural development requires skills and capacity to organize and facilitate a multi-stakeholder engagement among the different actors.

 

In the month of November last year (2012), I had an amazing opportunity to participate in a professional course on Design and Management of Interactive Learning for Rural Innovation, offered by the International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA), in Wageningen – the NETHERLANDS. The course targeted at mid-career agricultural professionals from research, extension, or farmer organisations and the private sector exposed me to new approaches and tools for designing and managing stakeholder participation.

 

I should have written this blog more than three months ago, but only until recently did I experience a situation that begged me to employ my memory to retrieve some of the points I took home from the course. During the training we covered a wide range of topics including issues on facilitation and competencies needed for facilitating innovation processes, partnerships and creating dynamic stakeholder networks, facilitating learning in multi-stakeholder organisations among many more; get more information about the course here.

I have observed that in the recent past, there has been emphasis on collaboration and the call to carry out joint multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research. Most donor agencies and foundations have made collaborative research an imperative for projects to get funded. In Kenya, the National commission for Science Technology and Innovation has equally adopted the ‘collaborative research’ concept, and it funds projects based on multi-institutional approach. In the wake of this new trend it can be argued that now more than ever, researchers and other stakeholders in the value chain need to be familiar with issues pertaining to networks and partnerships. When two or more actors come together for a common goal, therein becomes a collaboration of partners.

One key take home message I took from the module on partnerships and networking was “the need to accompany responsibility with authority” in partnerships, to achieve progress. Most of the time, there are situations in which a partner or stakeholder is given the responsibility of accomplishing a certain task, but not the authority to make decisions concerning that same task. Can a partner fully execute a task/responsibility without authority over that same task and other aspects related to it?

The course offered by ICRA aims at enhancing participants’ competencies to facilitate, trigger and coach collective learning in rural innovation. It is offered annually and the call for applications is still open. I recommend it for all actors in rural innovation and multi-stakeholder processes!

 

 

 

The 5 Wives and 1 Husband of integrating value chains concept and Knowledge Management: Championing an ICKM agenda in the VC approach

The 5 Wives and 1 Husband of integrating value chains concept and Knowledge Management: Championing an ICKM agenda in the VC approach

How can the value chain framework/ concept and ICKM be integrated?

I did my masters degree in Agricultural Information and communication Management (AICM) and my research study focused on assessing the status of Communication and knowledge management within the smallholder set-up, with respect to dissemination and access to knowledge, and the extent to which ICT-based applications have been adopted by smallholder farmers. My study focused on two actors along the horticultural value chain in Kenya: the farmers and the extension agents. As usual, my study and the findings stirred a debate during my viva, and while I was happily engaging the examiners in the discussion and sharing my findings, I realized that the two concepts are sometimes viewed as distinct rather than complementary. Communication and knowledge management (sharing) are two dear concepts to me, and over the past few years, I have developed great interest in this area. During the discussion, I tried explaining that the two concepts of VC and ICKM are actually complementing each other and should go in tandem. This discussion inspired me to write a blog about the existing ‘marriage’ between the two concepts, and the need to strengthen the ‘marriage’ or encourage it in case it is missing.

A value chain

According to Kaplisnky and Morris (2002), “value chain” describes the full range of value-adding activities required to bring a product or service through the different phases of production, including procurement of raw materials and other inputs, assembly, physical transformation, acquisition of required services such as transport or cooling, and ultimately response to consumer demand.

The value chains (VC) concept has increasingly gained popularity in the recent years.  The concept has always existed in one way or another, considering the fact there are a number of different actors involved in every stage of agricultural production including the farmers, input suppliers, traders, processors, researchers, extension agents, and consumers.  Heidi Fritschel reports that the concept of a value chain arose in the 1980s as people started to pay more attention to the value added at each stage of the supply chain. The concept has attracted increasing attention as a way of thinking about, and implementing, agricultural development. – See more at: http://insights.ifpri.info/2012/03/in-search-of-a-chain-reaction/#sthash.P3i7BqU6.dpuf . Webber C (2009) in his guide to the VC concept and application, acknowledges the importance of value chains approach in building the competitiveness of Africa’s Agriculture, and argues that value chains are a key framework for understanding how inputs and services are brought together and then used to grow, transform, or manufacture a product; how the product then moves physically from the producer to the customer; and how value increases along the way.

