Towards a Best Practices Knowledge Management System Presentation by

Towards a Best Practices Knowledge Management System

• Presentation by

• Vincent Kitio

• www.bestpractices.org

Best Practices’ Concept

• Have a demonstrable and tangible impact on improving people’s quality of life;

• Result from effective partnerships between public, private and civic sectors of society;

• Are socially, culturally, economically and environmentally sustainable.

Genesis of Best Practices

• The original call for Best Practices was launched in 1996 during Habitat II conference in Istanbul

• The international community defined what constitutes a best practice and adopted guidelines for their documentation and dissemination.

• The Habitat Agenda mandates that best practices be used to monitor and assess progress in achieving sustainable urbanization.

• The Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP) was established as a global network of public, private and civil society organizations

Policy Relevance

• Best Practices are promoted by UN-HABITAT as a means of:

• Improving public policy based on what works;

• Raising awareness of decision-makers at all levels & of the general public of potential solutions to social, economic and environmental problems;

• Assessing emerging issues, trends and policy responses;

• Sharing & transferring expertise & experience through networking & peer-to-peer learning city to city collaboration.

Identification of Best Practices

• Identification is achieved through three principle means:

• Targeted search by a global network of institutions;

• Calls for best practices using the incentive of the biennial Dubai Award for Best Practices & collaboration with other award and recognition systems;

• Ongoing research, operational activities and development project & program.

Documentation of Best Practices

• Best Practices are documented by people, communities & organizations who are directly involved in their implementation.

• Documentation process is intended as a capacity building exercise as well as an exercise in self-appraisal.

• Standardized reporting format for the documentation process has evolved over time due to lessons learned & in response to emerging issues and trends.

Documentation of Best Practices

• The use of a common set of criteria and a standardized reporting format is useful in identifying and analyzing lessons learned on:

• How people & communities perceive their problems & what empowers them to undertake or initiate change;

• What obstacles people & their communities face & approaches effective in overcoming them;

• What are the: roles, responsibilities & contributions of different social actors & partners;

• Contributing factors in sustaining an initiative;

• Promising policy options, effective institutional frameworks & governance systems.

Assessment of Best Practices

• The evaluation of BP involves a three-step process:

• validation; technical assessment; and normative assessment.

• Validation

• Involves the global network of partners, ad hoc organizations, & individuals representing relevant geographic and/or thematic expertise and experience.

• The aim is to verify that information submitted is an accurate reflection of reality.

• The process is carried out through e-mail.

Assessment of Best Practices

• Technical appraisal:

• Undertaken by independent technical advisory committee consisting of 15 experts with equal geographical distribution and gender balance.

• The committee meets physically & its mandate is to differentiate between “best”, “good”, “promising” and “not qualifier”.

• For each practice the following perspectives are considered:

• three basic criteria: impact; partnerships and sustainability
• additional criteria: leadership & community empowerment; innovation within the local context; gender equality and social inclusion; and transferability;
• Absolute merit within a national and/or local context;
• Relative merit in comparison to other practices from same region or in same thematic area.

Assessment of Best Practices

• Best Practices Jury

• Short-listed practices are forwarded to an Independent Jury made of seniors professional and formal ministers, policy makers, etc.

• The Jury uses similar approach in deciding on award-winning practices.

• An international press-conference is organized to announce the award-winners.

• The short-listed practices are used extensively for research and analysis.

Knowledge Management Framework

Environmental Sustainability

• Fossato di Vico, Umbria, Italy

• Context:

• Population of 2500 people situated in the region of the Umbria, Italy;

• High level of migration in the 1950s and '60s to USA;

• Underdeveloped town with poor economic and social state development;

• Progressive ageing of the population;

• High unemployment (prevalently female) and lack of opportunities for youth;

• Violent earthquake in 1997 and the town suffered damages to building and property; 60% in total, of which 12% were totally unusable.

Environmental Sustainability

• Fossato di Vico, Italy

Environmental Sustainability

• Fossato di Vico, Italy

Political Sustainability

• Porto Alegre, Brazil

• Context:

• Pervasive slums and social exclusion

• High levels of urban poverty and unemployment

• Corrupt and unresponsive local government

Political Sustainability

• Porto Alegre, Brazil

Political Sustainability

• Porto Alegre, Brazil

Lessons Learned

• Process:

• Process as important as outcome;

• Process is transferable, not the solution;

• Matching supply with demand for knowledge, expertise and experience

Lessons Learned

• Need to combine:

• Physical improvements and tangible economic benefits;

• Awareness building and effective mechanisms for participation;

• Partnerships and improved governance;

• Decentralisation and capacity-building.

Lessons Learned

• Need to focus more on up-scaling and transfer of BPs

• Need to combine BPs with good policies & legislation

• Need to promote the creation of national/regional best practices knowledge management system;

• Need to strengthen and mainstream national/regional BPKM systems as a policy tool.

Pointers for the future