Knowledge Management

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Knowledge Management

• An IT Approach at the Grassroots Level

Harun-ur-Rashid, Director Community Development
Library (CDL)
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A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

• Todays world has been witnessing a massive
  influx of new thoughts and perceptions, which are
  reshaping the way our development pursuits are
  directed all over the world

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CDL IN PURSUIT OF DEVELOPMENT

• Community Development Library (CDL), a
  non-governmental organization, was established in
  1980 with the mission of narrowing the knowledge
  gap
• CDLs primary objective is to create mass
  consciousness through social change catalysts -
  academics, planners, activists,
  environmentalists, feminists, teachers, or
  community leaders and their activities.

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TRANSFORMATION OF INFORMATION THE MISSING LINK

• Despite the remarkable proliferation of social
  change organizations in Bangladesh, the potential
  impact of these organizations on the country is
  greatly weakened by the lack of cooperation,
  coordination and information sharing among them.
• In Bangladesh, there has not been a coordinated
  effort at trying to integrate ICT with the
  process of Knowledge Management among the
  development sector stakeholders

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CDL PROGRAM STRUCTURE CELDIC and RIRCs

• CDL at the Urban Level The Central Library,
  Documentation and Information Centre (CELDIC)
• CDL at the Grassroots Level Rural Information
  Resource Centres (RIRCs)
• The RIRCs mandate is to bring the CDL vision of
  narrowing the knowledge gap to the local,
  grassroots level. Since its conception, the
  network of RIRCs has grown to link 26 locations
  throughout the country at divisional/district,
  Upazila and village levels. It is estimated that
  the RIRC network potentially serves over 3.5
  million Bangladeshis with annual Regular Users
  registering over 400,000 (June 2000-June 2001).
  Membership is comprised of both individual and
  organizational members (10,000 individuals and
  over 641 NGOs).

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WITH THE HELP OF IT

• To hold a series of Knowledge Meetings through
  the RIRC network to generate Knowledge
  Documents/Queries on critical Development Issues.
• To answer queries and collect information from
  the community of urban based NGOs, CBOs and
  government offices as well as from the Internet.
• To disseminate this knowledge through ICT and
  multimedia formats to the grassroots level.
• To collect information from regional and
  international stakeholders through the South Asia
  Partnerhsip Network.
• To create a Knowledge Management Portal for
  knowledge dissemination and advocacy on critical
  development issues.

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PROJECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

• Joint and collaborative interventions among
  different individuals, institutions and
  organizations at local, regional, national and
  international levels would be made possible where
  the proposed Grassroots Information System would
  act as the backbone.
• Systematic knowledge sharing among the
  development grassroots and urban-based partners
  would increase.
• IT/Internet tools and techniques would emerge as
  a great source for obtaining critical knowledge
  in the rural areas.
• Utilization of computers as a community
  based/shared resource would increase.
• It would strengthen Human Capacity of CDL Program
  Staff and RIRC users through Computer Training.
• Youth leaders of the respective communities would
  be able to develop their IT skills and their
  confidence levels also will reach up to their
  urban counterparts.

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PROJECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

• Person-to-person interaction would be made
  possible where the Grassroots Information System
  would work as a common platform.
• Rural people would be able to use Email,
  E-conferencing, E-commerce and other Internet
  facilities for communication, finance and other
  purposes.
• Students could avail themselves of Internet
  browsing facilities for exploring and reaching
  out to the academic and research institutions all
  over the world.
• Different social groups would be able to learn
  from their overseas counterparts and could
  replicate successful interventions at home.
• Human rights watch groups can communicate and
  interact with other groups and activists all over
  the world and can create a common platform to
  combat human rights violation.

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PROJECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

• Local and regional health infrastructure can be
  benefited by sharing health information and
  availing online health care consultation
  facilities.
• Traders and entrepreneurs could use banks and
  other economic institutions databases or online
  transaction facilities to speed-up their economic
  pursuits.

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KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT

• Component One Knowledge Meetings
• Component Two Knowledge Collection
• Component Three Knowledge Dissemination
• Component Four Knowledge Management Portal
• Component Five Human Capacity Strengthening

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PROJECT BENEFICIARIES

• The nature of local community stakeholders of the
  proposed initiative is diverse NGO workers,
  journalists, teachers, activists, social workers,
  local government representatives and
  administrators that utilize the RIRC services

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ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

• If I were made ruler of the world the first
  thing I would do would be to crumble the
  glass-wall between the information haves and
  have-nots. Another world is possible where there
  would be no room for information or knowledge
  starvation

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• This is not only an idle dream of an individual,
  but a real possibility in a changed world. If we
  can combine our efforts together and gang up
  against the forces of ignorance, we can usher in
  another world.
• This modest endeavor of CDL has every potential
  to become a giant leap for the development
  pursuits spread across the rural areas of
  Bangladesh. This would help greatly in narrowing
  the knowledge gaps and discrepancies in various
  social strata. This would result in the removal
  of digital divides to a great extent and building
  of digital bridge. People would be able to make
  the best use of ICT tools and techniques for
  having a wholesome today and even better
  tomorrows

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Thank You