Like a busy market at a border crossing, KM4Dev brings together a diverse range of people engaged in a wide variety of pursuits that make vibrant exchange the norm rather than the exception. Perspectives span a breadth of geographies, institutional contexts, KM and learning approaches, and intellectual frameworks, but the common thread is that KM4Dev members are eager to engage with their peers, giving and receiving help on shared KM challenges, introducing and discussing emerging techniques and technologies, debating critical questions around the relationships among knowledge, power and progress, and collectively advancing learning in development.
When I was leading KM and learning at USAID, KM4Dev was the first and most frequent place I would go to learn about new developments in KM theory and practice. As we evolved our own work, the KM4Dev community of practice offered a uniquely valuable sounding board of diverse colleagues who could offer candid feedback — for instance, when we were in the process of developing USAID’s knowledge management and organizational learning policy, we drew on inputs from the community to shape the early drafts, and then put out the later draft to the community for feedback. This enabled us to draw from the community’s incredibly rich stock of hands-on experience in organizations similar to ours and in organizations who would be affected by how our policy was implemented. This was incredibly valuable and helped keep our policy work grounded in the best of KM anchored in international development and humanitarian assistance.
Throughout the ongoing work my colleagues and I did at USAID — beyond specific inflection points such as the policy development process — we monitored the KM4Dev community regularly and learned of many important advances that people were making in knowledge and learning that could inform our own work. Occasionally, we turned to the community for feedback on challenges we were facing. Always, we knew that we could count on the respectful yet frank exchange on KM4Dev to keep us sharp, informed, and engaged. We didn’t always need everything we found at this busy border town, but we nearly always found what we needed.
Thank you to the wonderful people of KM4Dev!