Sharing Knowledge

103 pages. The World Bank's commitment in 1996 to become a global knowledge bank propose d broad-ranging internal and external changes aimed at expanding the sharing of knowledge among staff, clients, and partners. While the transfer of knowledge an d information had always been a dimension of the Bank's role, the knowledge init iative sought to broaden the scope and raise the profile of this function. The p urpose was to improve the quality of Bank operations and enhance the capacity of client countries to achieve development goals. 'Sharing Knowledge' finds that t he World Bank has made good progress in establishing the tools and activities to support its initiative, but it has not established adequate business processes and management responsibilities for achieving the strategic intent of making kno wledge sharing a way of doing business and empowering clients. Although access t o Bank knowledge has improved, improved access does not guarantee that the share d knowledge will be adopted, adapted, and applied. For that to happen, knowledge sharing has to be embedded in work processes. This review recommends that the B ank take three sets of actions: - More strategic direction and oversight of the Bank's knowledge processes by Bank management; - Linking knowledge-sharing activ ities to lending and nonlending processes; - Setting monitorable outcome objecti ves and supporting performance indicators for knowledge-sharing programs and act ivities, with agreed procedures for monitoring and evaluating Bank knowledge-sha ring programs and activities.…