Knowledge Sharing at CARE refers to open and efficient sharing and use of the critical pieces of knowledge that enable CARE to increase its effectiveness in fighting poverty and social injustice.

It implies process of:

1. Generation
2. Communication and Sharing and
3. Application of Knowledge

Knowledge Sharing is important for CARE to continue to maintain and enhance its reputation as a global leader in developing successful solutions to fight poverty.

Making Knowledge Sharing a core support process at CARE will contribute significantly to:

1. Raised efficiency, effectiveness and productivity across sectors and themes to improve program quality and reduce duplication of efforts
2. Established a dynamic and collaborative environment that enables reflection and foster innovation
3. Increased cost effectiveness and efficiencies in the operational support areas
   
   
   

Key principles of Knowledge Sharing at CARE are:

1. Knowledge is considered a social and not a private asset. CARE shares openly its knowledge and is also open to received knowledge coming from different actors in society.
2. Value tacit and explicit knowledge coming from outside our organization: partners, participants of our projects, universities, etc.
3. The real benefit of KS is not achieved unless the Knowledge is used and applied for all development actors.
4. KS is about fostering personal attitudes ad behaviors but also about creating process, capabilities and technology to support these attitudes.
   

Knowledge Sharing involves the sharing and use of two types of knowledge: Explicit and Tacit.

1. Explicit knowledge is organized and structured. It is available in documents, databases, training videos and other traditional knowledge sharing channels.
2. Tacit knowledge is mainly based on experience. It exists in people’s minds as memories, impressions, practical know-how, etc.

Using tacit and explicit knowledge implies a constant interaction between Connecting people and Collecting Information.

The CCASS cycle:

To practice successful Knowledge Sharing is important to understand how explicit and tacit knowledge components interact. The SECI model below illustrates how tacit knowledge is transformed into explicit knowledge, and back into tacit knowledge. As the model shows, the process of knowledge creation and sharing takes place through continually deepening cycles of four steps:

Socialization (Tacit to Tacit): People share their expertise in informal social settings through stories, analogies, drawings, and personal experiences.

Externalization (Tacit to Explicit): The knowledge shared in social settings is documented and converted into explicit knowledge that is shared through publicly accessible media (papers, books, audiovisual material etc.).

Combination (Explicit to Explicit): Individuals receive new knowledge and combine it with their own experience and former knowledge to expand their knowledge base.

Internalization (Explicit to Tacit): As individuals continue to use what they have learned, they internalize the knowledge. It becomes part of their set of beliefs and expertise that dictate their new behavior.

The CCASS Cycle is the proposed model for practicing Knowledge Sharing at CARE. While the model is based on the SECI concepts, it defines five core Knowledge Sharing processes. The processes can be implemented at the global level, the regional level, the CO level or the project level, and therefore do not impose any rigid implementation criteria.

This fund was created at the end of 2006 to support all staff in their efforts to promote innovative organizational learning and sharing. It isl contributing to overcome some current challenges and barriers to help CARE become a better learning organization.

Examples of challenges and barriers we face are:

• Working in isolated “silos”
• Difficulty to use our local knowledge at our regional and global work and
• The organizational capacity to learn from our failures and successes

Knowledge Sharing Fund – FY07

KSF - Call of proposals
See the call of proposal and application formats launched on December 2006.

Selected Winners
Thirteen winners were selected from approximately fourteen participants. They will implement their innovative ideas during fiscal year 2007 in areas like women’s empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, peace building, water management, gender equity, emergency response and others. To read the winner's proposal click on the proposal titles in the list below. Proposals contain two pages only.

Winners of the Global Knowledge Sharing Fund

Winners of the Signature Fund: Sexual and Reproductive Health

Winners of the Basic and Girls’ Education – PCTFI Cross-Sectoral Knowledge Fund

KS Workshop - Atlanta, February 2007

A KS workshop was organized for the FY07 Knowledge Sharing (KS) Fund awardees. This workshop was conducted during the week of February 20 – 22, 2007 in Atlanta and was facilitated by two external consultants (Nancy White and Rohit Ramaswamy) and HQ staff members (Mare Fort, Jaime Stewart and Mario Lima).

