Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Knowledge occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by Asia, North America, Africa and Oceania with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are NGO, IGO, RC, NGO_Fed and Net organisations.

NGO, IGO, RC, NGO_Fed and Net documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from activity reports published in Europe.

Knowledge ...

• is a

• first step, prerequisite, foundation

• requirement, key

• solution

• safeguard

• factor

• characteristic

• benefit

  • resource

  • source of resilience

• has subject areas

• has specialisations

• is characterised by location

  • local knowledge, which can refer to

    • what humanitarians know about a locale

    • what local populations know that humanitarian don't

    • what local populations know about issues & solutions

  • regional, global, etc.

  • is referred to by time frame

• has varying relevance

• has varying degrees of sophistication

• is specific to communities

  • e.g, indigenous knowledge, which

    • can be integrated into operations

    • is at risk of disappearing

    • can be difficult to define

    • is contrasted with other types

  • workers', public, etc.

• is ascribed a value

• can be quantified

• is acquired by different means

• the lack of which causes/aggravates issues

• is shared in order to

  • create solutions

  • change behaviours

  • raise awareness of issues & risks

• is shared via

  • knowledge bases

  • knowledge products

  • knowledge exchanges

  • knowledge networks/hubs

• is managed as an organisational asset

  • as part of a culture of learning & sharing

  • as a community effort

  • which can be offered as a service

  • which requires

    • its own infrastructure & systems

    • progressive improvement

    • better integration & tools

  • which can suffer from short-term programmes & staff turnover

• is not equally/fully available, causing knowledge gaps

  • among actors (humanitarians, authorities, affected populations)

  • within specific data sets & activities

• is the basis of knowledge societies

  • in which economic production relies on knowledge-centric services

• should be shared in a multidirectional fashion

  • moving away from a pure knower/learner dichotomy

  • with more "South-South" interaction

  • promoting better partnership

• can be adopted reluctantly or ignored by some actors

• has a debated association with outcomes

  • due to some models being discredited, e.g.,

    • information deficit model

    • knowledge, attitude, behaviour model

  • which implies the need for new methods

• can be combined with information

  • e.g., information & knowledge management

  • although information & knowledge are generally distinct

    • with information management as a technical challenge

    • with knowledge management as a social-behavioural challenge

• is the opposite of ignorance

"This principle ensures the staff's right to learn; it defines knowledge not only as the skills and capabilities necessary to perform their duties, but also as the development of skills and capacities in general.

Knowledge refers to the totality of acquired information and skills that an individual utilises in solving problems.

• first step, prerequisite, foundation

• requirement, key

• solution

• safeguard

• factor

  • attitudes, behaviours, practices

• characteristic

  • skills, education, abilities, attitudes, personality traits

• benefit

  • resources

• resource

  • capital

  • time

  • skills

  • experience

• source of resilience

• subject area

  • IHL knowledge, knowledge of international human rights

  • cultural knowledge

  • health knowledge

  • scientific knowledge

  • risk knowledge

  • knowledge of human rights

  • first aid knowledge

  • legal knowledge

  • hygiene knowledge

  • medical knowledge

  • management knowledge

  • knowledge of humanitarian principles

  • agricultural knowledge

• specialisation

  • technical knowledge

  • practical knowledge

  • traditional knowledge

  • academic knowledge

  • theoretical knowledge

  • professional knowledge

  • institutional knowledge

  • general knowledge

  • advanced knowledge

  • specific knowledge

  • specialized knowledge

• location

  • local knowledge

  • regional knowledge

  • global knowledge

• time frame

  • new knowledge

  • current knowledge

  • existing knowledge

  • prior knowledge

• relevance

  • necessary knowledge

  • relevant knowledge

  • related knowledge

  • appropriate knowledge

• community

  • shared knowledge

  • collective knowledge

  • indigenous knowledge

  • workers' knowledge

  • staff knowledge

  • public knowledge

  • participants' knowledge

  • health workers' knowledge

  • Japanese knowledge

  • women's knowledge

  • expert knowledge

  • community knowledge

  • specialist knowledge

• quality

  • valuable knowledge

  • effective knowledge

  • essential knowledge

  • requisite knowledge

  • best knowledge

  • proper knowledge

  • sound knowledge

  • good knowledge

  • better knowledge

  • improved knowledge

  • enhanced knowledge

  • adequate knowledge

  • 
    

• quantity

  • limited knowledge

  • extensive knowledge

  • sufficient knowledge

• level of sophistication

  • deep knowledge

  • thorough knowledge

  • detailed knowledge

  • basic knowledge

  • in-depth knowledge

• means of acquisition

  • evidence-based knowledge

  • accumulated knowledge

  • contextual knowledge

  • acquired knowledge

  • first-hand knowledge

To spread knowledge of IHL and improve compliance with it, the ICRC carried on supporting the teaching of this body of law among armed forces, security and law-enforcement forces, other weapon bearers, academic circles and the media.

