Enhancing Capacity through Peer-to-peer Exchanges

One of the strategic objectives of the IK Program is to facilitate learning exchanges among IK practitioners to enhance their capacity to apply indigenous practices in their development activities. The following are examples of the activities supported by the IK Program which have produced specific outcomes in this area:

• 1st IK Knowledge and Learning Exchange (September 2002) which brought policy makers, project leaders and Bank staff from East Africa to sites in India and Sri Lanka to learn together from local communities about the successful integration of IK practices in early childhood and medicinal plants development programs. The learning exchange enabled the visitors to adapt their programs and integrate the learning into their ongoing programs in their respective countries.
• 2nd IK Knowledge and Learning Exchange (June 2004) brought project teams and Bank staff from Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Malawi to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to learn from local communities about the use of indigenous knowledge, micro-credit, medicinal plants and informatics. The visitors later integrated the learning into their ongoing and new projects and programs.
• Cross-regional distance learning course in March 2005 on Using Indigenous Knowledge for the Millennium Development Goals in partnership with the Global Development Learning Network. More than 100 participants attended from Uganda, Tanzania, India and Sri Lanka. The five-day course comprised presentations from experts (US-NIH and   WIPO) and facilitated a cross regional sharing of experiences among IK practitioners (including traditional healers), NGOs, academics, experts, project officials, policy makers and national IK experts. The participants developed action plans for the integration of IK into their work program.
• The CDD Knowledge Fair in Burkina Faso (November 2003) highlighted the use of traditional medicine and the results of the Zai farmer practices on improving crop yields and preserving the environment.
• NGOs and national agencies working on IK in Africa shared their experiences with 200 African leaders, policy makers and civil society representatives at the Global Coalition for Africa (GCA) conference in Accra (January 2003).
• IK Program partnered with the CCD/Global Mechanism and the Swiss Development Cooperation and The Environmental Management Group (EMG) in South Africa to organize several regional community-to-community exchanges on natural resource management practices. The lessons of experience from these learning exchanges were used to develop a community exchange toolkit for IK practitioners.
• The IK Program brought together traditional and modern health practitioners from Africa to share experiences and learn from each other at the SADC Summit on HIV/AIDS in Maseru (June 2003).
• A community knowledge fair in Africa was held in a village in Malawi as part of the launch of the Third Social Action Fund (SAF) project. This was followed by a community exchange among seven different communities that had benefited from the first two SAF projects in Malawi.
• IK seminar on using indigenous knowledge to help achieve the MDGs, namely reducing maternal mortality, HIV-AIDS and conserving biodiversity. 
• IK centers in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia to research IK practices and contribute to the IK database.
• IK centers ( Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania and Burkina Faso) with improved connectivity and networking capacity.
• IK seminar on "Learning from local healers and farmers", which brought together development practitioners from East Africa, US scientists and Bank staff to discuss traditional treatments of HIV/AIDS.
• Pilot "Community-to-Community Exchange" leads to export contracts for communities producing Rooibos Tea and the creation of their own website; in partnership with Global Mechanism of the Convention to Combat Desertification, and NGOs.
• In Kenya, Masaai pastoralists and women farmers exchange knowledge in medicinal plants and traditional food crops.
• In Tanzania, the TANGA AIDS Working Group shared their experiences working with local healers to treat the opportunistic infections related to HIV/AIDS with other communities across the country
• Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) launched an IK Resource Development Newsletter supported by the IDF.
• National stakeholder workshop  on IK in agricultural research and development with (NARO) in Uganda.
• National Workshop on integrating IK in development programs in Burkina Faso and Mali.

 

 

 

• in Burkina Faso and Mali.