http://www.worldbank.org/ks/vision.html



Knowledge Bank Pillars

Creating, sharing and applying knowledge has always been an important part of the World Bank's programs to assist its member countries to promote growth and reduce poverty. It is only since the mid-90s, however, that the Bank has attempted to organize its knowledge activities in a systematic way to maximize their potential benefits.

The Bank's knowledge strategy has three pillars:



First, making effective use of knowledge to support the quality of our operations:

In order to do this, the Bank has established technical units with specialized Thematic Groups, which are charged with capturing the information the Bank and other institutions have acquired in their areas of specialty, and processing this information into useful knowledge. There are over 100 Thematic Groups. Each of these groups has a website providing access to important studies and information relevant to the topic, as well as specially commissioned best practice papers designed to distil the Bank's unique experience in supporting projects in different countries. The Thematic Groups are managed by different Sector Boards which help to ensure that good practices are applied and adapted to country situations, so as to enhance the quality of the Bank's operations. These Sector Boards also manage the Advisory Services which are available to Bank staff, as well as its partners and clients, and provide quick responses to questions. In a typical month each of these services handles more than 200 queries.


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Second, sharing knowledge with our clients and partners:

This has led to new ways of working - participatory activities in which government officials, NGO and private sector representatives, and donor government colleagues, become part of a team which shares knowledge and information and is thus able to build programs which have genuine ownership and commitment on the part of the Government. The Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) have put this new way of working on the map. Increasingly, the Bank is supplementing this with a range of new technology-based programs which greatly enhance our knowledge sharing capacity. The distance learning programs carried out by the Global Development Learning Network, for example, enabled it to reach 45,000 government and private sector participants in 2001. The Development Gateway also provides a unique portal for access to information. It now carries information on about 300,000 donor supported activities being undertaken worldwide.



Third, helping clients enhance their capacity to generate, access and use knowledge from all sources: