Title: Information and Communication Technologies, Knowledge Management and Indigenous Knowledge
1Information and Communication Technologies,
Knowledge Management and Indigenous Knowledge
- Implications for Communities in Ethiopia
Lishan Adam, PhD Research ICT Africa
19 April 2007
2Agenda
- Information and communication technologies and
IK
- Community structures for promoting IK systems in
Ethiopia
- Knowledge Management and Indigenous Knowledge
systems
- Best practices around the world
- Conclusion
In Africa, when an old man dies, it is a library
that burns down.
Amadou Hampâté Bâ
3What is indigenous knowledge?
- Profound, detailed and shared knowledge, beliefs
and rules with regards to the physical resource,
social norms, health, ecosystem, culture,
livelihood of the people who interact with
environment both in rural and urban settings - Knowledge that forms basis for local level
decision making in agriculture, health care, food
preparation, education, natural resource
management, and a host of other activities
4Indigenous knowledge
- Dynamic and evolved from years of experience and
trial-and-error problem solving by groups of
people working in their environments drawing upon
resources they have at hand - Often shunned by modern scientific knowledge
5What are some roles of the ICTs
- include telecommunications technologies such as
telephony, cable, satellite and radio, as well as
digital technologies, such as computers,
information networks and software - ICTs
- Enable capturing, storing and sharing of
indigenous knowledge
- Support the incorporation of indigenous knowledge
with modern scientific and technical knowledge
- Create easily accessible indigenous knowledge
information systems
- Promote integration of indigenous knowledge in
formal and non-formal training
- Provide a platform for advocating for improved
benefit of the poor from their intellectual
property rights and indigenous creators
6Characteristics of IK that impact on ICTs
- IK is generated within communities
- IK is location and culture specific
- IK is part of the local ecosystem
- IK covers human and animal life, primary
production, natural resource management (basic
needs)
- Use of IK is cost-effective, sustainable and
locally manageable
- IK is dynamic , innovative, adaptive and open for
experimentation
- IK is oral and rural in nature
- IK is not systematically documented
- IK is not integrated into modern scientific and
technical knowledge
7Challenges in applying ICTs
- All IK does not require ICTs can be captured on
paper, books
- Knowledge holder often do not volunteer their
knowledge
- IK databases and capturing process is laborious
and time consuming
- Significant unresolved intellectual property
issues and challenges especially if the
traditional knowledge leads to corporate gains
- People who need IK may not have access to the
technologies to make use of them
- Those who read IK or access to databases are
biased towards modern knowledge
- Need to put in place and strengthen community
structures that promote the flow of IK
8Community Structures for IK - interface
- Recent practice focuses on the development of IK
databases and encourage their use by target
groups
- The model was not successful in many cases
- Important to encourage the flow and systematic
gathering of IK through existing community
structure such as idir, iqub, community
resources centres, community libraries, etc. - Less high-tech approach to IK by focusing on
index of what works, where to find and whom to
contact
9Role of Libraries and IRCs
- Collecting, preserving and disseminate indigenous
and local traditional knowledge
- Publicizing the value, contribution, and
importance of indigenous and local traditional
knowledge to both non-indigenous and indigenous
peoples - Raising awareness on the protection of indigenous
knowledge against exploitation
- Involving elders and communities in the
production of resources and teaching children to
understand and appreciate the traditional
knowledge - Encouraging the recognition of principles of
intellectual property to ensure the proper
protection and use of indigenous traditional
knowledge and products derived from it.
10Role of MPCCs
- Venue for ICT introduction to community
- Platform for sharing digitized IK
- Platform for trying new technologies and tools
out
- Community broadcasting can be used for exchange
of IK
11Role of Community Based Structures
- Community based social-capital structure such as
idir and iqub have been platforms for
exchange of IK
- Can be used to capture and exchange knowledge or
develop indices of IK on what works and what
does not, who holds relevant knowledge and how
to contact them in electronic and non-electronic
formats - Form the basis of IK systems in Ethiopia
12Example of Best Practices 1
- Honey Bee Network
- Gathered over 11,000 IK innovations in India
- Provide venture funds to turn ideas and practices
into product enterprise development
- Establish competition on recipes for women
- Protection of intellectual property rights and
rewarding innovators
- Annual innovators meeting, market place
- Promotion of changes into the educational
systems
13Example of Best Practice 2
- Policy development in South Africa
- IK policy approved by Cabinet in 2004
- Covers aspects such as
- Institutional and governance arrangement
- Gathering and preserving IK
- Networks and support mechanism for IK
- Research and development
- Intellectual property rights
14Lesson for KM for Development 1
Biggest lesson was understanding the nature of
indigenous knowledge
- Tacit knowledge - unconscious and intuitive
knowledge gained through experience that allows
individuals to make decisions without referring
to rules or principles (e.g. knowing how to
perform medical operations, knowing how to
network at a conference) - Explicit knowledge that is articulated and
accessible to anyone who reads, hears or looks at
it (e.g. a training guide on using a software
package or the conclusions of a policy briefing
paper) - Implicit knowledge helps individuals know what
is socially and culturally appropriate in a given
circumstance including shared beliefs, values and
expectations (e.g. knowing that it is
inappropriate to undermine colleagues in public,
understanding management attitudes within a given
organization) - Indigenous knowledge is mainly tacit/implicit.
That makes is hard for capturing and exchange
15Lesson from Km for development 2
- Sharing knowledge is possible but that does not
always translate into use for taking decisions,
making informed actions and modifying behaviors
in order to achieve development goals. - Effective knowledge sharing should not be imposed
from outside but should be organic, learned and
has to be embedded into work processes, local eco
systems and livelihoods - Experiences from which most knowledge emerges,
have local particularities like context, actors
and processes. This limits the way local
knowledge can be generalized and replicated in
other settings - Valuable local knowledge is often not locally
known nor socially recognized. This is partially
constrained by myths, old paradigms, cultural
idiosyncrasies and prejudices of professionals
and institutions - The interaction between modern and traditional
knowledge is desired but too complex to realize
16Conclusions
- Focus on IK would help the poor to build on
resources in which they are rich knowledge
- Ethiopia needs to embark on various steps
- Create forums of institutions and networking
among these
- Research on mapping IK asset (medicinal plants),
barriers, community and social structures
- Strategies for identifying and document IK and
institutional and support initiatives
- National register on IK, rewarding innovators,
integrating IK in educational systems
- Capacity building in IK and knowledge management
- IK policy based on developing country experiences
17Rabbit, where are you going?I am going to
kill the Elephant (IK).Can you do that?Well,
Ill try, and try again. Tanzanian,
ProverbThank you