Academic literature on the topic 'Knowledge Sharing in Donor Funded Projects'

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine, empirically the relationship between organizational rationality, knowledge management (KM), risk management and successful implementation of donor-funded projects in Uganda. Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from 195 project managers of donor-funded projects both managed within government systems and those outside government using a questionnaire. Zero-order correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were employed to analyze the data. Findings – The paper has two major findings: all the predictor variables are positively and significantly related to successful project implementation; and the relationship is strong enough to cause a 23 percent (R²) increase in the explanatory power in the presence of control variables. Research limitations/implications – The study focussed on selected donor-funded projects in Uganda and this limited the generalization of the findings. Moreover, there was also limited availability of local empirical literature with respect to implementation and performance of donor-funded projects. Practical implications – The results suggest that organizations that embrace organizational rationality, risk management and KM succeed in project implementation. Originality/value – There are many studies that investigate the practices adopted by organizations that implement donor-funded projects, however, this is the first study to the authors’ knowledge that examines the relationship between KM, rationality, risk management and successful implementation of donor-funded projects in Uganda.

This paper will summarise some of the main concepts and theories which have been developed in the area of Knowledge Management and will adapt these to develop a new technique for sharing knowledge in a new product development project. The bulk of the literature on Knowledge Management has been concerned with concepts and theory, there is relatively little concerned with the operationalisation of the concepts. This paper will report the results of the testing of a new technique in an ex post case study which was carried out at Flymo Ltd. The research project has been funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Benefactor organizations have greatly funded livelihood projects and programs in Kilifi County. However, these projects grapple with sustainability. Some halt operations instantaneously the funding is withdrawn. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of monitoring and evaluation (participation; tools; and timing and frequency) on the sustainability of donor-funded livelihood projects in Kilifi County, Kenya. The descriptive correlational research design was used with a sample of 170 from a population of 295 from three livelihood projects. Seven interviews and three focus group discussions were carried out. Standard deviations, standard error of means, arithmetic means, Pearson’s Product moment correlation, and linear regression were used. The perception of sustainability did not differ significantly with projects, gender, age, and marital status. However, perception differed based on the highest level of education and duration in the project. H0, r=0.458, p=0.000389<0.05 was rejected and concluded that monitoring and evaluation significantly influenced the sustainability of donor-funded livelihood projects. Participation in M&E and (p=0.000), frequency, and timing (p=0.024) had a significant while tools used in M&E (p=0.459) did have a significant influence on sustainability. This implies that corporate and individual knowledge of the project objectives, targets, and means of measuring project results were still critical in ensuring sustainability is attained. Simple templates of the logical framework should be used for the farmers to understand how inputs are converted into activities, outputs, outcomes, and goals. It is implied that the farmers had little knowledge of Likert items denoting tools in M&E. Therefore, simple and direct Likert items need to be chosen.

Based on Szulanski’s knowledge transfer model, this study examined how the communicational, motivational, and sharing of understanding variables influenced knowledge transfer and change processes in small- and medium-sized enterprises, particularly under projects developed by funded programs. The sample comprised 144 entrepreneurs, mostly male (65.3%) and mostly ages 35 to 45 years (40.3%), who filled an online questionnaire measuring the variables of “sharing of understanding,” “motivation,” “communication encoding competencies,” “source credibility,” “knowledge transfer,” and “organizational change.” Data were collected between 2011 and 2012 and measured the relationship between clients and consultants working in a Portuguese small- and medium-sized enterprise-oriented action learning program. To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling was conducted to identify the antecedents of sharing of understanding, motivational, and communicational variables, which were positively correlated with the knowledge transfer between consultants and clients. This transfer was also positively correlated with organizational change. Overall, the study provides important considerations for practitioners and academicians and establishes new avenues for future studies concerning the issues of consultant–client relationship and the efficacy of Government-funded programs designed to improve performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) offer multiple solutions to urban challenges simultaneously, but realising funding for NBS remains a challenge. When the concept of NBS for societal challenges was first defined by the EC in 2017, financing was recognised as one of the major challenges to its mainstreaming. The complexity of NBS finance has its origin in the multiple benefits/stakeholders involved, which obscures the argument for both public and private sector investment. Since 2017, subsequent waves of EU research- and innovation-funded projects have substantially contributed to the knowledge base of funding and business models for NBS, particularly in the urban context. Collaborating and sharing knowledge through an EU Task Force, this first set of EU projects laid important knowledge foundations, reviewing existing literature, and compiling empirical evidence of different financing approaches and the business models that underpinned them. The second set of EU innovation actions advanced this knowledge base, developing and testing new implementation models, business model tools, and approaches. This paper presents the findings of these projects from a business model perspective to improve our understanding of the value propositions of NBS to support their mainstreaming.

