Knowledge management and learning are at the heart of the LAND-at-scale program. On June 29th at a pre-event of the LANDac conference, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), LANDac and the International Land Coalition (ILC) officially announced their collaboration to implement the knowledge management (KM) component of the program.
LAND-at-scale has kicked off with projects in 14 countries. Through the country-projects, the aim is to achieve just, inclusive and sustainable land governance at scale and in a sustainable way. With a integrated KM-strategy, LAND-at-scale aims to achieve maximum impact of each project, as well as contribute to gaining a deeper understanding of the conditions required to create structural change.
A collaborative approach to Knowledge Management
In the implementation of the KM-strategy, RVO is excited to be able to build on the rich experiences that partners of the LANDac network as well as the ILC have in land knowledge generation, sharing and learning. “We were very pleased to learn that LAND-at-scale was planning to take knowledge management very seriously. LANDac, ILC and our wider networks are very pleased to be part of the process”, says Gemma van der Haar, co-chair of the LANDac network. By collaborating closely with LAND-at-scale project partners, KM will be used as a vehicle to facilitate learning and exchanges. This way, experiences and lessons learned in the different country projects will be brought together to gain insights program-wide on key themes and issues in particular regions.
RVO, LANDac and ILC share the vision that to be able to truly benefit from knowledge, sharing of information should not be a one-way street or only done once as part of end-term evaluation of a project. Launching the KM-activities while LAND-at-scale country projects are starting, allows for a unique opportunity to ensure learning and exchanges are a continuous process throughout project implementation. LANDac and ILC will work through five interlinked working packages, namely:
- Experience Capitalization: Building the LAND-at-scale Evidence Base
- Land Governance Knowledge Agenda: Strengthening the Knowledge Base for Effective Interventions
- Learning and Exchange in Project Regions
- Dissemination & Knowledge Exchange: Sharing and Validating Insights from LAND-at-scale
- Use & Uptake: Strengthening Expertise on Land Governance Worldwide.
Linking Knowledge Management and Country projects
The approach to KM within LAND-at-scale is ambitious and designed to be applied a practical way. It will aid implementation and contribute to increasing the impact of the country projects. LAND-at-scale aspires to be an adaptive program, whereby new insights on what works or what doesn’t, can lead to necessary changes in intervention strategies. For this reason, country partners and KM-partners will exchange regularly during six monthly “learning loops”, to openly discuss key insights and learnings from the previous period.
KM will also be practically applied through its integration with the program’s Monitoring & Evaluation strategy. Where project implementers will be responsible for ‘traditional’ project M&E with a focus on output and outcome indicators, KM-partners will enrich this process by supporting the linking to other country projects, as well as the broader context in which the activities take place. “We are excited to implement this innovative approach of integrated KM and M&E-strategies. It will enable all stakeholders involved in the program to gain a deeper understanding of how we can achieve structural change with our land interventions. We hope this will benefit not only LAND-at-scale projects but that it will be valuable to stakeholders in the broader sector as well”, says Astrid Broekaart, program coordinator for LAND-at-scale at RVO.
Upscaling Knowledge Management and Learning within the sector
“LAND-at-scale is about upscaling, within the program but also beyond that. There are many partners globally that are working on knowledge management for land and it is important to bring those initiatives together” says Ward Anseeuw, from the ILC Secretariat. “This process will certainly have an influence on learning in the sector and on policy processes at country, regional and international levels”.
Openness and transparency are key elements to the KM-strategy, not only within the program but also outside. The public launch was a great opportunity to present and exchange with the wider land sector on the KM-approach. We consider this to be a start of regular exchanges with the field on our experiences, to find synergies and learn from others, as well as gather feedback.
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