Scaling Up the Fight Against Rural Poverty - FIDAfrique

B. Knowledge management and scaling up
In September 2007 IFAD published its Knowledge Management Strategy. The strategy recognizes that
“[i]nnovation learning and scaling up together form one of IFAD’s six principles of engagement,
which apply to all IFAD’s country programmes: knowledge management is central to this agenda”; 39
and that “[k]nowledge-sharing processes are vehicles for replicating and scaling up innovative
solutions and integrating solutions in policies and guidelines.” 40 The strategy proposes a number of
steps at all levels of the institution. However, there is little specific indication of how the process of
knowledge management will support the development and implementation of scaling up pathways.
According to the ARRI 2009, knowledge management (KM) in IFAD has improved with the
implementation of the strategy. Our interviews and observation confirm that KM is playing a
significant role in IFAD, including in its operational divisions. Some regional divisions have KM
advisers; pursue KM initiatives; establish electronic knowledge sharing platforms linked to projects
(e.g., in China); and publish learning notes, technical notes, occasional papers and newsletters, all
designed to draw out innovative ideas, best practice and lessons learned. COSOPs have sections that
deal with KM; the annual portfolio reviews are substantial monitoring and learning exercises at the
institutional level; and KM, especially as it relates to innovation, has been given considerable
management attention.
From the perspective of this review implementation of the strategy still faces a number of challenges
which will need to be addressed, if IFAD’s KM activities are to provide effective support to its scaling
up agenda:
• the strategy and its implementation have yet to make a substantial difference to IFAD’s
weakness in country analytical capacity, which we noted earlier;
• it still has to address long-standing weaknesses in monitoring and evaluation of projects;
• it does not address the over-load of CPMs, who are the lynchpin in the operational KM
process, as potential providers, transmitters and recipients of knowledge, but who cannot
play this role effectively simply for lack of time; and
• it has yet to incorporate a substantive link between KM and scaling up .
A particularly valuable contribution which IFAD’s KM could make is to improve the knowledge base
of what scaling up experiences IFAD has actually had and what lessons can be learned from these. In
Chapter 3 we reviewed some of the readily available evidence. But with the exception of the two
country case studies prepared for this review, the currently available information tells us very little
about key aspects of the scaling up path of successfully scaled up programs. A specific
recommendation therefore is to carry out a more in-depth review of the IFAD’s country and thematic
programs in terms of can be learned about scaling up pathways. Based on the cumulative learning
training of staff, consultants and borrower counterparts should be developed and provided as a way to
share the knowledge effectively on a broad basis. Expanded and enhanced KM activities have resource
implications, a topic to which we turn our attention next.
C. IFAD’s human and financial resource allocation and incentives for scaling up
A key factor in determining any organization’s effectiveness is how it allocates its human and financial
resources and provides incentives for effective action. This applies of course also to an organization
39 IFAD, “Knowledge Management Strategy”, September 2007, p. 17/8.
40 Ibid., p. 27
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