Click picture below to see the workshop documentation and materials

• ECARMU HR Network - Case Study - (English 137kb | Spanish 142kb | French 104k)
• Advancing Organizational Learning to Promote Social Learning (LACRMU-MIT-IISC)

• Knowledge Sharing Position Paper - (.pdf - 54KB)
  
  
• Interactive tool kit to support knowledge sharing (Developed by CARE El Salvador - Spanish)
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------> Download 12 MB | Run it from this site
  
  
• CARE Knowledge Sharing Approach
  
  
• CARE KS Assessment (.pdf 253 kb) This document is password-protected and exclusive to CARE Staff. The password was sent in the initial e-mail communication to all-staff to announce the knowlege sharing funds, on November 7, 2006. Had a CARE Staff needs the password , please contact mfort@care.org to request it.
  
• Review of the SRH Communities of Practice and Recommendations. The review summarizes efforts by the Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) team to promote knowledge sharing through CoPs; identifies key promoters and constraints for CoP effectiveness; and makes recommendations on how CoPs could be more effective within CARE. CoP Summary (.pdf 180k) English | Spanish | CoP Report (.pdf 104k)
  
  
• CARE Assessment Summary (28kb .pdf) | English | Spanish
  
  
• Guidelines for managing virtual discussion groups - (.pdf - 117 KB)

• About Discussion Forums - (.pdf - 67 KB)

• Book Review on Knowledge Sharing - Colin Beckwith - (.pdf - 307 KB)

• Suggested Books & Articles
  
• The reflective practitioner. How professionals think in action. Donald A. Scho. USA, 1983.
• The fifth discipline. The art and practice of the learning organization. Peter Senge. USA, 1990
• The Knowledge-Creating Company, by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi; Oxford University Press (1995)
  
• Cultivating Communities of Practice, by Ettienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder; Harvard Business School Press (2002)
  
• Harvesting Exprience: Reaping the Benefits of Knowledge, by Jan Duffy, ARMA International (1999)

• Links
  
  
  • KM for Development (KM4Dev) is a community of international development practitioners who are interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing issues and approaches.
  • Knowledge Sharing at the World Bank - The World Bank Institutes website that provides information and resources on their own knowledge management strategies and activities
  • Knowledge Connections - a website that provides resources to help create effective knowledge management strategies
  • Organization Development and Capacity Building Links - A website developed by New Directions in Organizational Capacity Building that provides a variety of resources organizational development and organizational learning
  • NeLH Specialist Library on Knowledge Management - A library for knowledge management within the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH)
  • Story Telling as a Knowledge Sharing Method - Steve Denning's website that provides resources and links on the art of story telling and a leadership and knowledge sharing methodology
  • Tools for Knowledge and Learning: A guide for development and humanitarian organizations, RAPID, Overseas Development Institute. London, July 2006 Author: Ben Ramalingam. The handbook contains 30 tools organized into five categories of Strategy Development, Management Approaches, Collaboration Mechanisms, Knowledge Sharing and Learning and Knowledge Capture and Storage.
  • A Tool for Sharing Internal Best Practices. INFO project, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs. Washington DC, 2005. Author: Margaret D’Adamo and Adrienne Kols. This tool, developed by the INFO Project, includes a step-by-step process, tips, case studies and links to additional resources that explain how an organization can more effectively share its own best practices internally. 
  • Managing Knowledge to Improve Reproductive Health Programs A useful resource for reproductive health program managers to help them systematically increase the creativity and empowerment of staff members and therefore lead to better health for clients.
  • Knowledge Management Specialist Library. This is an specialist library site on the National Library for Health, UK. The aim of this site is to provide the best available evidence and practical examples of health professionals successfully sharing and applying knowledge and experience to their daily activities. It contains also some general Knowledge management/Knowledge Sharing resources