Building an Online Knowledge Bank

The “Knowledge Bank” is based on the concept that knowledge is the currency that drives and enables the knowledge economy and information society. Consequently, the construct is that of a “Bank” to facilitate effective knowledge (currency) management on policy related issues towards good governance and sustainable development. In keeping with the trends and opportunities in the digital economy, the Bank would be an interactive online platform/portal. The web portal would be data base driven with a robust search engine/tool and a comprehensive, expandable classification framework. A corresponding social media presence (e.g. Facebook page) can also be established for more social, less structured interactions. The Knowledge Bank is based on the principle of Knowledge Management (KM), which is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using knowledge. The concept of "deposits" and "withdrawals" from accounts would facilitate the practice of sharing of ideas, resources and best practice (and also what didn't quite work) with respect to all aspects of the policy life cycle. The focus should be on the policy formulation (how to make policies more evidenced based through research and knowledge sharing/knowledge management), policy implementation (incorporating change management principles and practices in the process of policy implementation) and policy evaluation (how to use results based management frameworks for monitoring and evaluation of policy activities, outputs and outcomes). Key features of Knowledge Bank: • Accounts: The use of the Knowledge Bank will require registration and the opening of accounts by users. Individual and Corporate accounts would be possible. • Deposits: would allow for the posting/uploading of content, good practice, lessons learnt, policy briefs, policy documents and statements, etc. • Withdrawals: download of resources from the knowledge bank. The extent of withdrawals will be based on levels of deposits and interest accrued from deposits made by account holders. • Guests: users who have not registered would be able to download a very limited number of resources from the Bank • Queries: online submissions and telephone queries would be possible. Replies to questions on public policy and research related matters can be provided by expert resource persons contracted to provide support to the knowledge bank. • Search: the knowledge bank collection should have search capabilities based on a comprehensive, meta data, expandable classification framework • Loans: submission and processing of requests for technical resources/support onsite/in-country or via video conferencing, job attachments, internships • Interest Earned: earned through deposits to knowledge bank