Good practices at FAO: Experience capitalization for ...

1 September 2013 Good practices at FAO: Experience capitalization for continuous learningFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)1. Why do good practices matter? For an organization to progress and adapt to change, it must become a learning organization which draws lessons from its experiences in order to identify and understand good practices . These good practices will improve the way the organization works. They can be applied to specific contexts, institutionalized, shared and replicated at different levels: from local to international. However, if no action is taken to analyse, capitalize and share the knowledge gained in programmes and projects, institutional memory will not be transmitted, the same mistakes will be repeated, the success of our experiences will not be known and opportunities for improved practices will be lost, thereby preventing the sharing of good practices .

2 An organization can turn knowledge into action through knowledge sharing and capitalization of concept note is a short introduction to the process of documenting and capitalizing on experiences and good practices . 2. Good practices at FAO: backgroundFAO has been tasked by its members to address major global challenges, including population growth, insecurity and crisis, the large and increasing number of undernourished people in the world, the prospect of rising inequality and problems of access to food by the most vulnerable populations, and the increased scarcity of natural resources worsened by climate change.

3 The situation is further compounded by the volatility in world food prices. 1 Besides these global challenges, FAO is striving to ensure disaster risk management and to make the link between emergency, rehabilitation and development activities. Good practices are key in delivering this work. There is growing interest in sharing good practices and lessons learned within FAO and with partners. Good practices within FAO are available on the FAO Good practices Web site: and in the Corporate Document Repository: concept note1 The Director-General s Medium Term Plan 2010-13 (Reviewed) and Programme of Work and Budget 2012-13: (page 4, 3rd paragraph) Fostering knowledge sharing and learning Fostering knowledge sharing and learning 3.

4 Good practice and best practice: differences and similaritiesA good practice can be defined as follows:A good practice is not only a practice that is good, but a practice that has been proven to work well and produce good results, and is therefore recommended as a model. It is a successful Experience , which has been tested and validated, in the broad sense, which has been repeated and deserves to be shared so that a greater number of people can adopt 2013 Some people prefer to use the term good practice instead of best practice , as in reality it is debatable whether there is a single best approach knowing that approaches are constantly evolving and being updated.

5 The expression best practices can be defined as the best examples of practices : which methods, tools, or approaches have been shown to be the best in a specific situation. As is the case of good practices , best practices should also imply ease of transfer to other situations with similar goals. As best practice may imply that no further improvements are possible, the term good practice may be more improvement and iteration are in fact implicit to the concept of good practice . However, the terms best practice and good practice both share the same goal and imply a single process, namely: A validated and successful Experience which deserves to be disseminated for better adoption by a larger number of beneficiaries; A beneficial Experience which can be replicated elsewhere; An Experience , which has been tested, accepted and adopted by those who implemented Criteria for identifying good practicesThe following set of criteria will help you determine whether a practice is a good practice :1.

6 Effective and successful: A good practice has proven its strategic relevance as the most effective way in achieving a specific objective; it has been successfully adopted and has had a positive impact on individuals and/or Environmentally, economically and socially sustainable: A good practice meets current needs, in particular the essential needs of the world s poorest, without compromising the ability to address future needs. 3. Gender sensitive: A description of the practice must show how actors, men and women, involved in the process, were able to improve their Technically feasible: Technical feasibility is the basis of a good practice.

7 It is easy to learn and to Inherently participatory: Participatory approaches are essential as they support a joint sense of ownership of decisions and actions. 6. Replicable and adaptable: A good practice should have the potential for replication and should therefore be adaptable to similar objectives in varying Reducing disaster/crisis risks A good practice contributes to disaster/crisis risks reduction for concept note23 September 20132 Capitalize is to transform the Experience into shareable knowledge Pierre de Zutter, Des histoires, des savoirs, des hommes.

8 L exp rience est un capital, FPH, Paris, 1994, p. 36 What is Experience capitalization ?2 Communication for Development (ComDev) is a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. ComDev is about seeking change at different levels including listening, establishing trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating and learning for sustained and meaningful change. See concept noteThroughout the cycle of capitalization , one should remember that: Women and men have knowledge about different things Women and men have different knowledge about the same things Women and men may organise their knowledge in different ways Women and men may receive and transmit their knowledge by different means Dimitra s Publication: Communicating Gender for Rural Development, page 63, FAO, 201135.

9 Experience capitalization : a process to identify good practicesExperience capitalization , or systematization is an iterative process through which an Experience (with its successes and failures) is identified, valued and documented in various media. This systematic process will allow learning of lessons and identification of good practices . Thanks to this approach, the practice can change and improve and may thereafter be adopted by to the work of documenting and capitalizing of good practices , an organization can respond more quickly and effectively to different types of crises and changes that may arise.

10 Capitalisation d exp riences in French sistematizaci n in SpanishHow do we proceed?Several complementary approaches are indicated in the process of Experience capitalization (part of a knowledge strategy). It is therefore necessary to: Systematically integrate Experience capitalization into the project cycle; Plan it from the beginning along the different steps; Use participatory methodologies (to ensure effective involvement of stakeholders); Integrate monitoring and evaluation (allowing comparison and verification of data and information obtained at the different steps of the implementation of the practice); Follow approaches that are useful to the process, such as analytical, self-evaluation and self-criticism approaches, and be open to criticism and changes.