The value of learning: understanding and measuring the impact of KM in international development

Abstract

We need a demonstrable evidentiary basis for understanding what works and what doesn't in international development, and to use that to guide programming decisions; the challenge is that some things are easier to measure than others, and so we tend to focus on the results and impacts that are easy to measure. Neither ‘evidence’ nor ‘results’ are limited to phenomena that are easily measurable, but we tend to lose track of this fact. We let the proxy of our limited definition of evidence stand in for what it was originally supposed to suggest, which is to say results. There is a related error that we often make, which focusing on the proxy of a static plan in place of focusing on actual dynamic implementation contexts and processes. Static plans are easier to develop and implement than dynamic ones, but – just as easily measurable evidence isn't necessarily the most important evidence – easily implemented static plans aren't the most effective ones. We need to develop methods for capturing and assessing and understanding the value we create by investing in learning, and this is what the KM Impact Challenge attempted to do for the field of knowledge management and learning for international development. Relatedly, to be more effective, we need to be more dynamic and adaptable in our strategy, design and implementation – and that in turn requires that we place more emphasis on sharing knowledge and learning about new technical learning, tacit/experiential knowledge, and contextual knowledge – in order that we and our implementing partners learn and adapt for maximum aid effectiveness.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks for vision, leadership and assistance on the KMIC activity and on this article to Marie-Ange Binagwaho, Jeff Kwaterski, Louise Clark, The KM4Dev Community, Sherine Ghoneim, Anna van der Heijden and Owen Johns.

Notes

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

1. The author developed and managed the USAID KDMD project, as well as the project's predecessor AMAP KMC, from 2003 to 2008. The KDMD Project is now under the very capable leadership of Lane Pollack in USAID's Office of Microenterprise and Private Enterprise.

2. The QED Group, LLC, International Resources Group, and Training Resources Group, Inc.

3. See http://microlinks.kdid.org and http://agrilinks.kdid.org.

4. As distinct from measuring the value created by international development investments in learning in the form of education programs for school kids in developing countries, for instance.

5. Cited on JFKLibrary.org (http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-F-Kennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.aspx).

6. Cited in Wikiquote (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein) as a statement Einstein made in Berlin ‘Objecting to the placing of observables at the heart of the new quantum mechanics, during Heisenberg's 1926 lecture at related by Heisenberg, quoted in Unification of Fundamental Forces (1990) by Abdus Salam ISBN 0521371406 .’