Publication: Indigenous Knowledge : The East Africa-South Asia Learning Exchange - An Example of South-South Cooperation
Loading...
Date
2003-04
ISSN
Published
2003-04
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Inspired by the success of the pilot study tour, the Africa Region embarked on an initiative to build cross-regional partnership between East Africa and South Asia seeking to integrate indigenous knowledge and practices into Bank supported operations. The aim was to leverage the experience of IK good practices from South Asia into Bank supported projects in East Africa. This would also help foster new partnerships for South-South dialogue, cooperation and technical assistance. The focus was on indigenous knowledge as it is a key element of the social capital of the poor, assisting them in their struggle to improve their livelihoods. For example, farmers have used organic fertilizers to increase soil fertility in parts of Asia and Africa for centuries; similarly, local healers have used medicinal plants in India and Tanzania to treat common human, and animal diseases. Many local organizations, institutions, and communities have a wealth of knowledge of IK practices. However, these practices are not disseminated effectively because community-based organizations lack the capacity to capture, document, validate and share them.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2003. Indigenous Knowledge : The East Africa-South Asia Learning Exchange - An Example of South-South Cooperation. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) Notes; No. 55. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10782 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication East Africa-South Asia : Learning and Exchanging Indigenous Knowledge(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-03)The Africa Region's Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program promotes client/staff action learning through cross regional exchanges to learn about the impact of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems in development. The first such exchange and learning tour was organized in September-October 2002 between three East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda) and two South Asian countries (Sri Lanka and India). The exchange involved several innovative features which are highlighted here. The learning exchange included 16 development practitioners from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda (i.e., project staff from Bank-supported projects in early childhood development and medicinal plant projects, civil society representatives, a traditional healer, a parliamentarian and a minister) accompanied by 5 Bank staff working on these projects. The group visited counterparts in Sri Lanka and India, including projects using informatics for social sector development.Publication Women and Indigenous Knowledge : A South-South Perspective(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-12)The gendered nature of Indigenous Knowledge - IK - is often overlooked, marginalized or neglected. While the differences may tend to be more subtle in industrial countries, the same cannot be said of developing countries. Information, especially IK-related information, tends to be viewed, perceived, and acted upon differently by the different genders. This note seeks to provide an understanding of the role of gender, and the way it impacts the intrinsic value of local knowledge systems, critical to the understanding, interpretation, and dissemination of indigenous knowledge. As a result of this gender differentiation and specialization, the IK and skills held by women, often differ from those held by men, affecting patterns of access, use, and control, thus resulting in different perceptions and priorities for the innovation and use of IK. It also impacts the way in which IK is disseminated, documented, and passed on to future generations. In attempting to achieve cross-regional exchange of women's IK, the Bank organized the Indigenous Knowledge Program, a study tour to South Asia, and the key to some success stories, as observed in the region, resulted from having women involved in planning, and implementation in projects at the grassroots level. The note reviews aspects in traditional medicine, medicinal plants, food security, as well as the level of information communications technology, and early childhood development. In this context, some adaptations concerning women were found, namely, bottom-up approach; battling HIV/AIDS; and innovations in early childhood development.Publication Indigenous Knowledge - Cross - Regional Distance Learning Course (India, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Tanzania)(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-09)Indigenous knowledge (IK) is usually shared among local communities and transferred from one generation to the next, through oral traditions and story-telling. The IK distance learning course was an effort to facilitate this process across four countries and two continents. Information communications technology (ICTs) enabled the bridging of the geographical and perceptional distance between the 102 participants, through the videoconference facilities of the global development learning network. The course effectively demonstrated how leveraging traditional and modern knowledge systems can help address development challenges.Publication “South-South” Learning Exchange for Client Capacity Enhancement(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-12)Client feedback surveys in Africa indicate that the Bank's performance requires strengthening with regard to (a) respect for local cultures, (b) adaptation of knowledge to the local context and (c) incorporation of local knowledge into development efforts. They would like to see greater involvement by beneficiaries and local project experts in project design to ensure that country conditions are better taken into account.Publication A Program of the South-South Experience Exchange Facility(Washington, DC, 2010-07)The SERENE program, coined as an acronym for South-South Exchange of Research and Education Network Experience, was a series of activities that applied what is called the 'blended learning' approach, using a combined variety of tools such as web based discussions, live multisite videoconferences, and in person study visits and workshops, as a program of the global development learning network. Given the global and collaborative nature of contemporary research and the digitization of knowledge resources, access to internet and to research networks has become a pre-requisite for the provision of quality higher education in a country. Yet in some South Asian countries access to internet is poor and still very expensive, leading to academic isolation, exclusion from global research and low quality of teaching. The objectives of the program were to assist the participants in producing country policy plans for building research networks in their own countries and to encourage the establishment of a regional association of South Asian National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). The eventual outcomes of the program were, on the one hand, a conviction by the participating policy makers that an NREN was essential for the development of their higher education systems, and on the other, a series of policy notes to their respective governments on how to go about establishing and managing such a network.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication South Asia Development Update, April 2024: Jobs for Resilience(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-02)South Asia is expected to continue to be the fastest-growing emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) region over the next two years. This is largely thanks to robust growth in India, but growth is also expected to pick up in most other South Asian economies. However, growth in the near-term is more reliant on the public sector than elsewhere, whereas private investment, in particular, continues to be weak. Efforts to rein in elevated debt, borrowing costs, and fiscal deficits may eventually weigh on growth and limit governments' ability to respond to increasingly frequent climate shocks. Yet, the provision of public goods is among the most effective strategies for climate adaptation. This is especially the case for households and farms, which tend to rely on shifting their efforts to non-agricultural jobs. These strategies are less effective forms of climate adaptation, in part because opportunities to move out of agriculture are limited by the region’s below-average employment ratios in the non-agricultural sector and for women. Because employment growth is falling short of working-age population growth, the region fails to fully capitalize on its demographic dividend. Vibrant, competitive firms are key to unlocking the demographic dividend, robust private investment, and workers’ ability to move out of agriculture. A range of policies could spur firm growth, including improved business climates and institutions, the removal of financial sector restrictions, and greater openness to trade and capital flows.Publication Making Procurement Work Better – An Evaluation of the World Bank’s Procurement System(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-12-06)This evaluation assesses the results, successes, and challenges of the World Bank 2016 procurement reform. Procurements acquire the works, goods, and services necessary to achieve the World Bank’s project development outcomes. The World Bank’s procurement processes must ensure that clients get the best value for every development dollar. In 2016, the World Bank reformed its procurement system for Investment Project Financing and launched a new procurement framework aimed at enhancing the Bank’s development effectiveness through better procurement. The reform sought to reduce procurement bottlenecks impeding project performance and modernize procurement systems. It emphasized cutting edge international good practice principles and was intended to be accompanied by procurement capacity strengthening to help client countries. This evaluation offers three recommendations to scale up reform implementation and enhance portfolio and project performance: (i) Improve change management support for the reform’s implementation. (ii) Strategically strengthen country-level procurement capacity. (iii) Consistently manage the full spectrum of procurement risks to maximize project success.Publication Economic Recovery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06)World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.Publication Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12)World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.Publication Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.