Unemployed youths in Nepal have been receiving vocational training through different projects with the support of international donor communities. Many of these projects simply meet their objectives by fulfilling the quotas of the training participants. There are some TVET projects in Nepal, which do not have priorities in sharing the learning and good practices that were gained during their implementation period due to the lack of Knowledge Management (KM) and disseminating mechanism. The purposes of this article are (i) to disseminate some activities and learnings gained by a Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) Project in Nepal which trained nearly 3000 youths from 2012-2016, and (ii) tracing out the importance of the KM practices in every TVET projects. This is a case study research in which secondary information such as the review of the project documents and the reflections of the author as a practitioner-scholar have been used as data. The findings of this research reveal that every TVET project in Nepal has gathered vast sources of knowledge and data. These learning will be beneficial to other forthcoming projects of similar nature. If these data and knowledge are shared among other TEVT project's, then huge financial resources of the state will also be saved. This research article could help us to consider about the importance of KM system in TVET projects.

This article addresses issues facing Canadian literacy researchers who are working in global contexts and particularly the potential complications that arise when research conducted in developing countries is funded by sources such as international aid institutions, foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, and donor-based organizations. We focus especially on the issue of development of local research capacity and expansion of the knowledge economy. We first create a framework by describing the types of literacy projects funded by alternatives to the standard research grants of government agencies. We next review tensions that can arise between researchers and these types of funding organizations. We then turn to examples of current Canadian literacy research carried out in developing countries that provide guidance in designing, conducting, and publishing locally-empowering and globally-connected research.

The IOSC and other triennial-series conferences are great opportunities to share knowledge and learn of new developments from our peers in the response community. But with such high societal expectations in the post-Macondo world it is now incumbent upon all stakeholders to use every available platform to ensure we are all working on the same page. The wide range of measures and actions demanded by industry work groups such as the API and the OGP/IPIECA Joint Industry Projects on Oil Spill Response needs to be shared effectively with a broad church of organisations which may have direct responsibilities arising from these programmes. Other organisations such as governmental bodies, academia, the oil industry, and OSROs may need to be consulted or simply informed of technical enhancements in the oil spill world. With this in mind Oil Spill Response Ltd. (OSRL) re-launched the Industry Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) in 2012 with the aim of providing the platform to bring together a broad group of invited stakeholders to share knowledge and good practice in the (non-commercial) spirit of enhancing response. ITAC now convenes a face-to-face meeting every year at different regional locations which reflect its global membership. All participation is self-funded and the hosting and the minor administration costs are borne by OSRL. The agenda is typically shaped by the members and will include a round-up of the many of the industry-funded R&D projects being undertaken by research institutions and relevant universities. The two-day meeting will typically include a social event, recognising that some of the most effective networking occurs informally in the margins of the formal programme. For OSRL there is an added benefit from facilitating and hosting these meetings through integrating many of its own “grass-roots” operational responders into the very heart of the technical debate which shapes the response community. This interface not only helps the individual responders develop their own network of contacts of technical expertise but more generally can influence the strategic technical direction of the company as a whole. This poster illustrates the stakeholder mapping supporting the current model under which ITAC operates, graphically depicting the different relationships between the constituent parts of the response community from the perspective of OSRL. It shows the various linkages and flow of information to and from the various parties as the impacts of the post-Macondo technical revolution are communicated and disseminated to the wider response community.