 

Information communication and Knowledge Management

Information Communication and Knowledge Management (ICKM) on the other hand, is a broad term that covers the social and technical processes that supports communication within and among stakeholders and it enables them to exploit the value of information and knowledge available. It is a concept that deals with different ways of exchanging knowledge among those who can develop it and those who can use it. I think for us to achieve more with the concept of VC and attain improved productivity in agriculture, there is need to champion and implement a strategy of facilitating knowledge exchange and improved communication among the different nodes and links that make up the chain. Effective communication and knowledge exchange is a key way of ensuring that the chain remains complete and functional and prevents the risk of disconnect between these links and nodes. I believe that the VC approach is only applicable and tenable if all the actors along the chain are functioning and if they are interconnected.

Think of a chain (literally)

If a part of it is detached from the rest, it is no longer a chain and hence will not fully achieve objective it was meant for. Why? There is a missing link. Availability of information, communication of that information and its application, as well as sharing of that knowledge forms the basis of the   functioning of this chain. In this paper I am putting forward an argument that the VC approach cannot stand alone without providing a framework for exploiting the knowledge available and needed to achieve maximum productivity. A ‘perfect’ value chain is one in which the nodes, the linkages, the product and processes involved have been improved to increase impact and transform livelihoods.

So let’s examine the why, what, which, where, when and How the two concepts can be integrated:

WHY

The concept is increasingly being associated with linking or improving market access for producers since it focuses on creating and increasing value on a product, responding to local, national and international consumer demand. To achieve added value at each stage, both the social and technical processes that eventually lead to added value at each stage need to be supported by providing the right knowledge at the right time for the right players and through the right format and language.

Value addition in itself is knowledge-based and over the recent years, there has been a transition and emphasis on knowledge-based economies, with knowledge increasingly being viewed as a factor of production besides land, capital and labor. The role of knowledge in innovation and upgrading is critical, and how this knowledge is communicated and managed within the chain matters.

WHAT

The main feature of the VC approach includes the co-ordination of all links in the chain. These links represents the various actors involved at each of the stages a product goes through. What does co-ordination entail?

Communication, communication, communication!

Communication in this context will have to include the feedback aspect to ensure that the system is working.

WHICH

Each of the actors has different information needs. They access information in different ways, have different perceptions, require certain information at different times and different factors influence the communication channels used.

WHERE

During all stages that the product passes or moves through as it is produced or improved, there is need to emphasize and adopt an approach of bringing in the relevant stakeholders at different levels during all phases of production, processing and marketing to facilitate Knowledge sharing

WHEN

Communication and access to knowledge are key, but can only achieve the intended purpose if done at the right time as and when needed for the right purpose. Networking and power of networking lies on building more and stronger linkages: Thus, there is need to constantly create a learning opportunity for actors (teams of people) working along the value chain. This facilitates interaction and the nodes (actors) grow stronger and with increased capacity and capabilities to benefit from the VC approach.

HOW

This implies that there is need to engage with each group of actors in a meaningful communication process, so as to maximize the uptake and impact of value chains approach. Communication needs to be seen and approached as a systemic issue, i.e. linked to the economic and political processes addressed in the VC approach.

There goes the five wives and one husband of championing an ICKM agenda in the VC concept!

Claiming the art of influencing policy change: whose knowledge is it anyway?

Claiming the art of influencing policy change: whose knowledge is it anyway?

Last week we held training on the art of influencing policy change: tools and strategies for researchers. The objective of this training was to bring together researchers and other experts in the field of research and policy making to discuss on how to make better use of research evidence and derive much more impact, as opposed to simply ending up at publication. How can research evidence be used to influence policy?

The Deputy Secretary for National Commission for Science Technology and Innovation (NCSTI) Kenya graced the event and brought to our attention an important piece of information…. the STI bill 2012 was passed. The STI bill 2012 is for an act (STI act 2013) of parliament to facilitate the promotion, coordination and regulation of the progress of STI innovation in the country and entrench STI into the national production system. With it, brought the establishment of the commission which has succeeded The National council for Science and Technology. It’s bigger, better in terms of mandate and capabilities. It is now an autonomous body!

The commission too expects researchers to demonstrate more impact from their research outputs. This it will support by driving the national research agenda to impact and change the agricultural research system in Kenya.

 

This message couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. The event was about using research evidence to influence policy change, and here we are getting information about a new STI act 2013 which seems to capture it all; a national research agenda, a national research fund which be allocated 2% of the GDP, an innovation agency to identify, nurture and support innovations, research committees and a science commission with ‘teeth to bite’.

However, I cannot help but think to myself, how much can this act achieve? We had discussions on various topics and issues surrounding use of research evidence to influence policy change. As usual, the issue of communication kept on coming up and it was emphasized the need to contextualize our communication- Different target audiences, different communication tools.

 

At this point, the issue of researchers holding on to information comes up. Researchers are more concerned about publishing- for good reasons maybe; promotions, recognition and all that comes with it. They cannot release it to the public domain until it is published, lest someone ‘steals’ it. I ask, isn’t the main goal for the research to release information out there for USE. Whatever use. Whose knowledge are researchers are holding onto? During the training, Prof. Ruth Oniang’o made a statement which I openly want to identify with “Nobody can claim monopoly to any knowledge. The only difference is who uses it, how, where and for what purpose.”

I have just read a blog about the limits of evidence in African Agriculture by Researchers at the STEPS Centre Livestock project. In this article (available here: http://www.future-agricultures.org/blog/entry/-the-limits-of-evidence-in-african-agriculture#.USPDOx0a68A ), the authors ask if African policy makers have access to good evidence. They argue that perhaps this could be true and thus a limitation in using research results to influence policy change. I am compelled to agree with them on this point. Why? Researchers are not yet ready to be ready to release research evidence as and when needed. It came out in the training that it is important to raise the policy issues at the right time- strike while the iron is hot! If the GMO debate and the bio safety issues are trending and carrying the agenda, release whatever evidence available regarding that topic then. It will be timely.

 

Are we (researchers) ready to face the reality? Do we agree that it is not after all our knowledge? Every time we seek to carry out a research on whatever issue, emphasis is always placed on problem statement. In this section, we always define the research problem with respect to how it affects certain processes, certain actors, or certain policies. We also describe the steps to take in addressing this problem and it more often than not includes synthesizing available information through literature reviews and analysis. What this means in essence is that the knowledge derived out the research is not ours per se with the argument it concerns other actors and processes in one way or another.

As such, while we are focusing on claiming the art of influencing policy change, let us not forget to remember that it is not just about using evidence, but also using evidence as it emerges to ensure relevance of the policies. That after all, it is not our knowledge, it belongs to the people, ALL PEOPLE.

Personal professional blogging - what I've learned

Reblogged from KM on a dollar a day:

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Last week I was invited to share my experience with personal/professional bogging to a group of knowledge management focal points in UNDP who had expressed an interest in learning more, and I hope putting it into practice.

I’ve only been blogging publicly since 2010, but have been blogging inside the  “inside the firewall” since 2006. I’m far from being an expert – but I probably do have more experience in blogging than most other UN staff and so I’m sharing here some of the tips and issues that I presented last week.

Read more… 1,774 more words

Why every scientist needs an online profile

Why every scientist needs an online profile.

