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Indigenous Knowledge: the East
Africa-South Asia Learning Exchange
An Example of South-South Cooperation
Zn I                          March 2002, a multi-sectoral team  their struggle to improve their liveli-
of 33 \Nlorld'Bank staff from the Af-  hoods. For example, farmers have used
rica Region embarked on a learning  organic fertilizers to increase soil fer-
tour of five East Asian countries - Ja-  tility in parts of Asia and Africa for cen-
0 3      pan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and  turies; similarly, local healers have
_r       i               Vietnam - in order to better under-  used medicinal plants in India and Tan-
stand the Asian development process.  zania to treat common human and ani-
The main objective of pioneering     mal diseases.
learning across regions was to enable  Many local organizations, institu-
- staff to provide better quality senrice  tions and communities have a wvealth of
to clients by helping expand their  knowvledge of IK practices. Howvever,
knowledge of successful development  these practices are not disseminated
practices, and by enhancing their be-  effectively because community-based
havioral skills in adapting good prac-  organizations lack the capacity to cap-
tices from one region to another    ture, document, validate and share
Inspired by the success of the pilot  them. As a result, IK is underutilized in
study tour, the Africa Region embarked  the development process, and local
No. 55                 on an initiative to build cross-regional  communities are constrained in their
April 2003               partnerships between E. Africa and S.
Asia seeking to integrate indigenous  IK Aotes reports periodically on
knowledge and practices into Bank-   Indigenous Knowledge (IK) initiatives
supported operations. The aim was to  in Sub-Saharan Africa and occasionally
on such initiatives outside the Region.
leverage the experience of IK good    It is published by the Africa Region's
practices from South Asia into Bank-  Kfiowledge and Learning Center as
part of ani evolxing IK partnership
supported projects in East Africa. This  betwveen the WA'orld Bank, communi-
V, ONAL q             would also help foster newv partner-  ties, NGOs, development institutions
\t°f   ships for South-South dialogue, coop-  and m'ultilateral organizations. The
ships for South-South dialogue, coop-  views expressed in this article are
eration and technical assistance.    those of the authors andi should not be
The focus wvas on indigenous knoNNl-  attributed to the WVorld Bank Group
>+<,  <e             .   .        .     .     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~or ItSpatesmhs  t.ti.A
edge as it is a key element of the social   partners in this initiative. A
webpagc on IK is available at //
capital of the poor, assisting them in  NNw %vorldbank.org/afr/ik/
default htm



ability to shape the debate on development priorities and  practices. If needed, a common wveb page for the partnership
lack the means to achieve them. To bridge the knowledge  will be created to link to project specific information.
gap, the Africa Region organized a cross regional IK learning  Finding afacilitator. Given the broad range of clients and
exchange betwveen East Africa and South Asia.        variety of topics to be covered during the exchange, it was
The first step was to identify potential projects in South  necessary to identify a facilitator to ensure a structured
Asia and East Africa that had either already developed effec-  learning process during the exchange. The Executive Direc-
tive IK components to promote community driven develop-  tor, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology
ment and those lacking these elements. The purpose was to  (UNCST) was selected as an appropriate facilitator.
match knowledge-seeking communities with those having  Video conference and exchange of information. A video
made effective use of their local assets for development.  conference was arranged involving all participating clients
where specific information on the use of IK (case studies) wvas
presented and discussed. This gave them an opportunity to
understand the importance of IK and to voice their opinions
The cross-regional partnership is being built in four phases.  on what they hoped to get out of the exchange, thereby giv-
The first phase will build linkages between the East African  ing the organizers an opportunity to design the study tour in
and South Asian projects. The second phase Nwill involve a  way that met the needs of the clients. A separate video con-
learning exposure for project personnel and CBO partners  ference was held with the facilitator, to familiarize him with
from project communities on actual project sites in India and  the planned activities and agree upon a modus operandi.
