Agenda Knowledge for Development

Mamun Rashid

Managing Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bangladesh

The concept of knowledge management is actually as old as the human civilization itself. There is no denying the fact that the generation, accumulation, sharing and utilization of knowledge has been the fuel that powered the advancement of mankind.
Modern day knowledge management (KM) refers to the structured process of creating, storing, protecting, using and sharing the knowledge and information of an entity. It is a multidisciplinary approach to achieving goals at the organizational, national and global level. Moreover, the rise in the volume of information in the 21st century has made organizations and governments in every country refocus on the importance of knowledge management. Even, in a developing nation like Bangladesh, efforts are being undertaken for improvement of knowledge generation, storage, protection and utilization processes in both private and public sector.
The United Nations puts emphasis on an appropriate knowledge management strategy for achieving its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) especially, in terms of localizing the SDGs, enhancing knowledge sharing and learning opportunities and promoting understanding, goodwill and support. The enhanced knowledge sharing, and promotion of goodwill can particularly work as a strong base for revitalizing global partnership for sustainable development which is the goal 17 of SDGs.
Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has further reinstated the need for global cooperation in terms of finding a cure or antidote for the virus that has put the world in a great pause. This again necessitates an appropriate knowledge management framework that systematically accumulates the findings at the global level and creates a collective intelligence to the benefit of the whole world. 

Syed Ishtiaque Reza

Editor in Chief, GTV

Bangladesh economy has experienced tremendous growth in some selected industries such as readymade garment, leather, food-processing and service sector like information technology over the last two decades. The country also made considerable progress on reducing extreme poverty measured by 1.9 USD per day. Other six goals of SDG – end hunger, health for all, quality education for all, gender equality and women’s empowerment and drinking water and sanitation for all are highly challenging for Bangladesh. Since 1990s, when Bangladesh went for large scale market liberalization, Bangladesh’s media continued playing important role in raising awareness about the Sustainable Development. In today’s knowledge society, media people here are focusing well on some cross-cutting issues and drivers of development like knowledge-based sustained, inclusive and maintainable economic growth, decent jobs for all, resilient infrastructure, bearable industrialization, innovation and skill development and a long quest for a plural political system. To achieve all these targets, I believe the education system needed improvement in all stages where media has a role to play as change agents. 

Inam Ahmed

Editor
The Business Standard

Since SDG is a global collective commitment to make life better free of poverty, hunger and to establish equality, access to resources and better environment, the effort to achieve this is quite a lofty task especially in the backdrop of the covid-19 pandemic situation.
The pandemic has changed the world, perhaps for a very long time. And it will need special attention and global support achieve the SDG. For some of the countries, it may be a daunting task altogether.
This is where the need for a collective effort is all the more necessary to make up the losses that the pandemic might have caused on the actions for SDG.
A collective knowledge sharing is also of utmost importance at this juncture so that the best practices are known to all, so that a short circuiting the long process is known to all so that despite the pandemic’s chipping effect, the goals remain unchanged with the set deadline.
Democracy needs accountability and sharing of knowledge will lead to that democratization of SDG knowledge, the combination of which will lead to make possible a word free of poverty and hunger.

Syed Khaled Ahsan

The World Bank Office in Bangladesh

Knowledge and development are complementary to each other. The connotation of knowledge is broad in the context of development. There is a need for a culture to be patronized by the state and a habit by its citizens to live in a knowledge based society. In the time of deadly corona virus, it is more necessary than before. Perceptions, post-truth, cognitive bias all are very dominant now across the world. Scientific knowledge or quest for knowledge has lost it ground in a highly hostile environment. Who can outperform this epidemic of ignorance? It’s none other than a knowledge based society! Knowledge is truth, and it must show the humankind the right path for a solution. A good number of people are working in laboratories, hospital and academia to bring that knowledge to us. We are awaiting to see that the light of knowledge, sooner it will arrive there.  

Shahidul Alam

Photographer, writer, human rights activist. Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018.

The development lens has largely focused on basic needs. On the availability of material things. For our life to have meaning, we need more than merely the ability to survive. We need freedom, dignity and hope. We need to be able to plan for the future. Knowledge helps us attain material needs, but equally importantly, it gains us respect and an insight into our own destiny. It allows us to make informed choices, to choose the right path. It allows the governed to have a say in the process of governance. In a divided world, access to knowledge, provides a path to equality, the ultimate development goal. 