In particular, our local knowledge, work with beneficiaries and preparedness had an enormously positive impact on local communities.

Due to the hazardous nature of the situation, we do not deploy response teams in the area but rely on local organisations whose staff have on-the-ground-contacts, local knowledge and the ability to blend in.

SSP educated local communities through formal health and nutrition education sessions that increased the local knowledge with regards to nutrition and its related issues.

There is ultimately no substitute for local knowledge and strong relationships on the ground.

Local knowledge is a prerequisite of getting aid into areas which are constantly under attack and where the political situation is complex. between three and five months; the remainder received food for one month only.

Effective capacity building happens when a country's local knowledge interacts with outside expertise that is not present in that country.

By prioritizing local knowledge and in-country projects we ensure that beneficiaries are the leaders driving the change that they want to see.

In Ethiopia, for example, indigenous knowledge and practices are documented, shared and combined with modern technology to strengthen and promote decentralised early warning and response systems.

The methodology used is participatory for purposes of ensuring that disaster anagement is understood by people at grassroots level, as they will be involved in identifying the inherent risks/hazards in their communities, prioritising the identified risks/hazards and working out mechanisms for reduction of the prioritised risks. This requires full participation of the local communities, as the communities are the custodians of indigenous knowledge and everyday occurrences and are the people who should be involved in the risk reduction processes of the same.

Thanks to centuries of experience, Tutti's inhabitants have built indigenous knowledge and skills, developing early warning systems based on different tones of drums, horns and whistles that alert the community of an upcoming Nile flood.

When risk assessment and management are governed locally and localized or indigenous knowledge is incorporated, then capacity is strengthened.

Besides, it is crucial to introduce new knowledge, skills, technologies and crop varieties in the area that helps communities pursue saline resistant cropping, brackish water farming or marine aqua culture.

Girls and women received new knowledge about their rights to marry with consent and to claim their inheritance, while fathers, revenue officers, health workers and religious leaders became engaged in supporting these changes.

EFICOR improved the knowledge of communities on effects of climate change and its consequences on livelihood. This encouraged CBOs to take up land treatment and apply watershed management techniques especially, 'drainage line treatment' with soil and water conservation measures, and Water Harvesting Structures at selected places in the target areas. This has recharged 'ground water' leading to an increase in the surface water level (open wells) and the vegetation coverage in the area.

ADB defines knowledge management as the way organizations create, capture, store, retrieve, enhance, disseminate, and apply knowledge to achieve organizational objectives.

LASOONA understands Knowledge Management as the cultivation of an environment within which people are willing to share, learn and collaborate together leading to improvement.

Knowledge management (documentation, sharing and dissemination) has been an essential ingredient of the project.

The knowledge management strategy is now built on 2 pillars:

- Management of knowledge on the outcomes and impacts of WASH in emergency responses with the creation of a database repository (hosted at the GWC website). This new database will have clear criteria for inclusion of documents based on existing and recognized repositories of WASH partners;

- Generation of specific knowledge on coordination outcomes and impacts, firstly looking backward with a literature review and an analysis on how coordination impact is normally evaluated, supported by the development of a theory of change and secondly looking forward with the design of a protocol to assess the outcomes and impacts of coordination in future emergency response.

Data Quality: USAID's Knowledge Management Services (KMS) Project examines all third-party data for this indicator, and triangulates them with various sources to verify their quality, validity, and reliability.

Knowledge management platforms are a valuable vehicle for countries and communities within countries to share lessons, experiences and good practices and to support each other in accelerating implementation of relevant, context-specific climate resilience actions.

Partly because of this knowledge gap, authorities have been reluctant to acknowledge and tackle the phenomenon. Given their reluctance and the lack of systematic data, responses to IDPs' needs have been fragmented.

There will always be gaps in knowledge and (often justified) mistrust between civilian and military stakeholders.

Except for Turkmenistan, all the Central Asian countries have governments committed to better education and more advanced knowledge societies, and to working in differing degrees of partnership with each other, with international agencies and with civil society.

The knowledge economy is growing in importance and the search for talent is becoming as competitive as it is global.

Knowledge sharing is actively pursued to promote best practices, showcasing innovative projects, developing capacity, and encouraging institutional reform.

Our learnings are encapsulated in knowledge products which help in advocating on various issues affecting the underprivileged, and easily accessible to one and all.

Dynamic developments in the economic, social and ecological spheres of the emerging economies are strengthening their interest in sound planning, steering and process management expertise. Their need for technology-based knowledge transfer is declining, while policy advisory services for reform are in greater demand than ever before.

The chart below represents the distribution of knowledge between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

There can be challenges related to unknowingly imposing knowledge that may not be culturally or contextually appropriate in sensitive or traditional environments, or pushing local communities beyond their own interests and developmental agendas. It was noted that these challenges are frequently less apparent in South-South exchanges, as there are often greater sensitivity to cultural adaptability, and there is a less frequent mistrust from the local communities due to the appearance of similar backgrounds in the cultural and political contexts.