Sri Lanka. The third phase will focus on building capacity for
integrating IK into project activities and strengthening coun-  Phase H. Learning exposure for EA countries
try-level initiatives in the East African projects. The fourth
phase will help the projects to continue the partnership for  In September 2002, a group of clients (16 development prac-
further cooperation and learning. The activities are designed  titioners) from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, accompanied by
in these four phases to emphasize the importance of building  5 Bank staff visited India and Sri Lanka. The participants in-
and continuing the partnership rather than merely undertak-  cluded project staff from early childhood development and
ing study tours.                                     medicinal plants projects, civil society representatives, a tra-
ditional healer, a parliamentarian and a minister. The learn-
Phase I. Building linkages                           ing exposure comprised of (a) field visits to selected project
sites/communities to understand how the process worked,
Mapping exercise. The first activity to be undertaken was to  (b) interaction with field functionaries to understand how IK
identify nodal persons from each of the participating  catalyzed the communities' environmental and social assets
projects and develop shared perceptions on the purpose of  into economic gains (c) meetings with three State Chief
the initiative and role of the partners. Information and  Ministers in India to understand how good governance and
guidelines already available on integrating IK and practices  leadership have led to relatively sustainable development
into project planning and implementation were shared with  policies.
the projects.                                         Learning through reflection: In addition to discussions
Initiating dialogue. Contacts between the various part-  with counterparts and visits to project areas in South Asia,
ners was initiated and initial information on the initiative  the learning exchange included opportunities for the group
was exchanged. The use of IT for exchange of information  to reflect on their learning through debriefings. This learn-
was encouraged. Those projects already having web sites will  ing approach, recently pioneered in the Africa Region, in-
be encouraged to post IK-related information and the  volves video-taped narratives based on open-ended questions
progress that has already been made in identifying the IK and  designed to distill a "story". Over 5 debriefings the partici-



3
pants wvere encouraged to reflect on what they learned, how  opment and were keen to test some of these methodologies
relevant the learning was in the East African context, and  in an African context. In exchange, they also felt that South
what adaptation to the observed practices will be needed to  Asia could learn from East Africa, particularlv from their ef-
replicate it in East Africa. The debriefings results were syn-  forts to tackle the HLIT/AIDS epidemic. The kev lessons
thesized into short video clips that are available on-line on  learned and areas for future cross regional cooperation in-
the Intranet.                                        clude the followinig.
Ethiopia
Phase 1l1. Capacity Building at country level and     The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants
strengthening country level initiatives              Project seeks to initiate support for the conservation, man-
The participants from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia developed  agement and sustainable utilization of medicinal plants for
Country Action Plans for strengthening the incorporation of  human and livestock healthcare in Ethiopia. The Project is
IK and practices in their projects and also to share their  into its second year of implementation. Project staff visited a
learning experiences with other partners in their country  similar project on medicinal plants in Sri Lanka that is near
such as NGOs and Ministries of Health. The activities will  completion. There vere a number of lessons learned from
involve training and technical support to undertake initia-  the Sri Lankan experience that the Ethiopians plan to inte-
tives using IK for development and also for networking with  grate into their project. These include the legal protection
other partners in the country. Each country team focused on  of IK and benefit-sharing mechanisms, documentation of IK
the following key areas for South-South Cooperation:  practices and exchanges of experiences, institutionalization
* Partnerships and Networking (mainstreaming IK into de-  of traditional medicine, in-situ and ex-situ cultivation of me-
velopment policies, documentation and exchange of IK  dicinal plants. To this end, the project team intend to con-
practices, use of ICTs for rural development)      sult IUCN Sri Lanka on the Medicinal Plants Project and the
* Cross-Institutional Capacity Buildling (institutionalization  Tropical Botanic Garden Research Institute of India on con-
of traditional medicine, collaborative research on medici-  servation and benefit-sharing mechanisms.