Ms. Shaheen Anam

Executive Director
Manusher Jonno Foundation

Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) formed a Knowledge Management Team (KMT) in April 2018 for gathering evidence on what works, what does not work and capture lesson learned from its programmes. KMT is also contributing to extract, capture, store and improve both internal and external knowledge to improve the organizational performance. MJF’s advocacy, communication and various programmatic works are now more visible, specific and effective. MJF’s internal decisions at all levels are better informed. External dialogues so far has contributed to generating public discourse around human rights and good governance issues.

KMT is also leading MJF’s SDG team and contributing in advocacy efforts with the Bangladesh government and CSOs. I understand that Vienna-based Knowledge for Development Partnership (K4DP) is taking the lead in implementing SDG 17 which calls for multi-stakeholder partnerships for sharing of knowledge and technology. I congratulate K4DP for developing Agenda Knowledge for Development and MJF would support its endeavor in providing a universal framework for the advancement of knowledge in societies.

Dr. Ali Riaz

Professor, Department of Politics and Government, Illinois State University and Non-resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council, USA

Politics is essentially a process of comprehending the rights as citizens, understanding the responsibilities, exercising these rights and fulfilling these responsibilities even in adverse situation, and engaging in endeavors for common good – individually and as a community. All of these are the backbone of sustainable development. These can only be achieved through access to information and knowledge. Knowledge is not only the vital resource in achieving development but also a prerequisite for creating a more equitable world. Sharing the knowledge at global level contributes to the development of a pluralistic society and pursue inclusive development. Achieving the SDG requires the democratization of knowledge at national and global level. It is in this context that Knowledge Management, which means capturing, sharing and accessing knowledge, assumes a greater significance. We can ignore this only at our peril. Knowledge for Development Partnership is creating the awareness and providing a platform to achieve this goal. It’s beneficial for the global community to join the partnership and develop a global good practice of knowledge management to serve the humanity.

Sumaiya Khair Ph.D.

Professor of Law, University of Dhaka
& Adviser, Executive Management, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)

For years now, legal reform initiatives have been focusing on empowering the poor and the marginalized to make strategic use of the law to access justice. However, these have not always delivered the desired outcomes primarily because in many cases, this was done by simply grafting borrowed ideas from alien legal cultures without tailoring the responses to the socio-legal realities and without addressing in full the contradictions inhering in the economic, political and structural processes in a given society. Since the capacity of citizens to recognize rights and make a claim is constantly shifting in sync with structural processes, rights proponents and development workers need to draw on each other’s strengths and coordinate tactical measures, including research, learning and communication, to help articulate the needs of the people perceived by them as essential and identify multiple entry points for action and change. Disjointed initiatives, no matter how well-meaning, are likely to exacerbate the powerlessness of the poor in accessing justice and redressing rights.

Dr. Md. Golam Rahman

Former Chief Information Commissioner, Bangladesh

Communication is one of the major components of behavioral and societal effort to perform a specific purpose. Knowledge is also an essential resource for the development of societies all over the world. Knowledge sharing has a very close link to communication in data, information and knowledge exchange process. Communication and knowledge management functions can strengthen and consolidate public awareness, attitude, skills, opinion, aspirations, motivations, and build consensus around any issue. Vienna-based Knowledge for Development Partnership (K4DP) has developed an Agenda Knowledge for Development around SDG 17 where communication has a pivotal role to play.
As a life-long educationist, researcher and practitioner of development communication, I can endorse that effective communication equipped with proper package of information contributes to a success of planned programmes. With more humanitarian approaches, the data management ensuring of information and technology would help the developing countries to achieve a faster growth and better life of people. I wish K4DP in its endeavor to mainstream knowledge management and communication to achieve targets of SDGs for greater benefits for the people of the world.

Ali Imam Majumder

Former Cabinet Secretary, the Government of Bangladesh

There can be no denial on the imperatives for building global knowledge for attaining sustainable development. The need for development and sharing of such knowledge have become more crucial in the wake of the global pandemic situation. This may lead to two outcomes: renewed imperative for global knowledge production, dissemination and sharing of information, on the other, increased protectionism. This would certainly drive countries to revisit their development goals and agenda for sustainable development emphasizing inclusion, equity and justice. The interplay of ‘hierarchy’ and ‘market’ from governance perspective may further falter in absence of a proper knowledge ecosystem in this global turbulent time unless free flow of knowledge is shared. Several challenges constrain and risk development and sharing of such knowledge ecosystem. Unless it is open access, scientific, free from parochial and partisan standpoints, it will have dents on credibility, reliability and trustworthiness. However, knowledge production would call for more investment in research and publication. The global pandemic situation have definitely put huge burden on the economies, therefore, may push knowledge production and dissemination further costly. Along this line, protecting intellectual property rights, leveraging open access information to curb digital divide and ensure free flow of information shows greater promises of building a knowledge-based society across the globe.