Indigenous Knowledge   22132
t) \for Developmient Program
Two Years Down the Road
KNOWLEDGE AS A VEHICLE FOR DEVEL-    Two years down the road, its time to
OPMENT IS UNDER-USED. In the past,  review the Bank's progress in achieving
most African nations adopted eco-  these goals. Has the IK Development
_      nomic policies with a view to rnoderniz-   Initiative been effective in disseminat-
ing society and transforming the pro-  ing information; facilitating informa-
ductive sectors. Indigenous knowledge   tion exchange among developing com-
that could have supported this process,   munities; applying Indigenous Knowl-
or in some cases, offered an alternative   edge in the development process; es-
perspective, was often relegated to the   tablishing partnerships?
backwaters. However, the 1]992 Rio
Earth Summit, through the notion of   Disseminating information
sustainable development, catapulted
these practices to the forefrcnt of the   Since its inception, the initiative has
development discourse. Policyrnakers   developed a database of indigenous
worldwide, through conferences and   knowledge and practices with over 100
workshops, have begun to hig]hlight the   case studies on the web. Each one
critical role of indigenous knowledge in   draws upon the lessons learned from
the development process. The first of  the experiences of a particular commu-
these was the Global Knowledge Con-   nity in dealing with an aspect of devel-
ference held in Toronto in June 1997.    opment. The case studies are not
Under the auspices of the Partner-   meant to be a repository of knowledge,
ship for Information and Communica-   but a referral database on IK. They
tion Technology for Africa (PICTA), the   cover a wide range of activities- in-
World Bank was encouraged to lead the   cluding indigenous financial practices
No. 21                  Indigenous Knowledge (IK) for Devel-  among farming communities in Nige-
June 2000                 opment Initiative in collaboration with
other organizations such as INESCO,
ITU and WIPO. The Initiative aims to
6.Ninous e Kg IniQti in
facilitate a multilateral dialogue be-                his  tshb
tween indigenous communities, NGOs,                  a Af.rg* and
..    .   . '.o g-' ,~46er'-W as     of 4. ewhvtg
governments, civil society and the pri .
vate sector. The objective is to main-      o      ti mu *to. N. 
bStONAL a              stream indigenous knowledge into de-   f.                      r a
velopment activities and optimize the   t<       o .   f    ateii    z  =S ani
benefits of development assistance, es-   dt be atrbuted to the Wbd
1an~<p~rlt~ partne~ithislinl-
pecially to the poor. The Bank adopted  B   A     i  p
a framework for action, which is being    h//Ivb  wk.eg/afdr/iV
implemented in conjunction with its     t-
partner organizations.



2
ment. In cases, where international agencies such as Unicef
have assisted, they have merely provided backup support via
~~ountw MG~~~~~~~iA ~financial assistance anid international recognition. In each
\ Techr~e1o~ WSQin9s $nd Loans                          case, the initiative is always "home gro-wn " and locally owned.
'~~~ ~~    ~~~           This has in turn strengthened local institutionis and led to
$vfl-rnaly: Farn~ng  oiu~s ~  ~some cutting~ edge work in areas such as eduication and
4~ped Vonous systms Of 5QYh2~ ~t~iKoranic literacy in WVest Africa.
fai~rs wotAdfr~  s~I~ os~i    ~*                          The IK Notes have shown that "indixviduals without an fr-
si;. .Serne of ih~ ossa~i~4ions ~qL~kMu~te              mal education, from villages with minimal resources, caln im-
~i4id by-laws v~hi1~                                    prove their lives and enxironment through a solid program
ing ' s compfJlsory dng !J                  i           leading to greater autonomy and self sufficiency". These stuc-
relaed o iioilt d4s T'~e4OtrS O~ qs~i~#t~cess stories endorse the universality of indigenious know]-
labor. cpniesrdedge, which can plav a key role in the process of empoweri g
membes do ot reeive nt~r~t on  a~iis.    ~ .local communities, at the regional, national and global level.
ing with defaulters' it is assumed ~                    Facilitating exchange
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~The WNorld Bank has supported eight IK Resourc Centers in
0gnitioti by the bm3 cr'~dit ~itutV  ~                  Africa, by improving their capacity to share information. This
d0 tisSifigenaus financial piiline    Phas taken many forms. In Cameroon, Tanzania, Ethiopia and
Zimbabwe, the project facilitated the capturing of IK througl
Collabratio  an~a  equiubip  oi~ wuld  ~stimulating research into IK practices by local centers. In
impactof; formal institutions and increc*~ the I        Burkina Faso and Uganda, the project improved the coinnec-
S~urc~ Nwez,N.J.1K Moit& 2Aa~guf 974tivity and netwvorking capacityT of local telecommunications.
Extrnal Link:0                                          As a result, rural community Telecenters are now being used
to obtain information from local communities and dissemiii-
nate the knowl1edge generated to other regions.
ria, AIDs prevention through involking traditional healers in
awareness campaigns, reintroducing local architecture in   Applying Indigenous Knowledge
Egypt, common water resource management in Burkina    One of the greatest achievements of the IK Initiative has been
Faso, and indigenous healing of war-affected children else-   its initial success in mainstreaming the usc of IK in develop-
where in Africa.                                             ment programs and projects. It supported Uganda in formllu-
The range and complexity of subjects that can be effectively   lating a national policy on IK, Ghana in the use of IK to im-
dealt wvith through the application of indigenous knowledge    prove agricultural practices, Burkina Faso in highlighting the
and practices are being documented in a series of IK Notes.   role of traditional hunters in natural resource management.
These are published electronically and in print in three lan-   In July 1999, the Bank initiated a study in collaboration wvith
guages, reaching over 20,000 readers. Each of the 19 IK   UTNCST to explore the diversity of IK in Uganda in relation to
Notes to date explores in some detail sensitive issues, such as   agriculture, health sciences and technology. This forme(d the
female circumcision, and describes locally driven solutions.   basis of a national strategy that would include all the stakc-
These range from the efforts of indigenous women's NGOs   holders, from indigenous healers to civil society, as wvell as
that have successfully campaigned against such practices to    policy makers.
lobbying the government to introduce new laws. Each case
reinforces the success of a bottom-up approach to develop-