Collaboration is regarded as an effective approach to improve the efficiency of research resources and reduce risks in innovation activities. Collaboration breadth is an important feature of collaborative extent. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse its role between R&D subsidy and innovation and to explore its direct and indirect ties to innovation. The paper is based on government-funded research projects, and the results show that R&D subsidy and collaboration breadth of organizations have positive direct effect on innovation output. Meanwhile, R&D subsidy has positive effect to collaboration breadth. However, the linkage of collaboration breadth of researchers on innovation output is uncertainty. That is, the direct effect is positive, while the indirect effect is negative. It may suggest that collaboration breadth of researchers and innovation output may be affected by other factors, such as knowledge sharing or diffusion. Our contribution is to extend the theory of collaboration breadth and to suggest discussion of the role of knowledge in collaboration breadth.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) has proven to bring collective benefits to multiple stakeholders by minimising underutilised resources, sharing knowledge and improving business and technical processes. In Europe alone, over €130 million have been invested since 2006 in research projects that enable IS by developing a methodology, tool, software, platform or network that facilitates the uptake of IS by different economic actors. This paper discusses and assesses information technology (IT) developments for supporting IS in Europe, following the five-stage methodology of Grant et al. (2010). It provides guidance to the applicants and reviewers of publicly funded research projects by listing the developments and gaps in the newly developed IT tools for IS. Content analysis of publicly available information on 20 IS supporting IT tools reveals a strong focus on synergy identification but a lack of support for the implementation stage of IS. The paper indicates that a vast quantity of IT tools and knowledge is created during the IT tool development stage and newer IT tools now also include implicit information for identifying IS. It was found that successfully operational IT tools are either part of a national or local IS programme or owned by a private company. The paper ends with the recommendation that better mechanisms are needed to ensure that publicly funded IS-supporting IT tools successfully reach the market.

This thesis study explores the existing knowledge management and sharing practices in donor organizations, particularly working in the developing countries. The potentional of knowledge management and sharing to facilitate development organizations in carrying out development work has been recognised in the literature. Literature presented mix of critique and appreciation to the existing efforts of donor agencies. Knowledge sharing platforms revolves around the country initiatives and donor agencies like UNDP and World Bank which are proactive in establishing these platforms for partner organizations. This research contributes practical insight to the question of delivery of these platforms, through an empirical investigation based on the development professionals' experiences. As earlier research shows enormous amount of literature on individual, team and organizational level knowledge sharing, this study sets prime focus on community level or external knowledge sharing, an area where there exist a dearth of emperical research or contributing literature on examing the role of sharing initiatives and possible contribution in improving risk management in development projects. Literature shows the potential of knowledge management and sharing practices, as their possible contribution in the global development practices and in bridging gap between North-South stakeholders. However, cultural, technological, organizational and individual level issues escalate with external level of knowledge sharing and thesis rightly, identifies success factors from the literature alongwith their viability from the professionals. It is even more inadequate when it comes to projects of donor organizations in under developed and developing countries. With 80% of documented failure rates of knowledge sharing systems, external knowledge sharing with partner organizations or network organizations is really not adequate and do not have supporting culture. As this whole process of sharing knowledge, heavily relies on the perceived motivation and willingness to share, study has tried to identify the challenges facing wider use of these sharing systems. Study also contributes with suggestions for knowledge management and sharing system developers, policy and decision makers and system users, to improve the overall contribution of knowledge sharing in better risk management. Apart from the cultural barriers, there are technical and policy level issues which need more concerted efforts to improve the use of these sharing systems by various organizations and individuals.
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The focus of this chapter is on “key issues for fostering OER communities of practice with teachers.” It is based on the successful experiences of three European funded projects: SLOOP, TENEGEN, and SLOOP2DESC. These three projects draw on the concept of open education as well as on the open and free software movements. The original idea behind the three projects was that teachers can build learning objects in conjunction with software specialists who are developing open software packages: each teacher can contribute to the development phase, as well as repurposing the learning objects to meet her/his specific needs, thus working in a collaborative environment. In order to enable this collaborative production and reuse of learning objects, the authors have introduced the Open Learning Object or OpenLO model, which combines the benefits of the learning object paradigm with the ‘Openness’ concept characterized by Web 2.0 approaches to knowledge building and sharing.

