KM Impact Challenge:Overview

KM Impact Challenge

o An initiative under the Assessing and Learning mandate of the Knowledge-Driven Microenterprise Development (KDMD) Project

o KMIC has partnered with KM4Dev

o The Impact Alliance provides facilitation support for the challenge process.

Why a KM Impact Challenge?o Knowledge management approaches such as communities of

practice, learning networks and online knowledge repositories have emerged during the last decade, with marked expansion over the last five years

o While many believe that more knowledge-driven programmatic approaches are inherently better, most organizations lack the evidence to clearly and compellingly demonstrate the impact of their KM investments.

o We are all asking similar questions around the impact of KM and learning but there are many different answers

o A key moment to expand the knowledge base and reflect on how people are addressing these questions and identify successful examples

The KM Impact Challenge communityo The KM Impact Challenge website currently

has 365 registered members o The KMIC Library section contains one of

the more comprehensive collections available in one site, with over 60 reports, documents, web links and presentations

o Blog has been used to share announcements and findings with our online community

o Between Dec 1st and April 1st KMIC site had visitors from 113 countries

o Join us on http://kdid.org/kmic

Other outreach

o Creation of Technical Advisory Group 34 International KM and M&E specialists

o External outreach and communications was done primarily through the KM4Dev international community via its list serve, blog space and the creation of a KMIC group

o The KMIC Facebook page now has 124 likeso The #KMImpact tag is being used to follow

the Challenge on twitter

Call for case stories

o Public call for case stories, to compile short, experience-based documents of up to 1200 words each

o Between December 2010 and January 30, 2011, 47 case stories met the basic eligibility criteria

o All case stories were put through a transparent peer-review process, with each case story reviewed by at least 5 members of our Technical Advisory Group

o Four core criteria of Clarity, Analysis, Creativity and Replicability were used to select a pool of top finalists (24 case stories)

Geographic Sources of Case Stories

14

576

14

1

Africa

Asia

Europe

Latin America

North America

Australia

Geographic Sources of Case Stories

Case stories by sectorCase Stories by SectorAgriculture 11Health 9Community development 5Education 4Research / policy 4IT 3Conservation 2Governance 2Private sector 2Science & Technology 2Misc 3Total 47

Types of KM initiatives

Type of KM0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

2

9

8

6

3 3

7

6

7

4

Capturing lessons (past and present)

Capacity building*

Focus on organizational per-formance

Innovative use of media

Knowledge centers, access to media

Learning events

Networks / COP

Portals / digital libraries

Research communication / policy influence

Technology Transfer, ex-tension & support

Quantitative vs Qualitative data

22

3

21

1

Qualitative only Quantitative onlyQuant and Qual combinedn/a

o 43/47 mention some sort of qualitative approach, highlighting the value of feedback and other mechanisms to reflect on how knowledge is used

o 24/47 case stories mention the use of quantitative approaches

o 21/24 combine quantitative assessment with more qualitative methods i.e. only 3 case stories rely solely on quantitative measures of success

Examples of tools and methods mentionedo Well established methods

o Outcome Mapping, Most Significant Change, Social Network Analysis and Results Based Management

o Other popular methodso Scorecards, SWOT analysis and needs assessment

o Also mentionedo After Action Reviews, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Situation

Analysis and Performance Management, PACT’s Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool and Kirkpatrick’s Learning and Training Evaluation Theory

o Less familiaro Gender Analysis Matrix, Tangible and Intangible benefits

log, Think aloud Approach, Proactive Review, and Schematic Maps and Chronologies

o NOT mentionedo Theory of change!!

Data collection strategies

o Surveys (oniine and other)o Webstatso Visual methodso Workshops & focus groupso Meetings &reviewso Diaries & field observations

Time to meet the case story authors…