Knowledge Management Trust Fund

Background and Objectives

The overall objective of the Knowledge Management Trust Fund (KMTF) is to mobilize, pool and leverage financial resources for strengthening knowledge development, management and dissemina-tion, research and knowledge capacity building activities in RMCs, and leveraging and utilizing knowledge generated elsewhere through partnerships.

The KMTF will finance the Knowledge Management and Development Strategy (KMDS) activities beyond those covered by the administrative budget, including activities on leveraging knowledge through partnerships, such as collaborative research with shared costs, visiting scholar programs, and wider leveraging on knowledge generated elsewhere for use at the Bank and in RMCs.

Areas of Focus / Sub-Sectors

The KMTF resources will support KMDS activities which generate knowledge valuable to Bank Op-erations and to RMCs, notably in the following key areas:

• Results measurement and statistical capacity building.
• Internal capacity building and networking.
• External capacity building and networking.
• Knowledge dissemination and exchange.

The activities should directly or indirectly support: (i) the advancement of internal knowledge man-agement activities of the Bank Group, including research, statistics and capacity building; (ii) the complementary work of Universities, Research Institutions and development Think Tanks engaged in knowledge activities in RMCs and in non-RMCs; (iii) leveraging, sharing and exchange of knowledge and analytical expertise through financing short-term visiting fellows and scholars; (iv) the enhanced dissemination, uptake and utilization of the Bank‟s knowledge products, and thus effectively support informed policymaking within the Bank and in RMCs.

The KMTF resources will also allow the Bank to strengthen its response to emerging issues (as was the case with the fuel, food and financial crisis), where the creation of new knowledge remains crucial for better policy formulation to enhance effective and coordinated African responses and development planning.

Target Beneficiaries

RMCs, universities, research institutions and think tanks in the RMCs and non-RMCs that have colla-borative research work in Africa.

Indicative Timeframe and Proposed Outcomes

The Fund is not yet operational.

Research Activities

• Knowledge generation for development effectiveness. Conduct selective studies intended to contri-bute towards improving the quality of Bank strategies and operations in RMCs;
• Leverage knowledge through partnerships. Focus on building partnerships and increasing collabora-tion with relevant external institutions, universities, and think-tanks in Africa;
• Enhance knowledge dissemination and sharing. Ensure that knowledge created and leveraged by the Bank through partners reaches end users;
  Partnerships and Cooperation Opportunities 47
  Newly Proposed Initiatives
• Enhance the application of knowledge. Strengthen operational and development effectiveness to provides a framework for a more systematic and pragmatic approach to assessing the likely or ex-pected impact of Bank projects in RMCs.

Statistical Activities

Focus on improving the statistical capacity of RMCs and the Bank through:

• Statistical Capacity Building in RMCs;
• Investment Climate Assessment (ICAs) studies;
• Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) and Service Delivery Surveys (SDS).

Capacity Building Activities

• Enhance knowledge dissemination and sharing and the application of knowledge to strengthen op-erational and development effectiveness;
• Internal Capacity Building in Research and Networking;
• Strengthen knowledge within the Bank‟s Complexes through Networks of Bank Staff, such as AfDB Network of Economists (ANE), Project Analysis Network (PAN), and poverty groups.

External Capacity Building in Research and Networking

• Build RMCs research capacity, encourage research collaboration between the Bank staff and exter-nal researchers;
• Establish a number of programs and relationships to facilitate external collaboration, knowledge dissemination and exchange of research findings:
  
  • The African Development Research Network (AfDRN)
  • Collaborative Research and Dissemination Activities
  • The Partnership-for-Skills-Development Program (PASDEP).

Administration and Governance Structure

The governance and administrative structure is composed of a coordinator, a technical review com-mittee, and an oversight committee.

• Coordinator: A Bank staff member will be designated as the Trust Fund Coordinator and be re-sponsible for receiving and screening financing requests, coordinating the preparation of projects or activities and ensuring their supervision.
• Technical Review Committee: composed by relevant Bank staff and presided by a Vice President. Responsible for approving all operations submitted by the coordinator for amounts under US$ 500,000.
• Oversight Committee (OC): composed by a Bank representative and representatives of the financ-ing partners. Responsible for approving the operational guidelines of the Fund as well as verifying the conformity of the use of resources in accordance with the objectives of the Fund. The OC will approve operations with budgets between US$ 500,000 and US$ 1 million.
• Operations over US$ 1 million will be submitted to the Board of Directors for approval.

Resources Required

The minimum threshold for multi-donor thematic funds is US$ 2 million.

Technical Department and Task Manager

Peter Ondiege, Chief Research Economist, Development Research Department
Tel: (216) 7110 3495

Partnerships and Cooperation Unit Focal Point

Laurence Gielen, Principal Cooperation Officer
Tel: (216) 7110 2641