Establishing a Common Base for Information and Knowledge Management in WFP
A Proposal for a WFP – University of Copenhagen. Royal School of Library and Information Science Partnership
PGB, 11 September 2013
Purpose
The development of information and knowledge management is a corporate priority within WFP and initiatives are underway to explore opportunities for developing corporate systems. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a concrete first step forward, in support of these initiatives, through the development of a common information architecture in partnership with the University of Copenhagen. Royal School of Library and Information Science (IVA). The base would be developed collaboratively with the WFP Chief Information Officer (CIO) in close consultation with all relevant departments to ensure that it meets field-driven information needs and is eventually hosted in a way that provides corporate access and services.
Current Situation
It has been widely recognized for some time that both printed and informal knowledge produced in WFP is not treated systematically. Efforts to address this in the past have been fragmented and lacked corporate sustainability. Furthermore, information and initiatives to gather and manage information are “silo-ed” in different divisions without an overarching information architecture to ensure that it can be received, retrieved and disseminated on a corporate basis. This means that important knowledge is either lost or not passed on effectively to those who could benefit from it across the organization. There is great opportunity and savings in time and cost, if knowledge can be shared in a systematic manner and thus made available to the entire organization.
In 2012 the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted a major analysis in relation to the issue of the lack of information sharing in WFP. The report offers a number of recommendations in relation to the implementation of a Knowledge Management Strategy for WFP. The recommendations included, among others, proposals to improve existing information systems and implementing new, simple systems for the collection of tacit knowledge and underlining the importance of an organizational commitment to knowledge management (KM).
A mission from IVA visited WFP in April 2013 and met with the CIO, the Director of Business Innovation and WFP Library staff to understand WFP’s current information management systems and to explore opportunities for partnership to strengthen existing systems.
The CIO is engaged in a corporate IT initiative aimed at defining meta data identifying knowledge owners throughout the organization and setting up a new electronic archive and information sharing systems.
A Business Process Review (BPR) has recently been initiated in WFP to ensure that processes are in line with the Strategic Plan and vision and Fit for Purpose organizational design. The review, field-driven with inputs from country offices and regional bureaux, has already identified knowledge management as a key cross-cutting organizational requirement.
Proposal for Immediate/ First Step Forward
It is proposed to move forward immediately with the development of a common base for data and information sharing to ensure better access to WFP generated knowledge and external knowledge of high relevance to WFP. This would provide a practical, concrete, first step forward as part of the wider implementation of a Knowledge Management strategy, an envisaged outcome of the BPR. It would ensure all information resources would be saved in one place only and according to a clear information structure in order to ensure efficient access and avoid information overlap.
There are currently several knowledge management initiatives already underway within various parts of the organization. To avoid yet another “silo-ing” of activity and the fragmentation of KM within separate divisions, there is a need to anchor all corporate KM initiatives in one place, ensuring a common base for information exchange across the organization (See graphic on p. 3). A corporate function, which provides services across the organization, such as the library, could be considered as a logical home.
Partnership with the Royal School of Library and Information Science (IVA)
To achieve the above, it is proposed to enter into a partnership with IVA which has a strong international reputation for the development of information systems and corporate knowledge systems. The partnership would provide WFP with specific deliverables needed to further a corporate information architecture to anchor system-wide KM activities. All activities would require close collaboration with WFP’s CIO.
Activities
Engage the services of IVA to:
1) Analyse the current information architecture within WFP and make recommendations for its re-structuring. This will include mapping of current sources of information across divisions, a review of DocuStore, archiving systems, the architecture of the existing Intranet and external websites, etc. Make recommendations on steps needed to develop a common base for data and information resources, or a system that allows for integrated search modalities.
2) Analyse how users access information and knowledge within the organization and externally and make recommendations on where the base should be housed to ensure that it provides corporate access and services. In recognition of the already-identified need to transform the functions of the WFP library, consider the potential of this service as a place to host the base for common information and knowledge management within organization.
Analyse existing knowledge management initiatives within WFP and outline ways to integrate them into a corporate knowledge management base.
3) Development of a corporate taxonomy in the form of a key word list defining a common vocabulary for WFP. The taxonomy is necessary to facilitate the effective ordering, retrieval and dissemination of knowledge that already exists in published documents and other new types of information. The creation of the taxonomy would be based on an analysis of content and document sites and repositories such as WFPgo, DocuStore, EPWeb, eRegistry, etc. interviews with key staff and stakeholders in both headquarters and the field, current key word searches through the WFP Library and an analysis of content generated at the regional and country office levels. The development of this taxonomy would also serve to support the development of the KM strategy identified as a priority need across all work streams in the BPR.
4) To support downstream processes envisaged by the CIO over the longer-term, analyse current search engines in use (i.e.WFPgo Search, Docustore etc…) and make recommendations on the requirement specification needed to improve/ upgrade search capacities.
5) Evaluation of the implemented taxonomy
Partnership Agreement between WFP and IVA
Establish a formal agreement between WFP and IVA specifying the above deliverables to be provided to WFP. IVA will assign researchers within the field of knowledge management/ information management and appoint a contact person. Also investigate the possibility of establishing a co-financed PhD Fellowship as well as offering IVA students the possibility of internships in the above functional areas.
Providing one corporate base for all WFP knowledge management initiatives