Developing human-engineered systems is considered as a challenge that addresses a wide area of expertise; computer scientists as well as social scientists. These experts have to work together closely in teams in order to build intelligent systems to support agile software development. The methodology developed in the RISE project enables and supports the design of human-centered knowledge-sharing platforms, such as Wikis based on standards in the field of education science. The project “RISE” (Reuse In Software Engineering) is part of the research program “Software Engineering 2006” funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). The goal was to improve the reuse of artifacts in software engineering, and brought together researchers from education science (The Department of Educational Sciences and Professional Development at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern) and computer science (Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)) with industrial partners (Empolis GmbH and brainbot technologies AG). This chapter gives an overview about the human-centered design of Wiki-based knowledge and learning management systems in software engineering projects, and raises several requirements one should keep in mind when building human-centered systems to support knowledge and learning management.

This paper addresses the factors involved in effectively implementing a world-class program/project management information system funded by multiple nations. Along with many other benefits, investing in and utilizing such systems improves delivery and drive accountability for major expenditures. However, there are an equally large number of impediments to developing and using such systems. To be successful, the process requires a dynamic combining of elements and strategic sequencing of initiatives. While program/project-management systems involve information technologies, software and hardware, they represent only one element of the overall system. Technology, process, people and knowledge must all be integrated and working in concert with one another to assure a fully capable system. Major system implementations occur infrequently, and frequently miss established targets in relatively small organizations (with the risk increasing with greater complexity). The European Bank of Reconstruction (EBRD) is midway through just such an implementation. The EBRD is using funds from numerous donor countries to sponsor development of an overarching program management system. The system will provide the Russian Federation with the tools to effectively manage prioritizing, planning, and physically decommissioning assets in northwest Russia to mitigate risks associated the Soviet era nuclear submarine program. Project-management delivery using world-class techniques supported by aligned systems has been proven to increase the probability of delivering on-time and on-budget, assuring those funding such programs optimum value for money. However, systems deployed to manage multi-laterally funded projects must be developed with appropriate levels of consideration given to unique aspects such as: accommodation of existing project management methods, consideration for differences is management structures and organizational behaviors, incorporation of unique strengths, and subtle adjustment to compensate weaknesses. This paper addresses the architecture and sequencing of implementation. A properly designed program/project-management system provides necessary tools for those planning the program as a whole, as well as those tasked with delivering individual projects. It also provides a communication framework to transfer information to parties on the funding side of the equation. Aligned program and project management methods are key to making the overall effort effective. Ultimately, progress and transparency are essential outcomes that help to sustain funding and mitigate major funding fluctuations that create havoc for any project. A solid program-management system must provide donor countries the ability to know what is to be accomplished, how much it should cost, and over what period of time, as well as provide adequate transparency into how much is being accomplished at any given point in time. Prioritization, funding, transparency, politics, and many other considerations come into play when dealing with challenges that take decades to overcome. These issues exist for most programs, but the situation becomes even more complex when dealing in a multi-lateral framework. Project management methods and systems relate directly to program level ones and underpin the higher level program system. Before continuing, it is important to summarize the distinctions between program and project management. Program management primarily incorporates efforts relating to the identifying what is to be done over a long time horizon involving multiple projects. Project management, in contrast, generally embodies the efforts of how identified scope shall be done. Many of the efforts performed in each are similar and the distinction between programs and large projects in particular are often blurred. In general, the environment that a program manager deals with involves more uncertainty than a project manager. The essential point, however, is that a program consisting of perfectly sequenced and executed projects can still fail to provide the desired benefit if the overall program strategy is flawed or fails to adequately communicate the vision to the many lower-tier managers involved on individual projects.