This innovative platform will provide an alternative to the tradition of one-way knowledge transfer from the Global North to the Global South, instead modelling multidirectional knowledge exchange that will continuously generate new learning for improved health policy and practice in the 21st century.

Rethinking definitions of knowledge

Simplistic notions of knowledge suggest that it is a commodity given in a linear form with the learner being a passive receiver from a superior provider. Over the years, researchers have rejected this model, arguing that knowledge is fluid and the roles played by knower/learner are inter-changeable, not static. This new model of knowledge transfer should be adopted for technical assistance. Hired experts from abroad should endorse and facilitate a 'learning with' approach. Donor personnel should be hired for medium-term tenure to facilitate assimilation, a deeper understanding of local cultures, and their ability to incorporate this knowledge into their work.

A warning from a DRR organization that people are in a dangerous place is not going to make them move away to 'safety', because they believe that moving is less beneficial than the loss of their livelihoods over the longer term. The idea that information and knowledge will make people behave differently ('rationally') in relation to serious hazards (the 'information deficit model') is discredited. In public health policy, it has long been known that people do not change their behaviour (e.g., in eating habits or for safe sex) simply because they get information (Marteau et al., 2002). The information deficit model is similar to the 'knowledge, attitude, behaviour' model that many NGOs believe is effective in their work. This has also been shown to be inadequate in most aspects of human behaviour, especially in regard to environmental problems and most notably in relation to climate change (van der Linden, 2014; Kolmuss and Agyeman, 2002). It cannot be assumed that information or even education guarantees that people will face up to the risks that confront them.

Indigenous knowledge can be difficult to define and identify, since in many cases it emerges more as a way of life rather than a set of specific initiatives or tools.

Local communities have been known also to be aware of a number of indicative early observations, such as changes in animal behaviour in advance of major environmental events. This has led to a growing appreciation of the role of indigenous knowledge in early warning and action, though a debate is often present as to whether the knowledge is better described as local (i.e., has developed in a specific location due to multiple factors from multiple sources) or indigenous (attributable historically to that setting and uniquely handed down over generations).

Indigenous knowledge was often displayed as inadequate, untrue or mythical. Modern biomedical knowledge was promoted as being superior, while some traditions were condemned as supporting the spread of HIV. Participatory projects with traditional healers were introduced, but healers were not given equal footing.

[....]

In principle, traditional healing systems, due to their low level of formalization, are very flexible and may easily adopt new influences (Ingstad, 1990; Andrae-Marobela et al., 2010). But this requires an attempt to acknowledge the potential of healers and to engage them in a process of communication. The influence of traditional healers on people's health-related perceptions must not be underestimated – healers can, for instance, serve as good mediators between different understandings of disease, health and healing.

At the same time we also need to learn from the experiences of others, and share with them our own learnings. We refer to this as ''reflective practice'' rather than the more common term of ''knowledge management'', to signal that the real challenge is that of application and not just a simple transfer of knowledge.

The creation of new information systems and tools, however, does not necessarily ensure effective interorganisational coordination and decision-making. In order to be effective, these systems and knowledge management tools must become integrated into the work and decisionmaking processes of the international humanitarian response, including donors.

Single-year programmes also increase the likelihood of staffing shortages and delivery problems in between funding cycles as one-year projects close and new ones start up, and can make it more difficult to align humanitarian programmes with development interventions. They can also hinder systematic information and knowledge sharing amongst partners and potentially stifle innovation and experimentation.

An additional area of improvement relates to the considerable challenge of collective knowledge management. Frequent staff turnover and staffing gaps have an acknowledged impact on institutional memory within individual agencies, and this is reflected within the community as a whole.

While most people think of knowledge management as maintaining a database of information, it is really about creating a culture where staff members within an organisation feel confident collecting/documenting best practices, pursuing and experimenting with new approaches, and connecting with one another to improve work processes in a specific discipline.

Also, a lack of long term vision translates itself into a lack of commitment. The reluctance to engage with new knowledge and advanced intellectual traditions in order to revise one's own thoughts and practices compounds the problem. We must be clear that as development workers and social activists, neither can we assume the role of government agencies nor of political parties.

Highly accessible, reliable, and secure information management and technology systems and services are the basis of all human rights work.

Currently, NCA does not have a project information management system, which means most data collected is silo-based and difficult to aggregate or learn from at organisational level.

The gender-based violence information management system, which is designed to collect and analyse standardized data on reported cases of such violence, is being used in five countries.

But how can understanding take place when, at the same time, ignorance is identified as a major barrier for behavioural change? How can it be decided whether people act out of ignorance? By definition, ignorance means a lack of knowledge or understanding, but on whose part?

As indispensable partners, we strive to banish poverty, ignorance , and sickness from the lives of the young, and continue to explore new and effective ways to live up to our maxim of helping others to help themselves.