nal plants, policy formulation and resource mobilization)
* Policy Level (legal protection of traditional knowledge,  Uganda
validation of IK practices, integration of IK into ECD pro-  The Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Project
grams)                                             seeks to improve the growvth and development of children
* Grassroots (integration of women's empowerment in all  under five years of age, in terms of nutrition, health, psycho-
programs, involve communities in project design and  social and cognitive aspects. The project is near completion
implementation, use ICTs to link communities with mar-  and a second phase is in the pipeline. A number of lessons
kets)                                              learned from India and Sri Lanka are planned to be inte-
* Awareness Raising and Dissemination (seminars to share  grated into the new project. These include the integration of
South Asian experiences xvith national stakeholders, inter-  IK into ECD policies, integrated approaches to early child-
ministerial Meeting to raise IK at the policy level, press  hood development, training of care-givers and adolescents in
conferences to disseminate experiences to public).  integrated ECD senrices and parenting, use of ICTs for com-
munity data collection, documentation and information-shar-
The East African delegation felt that South Asia wvas more  ing to improve access to information for decision-making and
advanced in several key areas related to the application of  market access. In this context, as a follow-up to the Learning
indigenous know,ledge in early childhood development prac-  Exchange, the Minister for Primary Healthcare recently took
tices, the conservation of medicinal plants and the use of  another official delegation to India and plans to host a re-
ICTs for rural development. They were particularly im-  gional trainingworkshop in Uganda on traditional medicine.
pressed by India and Sri Lanka's holistic approaches to devel-  The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology



(UNISCT) is sponsoring a group of IK practitioners to visit In-  Client feedback
dia and Sri Lanka. UNCST also plans to develop an IK pro-
In a client survey, the East African delegation provided the
posal for South-South Cooperation, with NASTEC - its coun-
terpart in Sri Lanka.                               following feedback on the study tour:
o This is a window of opportunity for opening up institutions
Ifenyat                                             to each other's programs.
The Early Childhood Dcvelopment Project seelis to im-  a One can see the different options and approaches that can
prove the quality and education of poor Kenyan households,  be used to implement development activities.
o Such exchange visits are beneficial in guiding policy objec-
'vith a focus on improved teacher performance and commu-
tives and targeting vulnerable groups; and help redirect
nitv capacity building. The lessons learned from South Asia
efforts to move towards holistic approaches towards devel-
related to IK and ICTs were similar to the ones mentioned in
the Uganda case. The project is in its third year of implemen-  opment.
o Participants should be selected from multi-sectoral and in-
tation and plans to also focus on issues that wvere being eftec-
tively tackled in India and Sri Lanka. These include: commu-  terdisciplinary activities to include legislators, researchers
nitv empowerment, women self-help groups, income-gener-
o There is a need to develop networking for both regions
ating activities, microfinance, multi-sectoral approaches to
and also betwveen the institutions that have common pro-
development and poverty reduction that involve the commu-
grams. The East African country teams should organize
nitv at all levels of planning and implementation.
exchange visits among themselves.
o Learning experiences once documented and disseminated
Phase IV. Continuing linkages for further cooperation  to rural communities can strengthen poverty alleviation
efforts in each country.
The last phase will have activities that wvill ensure that the
partnership is continued beyond the initial exchanges and
visit. `Ivo activities are envisaged at this stage: (i) The South
Asia and East Africa projects wvill access and use information
on 1K already available to them through the wveb and be part
of a regional partnership that builds on IK and people's par-
ticipation; (ii) The participating projects wvill also put to-
gether a newsletter on IK initiatives and participatory M&E.
In case more than one project is involved in a country, one of
the institutions/projects wvill be chosen as a nodal agency.
3 a tXSi3it
Tuis note was written by Siddhartha Prakash. The IK Learning Exchange was jointly conceived and organized by
Siddhat-tha Prakash, Krishna Piclatcdat and E.U Shantha. For details contact: SVrakash(Cworldbank.org or
Kpdcla)a?iwoI-ldbarnk.or .