3
Six months later, a national workshop involving these key   tive has begun to engage local communities and learn from
plavers was held to draft a national strategy and framework   their experiences. By supporting NGOs and institutions such
for action. This was the genesis of the Kampala Declaration   as UNCST, the Bank has played an enabling role in bringing
on IK for sustainable developrment. The Declaration urges the   together traditional healers, academics, ministers, civil soci-
government to support the development of IK and planners   ety and the church. As a result, indigenous organizations
to include IK in the national planning process. This is being   such as Traditional Herbalists Associations are able to pursue
implemented in several ways, such as including IK into   a two-way dialogue, with government institutions on a level
Uganda's Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF),  playing field. By creating channels for local communities to
led by the Ministry of Planning. This is a joint partnership be-   voice their concerns at the regional and international level,
tween donors and governments aimed at accelerating the   the  project has made  significant progress  towards
pace of growth in Africa. In Uganda, one of the goals is rais-   mainstreamning IK into the development process in Africa.
ing agricultural productivity. The IK Initiative has played a fa-
cilitating role by establishing a Steering Committee to moni-   Next steps
tor the implementation process and a Secretariat to coordi-
nate activities specifically related to IK.            The challenges ahead include-
The IK Initiative is moving beyond policy making into    intensified efforts to mainstream IK into the development
project management. It has begun advising the Ugandan Na-   process
tional Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) on the  greater donor involvement and active participation
use of IK in Bank supported Agriculture, Research and Train-    facilitating interactive exchanges through establishing
ing Projects (ARTP). The second phase of the ongoing ARTP   communities of practice (through various fora e.g. Develop-
(II) project is aimed at supporting long term technology de-   ment Marketplace)
velopment and dissemination. The IK Initiative's role is to    forming local alliances around topics such as IPRs to facili-
provide the methodological input to transfer relevant tech-   tate enablement and empowerment.
nologies and IK and improved cultural practices to farmers'
fields and promote their adoption. Examples of such prac-
tices include the improved cultural management of Mvatoke
to reduce the harmful effects of the Sigatoka disease and
small farm implements designed for the smaller cattle of
Uganda such as the improved Ugandan plow. Although, the
project is still in its infancy, it is hoped that its success can be
used to mainstream and replicate the use of IK in the devel-
opment of new projects.
Establishing partnerships
The project has expanded its support base by establishing
close partnerships with several development organizations,
NGOs and IK Centers. More than 75% of the best practices
disseminated on the web were provided by these partners.
The initiative is growing beyond PICTA members. It has for
instance, begun to work with NWIPO to addrcss the intellec-
tual property rights aspect of IK. At the grass roots, the Initia-



4
IK Notes
would be of interest to:
Name
Institution
i Address
* .1: .:: .*S - .:: : 1
J I !    ^' !I .1  ..I  1.!1.
I~~~~~    S   S :.  SI. 'I  ::