More than a lag phase with the use of social media

MORE THAN A LAG PHASE WITH USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

I have watched over the last few years (very few) as the beauty and power of social media unfold. Web 2.0 as they are also known, Face book, twitter, LinkedIn and many others are now very powerful tools with the ability to ‘move mountains, literally.  They say that mountains can never meet, but through face book, these mountains have been moved and friends have been re-connected after many years without them moving an inch form their physical locations. These tools have such a huge impact in terms of communication and outreach and organisations are now fast embracing the use of online social media as an avenue for networking, outreach, feedback and the list is endless. This is a phenomenon which has now become a must for any business or organisation seeking to make an impact to its stakeholders and targeted audience.

 

Twitter handle

I cannot boast that I am an expert in this field and subject, but with the little that I know, I have made an observation and I ask, is it enough to just acknowledge that use of social media is now an imperative and they way to go? I think social media can only do so much. How much have these organisations invested in building the capacity of their employees to use social media? To what extent are they willing to go familiarize their staff with the knowledge needed to fully realize the benefits of web 2.0 tools? I recently had an encounter that made my jaws dropped, where an employee of a certain organisation was at pains figuring out what a ‘handle’ is. When I asked her what their official twitter handle is, her response was: “what’s that?” I almost laughed but then thought, ‘what?’ UNBELIEVABLE! In this day and age? You see in my mind, the ‘gospel’ about social media is now wide spread and nobody has the right to ‘claim’ that they are not aware. And there goes the problem…… we have assumed that enough has been said about social media, everybody knows about them and what they are capable of achieving.

Therein lays the problem- Assumption! Organisations assuming that their staff is familiar with web 2.0 and their applications. Organisations assuming that creating a twitter account and a face book page are enough. Just because social media and its use seems to have spread like bush fire in less than ten years, then everybody should know what it is, and how to use it. Unfortunately, that is not true.

Do these organisations embracing use of social media for communication and outreach think of attaining an exponential growth with these tools, or they are content with the lag phase attained after the initial step of having an online presence in the social media.  Yes lag phase, that of the biology fame, describing the initial growth phase, during which cell number remains relatively constant prior to rapid growth. You see I choose to use the phrase lag phase here to signify ‘no growth’, constant. Julie Urlaub in her blog on “why your social media efforts are failing and what to do about them” points out three major missteps which organisations take, that hinder them from realising the full benefits of social media as essential tool for value creation (http://blog.taigacompany.com/blog/sustainability-business-life-environment/why-your-social-media-efforts-are-failing-and-what-to-do-about-them ).  Julie mentions the need to build and active social media engagement strategy, under which I boldly say, organisations need to build their in-house capacity to full y exploit social media

I believe that in this strategy, one of the main objectives should be towards attaining exponential growth in their operations and end results, as a result of embracing use of social media to make their presence more pronounced. How? Awareness, awareness, awareness! Spread the knowledge about them (technical knowledge inclusive): That ‘knowledge is power’ no longer carries the day, but the sharing of this knowledge. Let us enhance the capacity of our employees to use social media, let us not ASSUME that they know what a twitter handle is. J. Let us invest in training!

Training does not have to cost the organisation so much in terms of their budgetary allocations: how about in-house seminars form those employees with this knowledge? How about obtaining literature on these topics, for example this useful article I came across on how to maximise use of twitter, available here: (http://www.computerhope.com/tips/tip149.htm ) One of the most powerful channels of knowledge sharing is face to face interactions acknowledged by various scholars in the field of knowledge management and communication.

In addition, where necessary, the management should seek the services of professional trainers in the field of web 2.0 to enhance the skills of their staff.

There are resources available which contain information describing how to use the social media tools both for individuals and organisations. Some that I have particularly found very helpful include:

• The Information Management Resource Kit (imark module) by FAO and CTA, an e-learning programme available online here: http://www.imarkgroup.org/moduledescription_en.asp?id=109
• Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), change at hand: web 2.0 for development, by CTA

The time has come for our organisations to invest more in making the most out these web 2.0 tools. Else, we are danger of ending it at the lag phase and still talk of how much power is in social media, yet without realising ‘that’ power.