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Population Fund (UNFPA) adopted a
knowledge sharing strategy in May 2002. The strategy, formu-
lated as part of a change management exercise, was designed
to improve the work of the organization through the integration of
knowledge sharing and organizational processes.
As an international development agency and part of the United
Nations system, UNFPA has a specific and challenging mandate.
In 2004, the Fund worked in 126 countries, areas and territories
through its headquarters in New York; nine regional country tech-
nical services teams and 112 country offices worldwide. UNFPA
supports countries in using population data and in formulating
policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every
pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free
of HIV/AIDS and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and
respect. The broad dispersion of staff and the range of activities
and focus areas necessitate the development of a knowledge sharing
strategy that is both people-centred, and, for practical and economic
reasons, facilitated by technology.
What follows is a description of UNFPA’s experience to date in
the design and implementation of its knowledge sharing strategy
and some thoughts about what has made this experience a success
story.
UNFPA is one of a number of UN agencies that are attempting
individually to define and apply knowledge management in the
context of international development programmes. Among these,
UNFPA’s approach to knowledge sharing is unique in its compre-
hensiveness. More specifically, while UNFPA’s approach focuses
on people, processes and technology, its knowledge sharing strat-
egy is also supported by strong commitment from the highest levels
of the organization and is reinforced by inclusion of knowledge
sharing competency as a criteria for measuring staff performance.
The structure of knowledge sharing
In 2001, UNFPA established a Knowledge Sharing Branch consist-
ing of three senior level staff with expertise and experience in
knowledge and information management issues and systems. From
the beginning it was assumed that knowledge sharing would be an
implement for staff empowerment and teamwork. Technology,
which is often the initial focus of knowledge sharing activities in
other organizations, was therefore viewed primarily as an enabling
mechanism and, as such, has played a catalytic supporting and
facilitating role.
Implementation of UNFPA’s knowledge sharing strategy was
managed by the Knowledge Sharing Branch from 2001 until
February 2005. During this initial period, the Branch formed a
Knowledge Sharing Working Group, as an integral part of the orga-
nization-wide change management process, consisting of staff from
all organizational levels, drafted a knowledge sharing strategy,
enlisted solid support for knowledge sharing at the highest levels
of the organization, successfully incorporated knowledge sharing
into all staff performance appraisals, developed a suite of tools to
facilitate staff current awareness and sharing of experiences, devel-
oped a series of knowledge assets on topics of priority importance
to UNFPA, drafted and distributed a guideline outlining proce-
dures and staff roles and responsibilities for developing and
updating of knowledge assets, and created a document repository
which serves as both a corporate depository collection and an insti-
tutional memory.
On an operational level, UNFPA created three fundamental pillars:
• Knowledge networking/knowledge assets
• A suite of knowledge resources and tools to facilitate knowl-
edge capture, distillation and management
• Human resource competency on knowledge sharing.
UNFPA defined knowledge sharing pragmatically to focus on how
to do things, who to ask for help, and where to find examples. This
enabled concentration on documenting staff experience and
communicating and transferring dispersed organizational know-
how more effectively within the organization, as well as for use with
partners. It is this systematic and continuous capture of know-how
built from years of experience inside and outside UNFPA’s insti-
tutional boundaries that enables staff to perform with the
competence of an old hand.
Providing information support and managing
knowledge resources
UNFPA’s Knowledge Sharing efforts include the collection, retrieval
and dissemination of substantive, operational and management
information to increase organizational effectiveness. In this area,
UNFPA has developed and manages a suite of interconnected
Internet-based information and document systems, including an
institutional document repository, DocuShare, and a virtual
resource centre of commercial publications, the Internet
Supermarket. These resources are designed to support knowledge
sharing and strategic research.
The cornerstone of UNFPA’s knowledge sharing strategy is a
unique Knowledge Asset Development System, which staff use to
capture, synthesize and share knowledge within the organization.
This software tool is an easy-to-use step-by-step intranet-based
system which can be used by all staff. Following requests from
Implementing UNFPA’s
knowledge sharing strategy
Susan Kingsley Pasquariella, DLS Senior Knowledge Sharing Adviser, and
Brendan O’Brien, Chief, Strategic Planning Office, United Nations Population Fund