Knowledge for Development: What's KfD?
What KfD is
Connecting People — Working Smarter — Getting
Results
USAID created the Knowledge for Development (KfD) Program
to connect people with what and who they need to know to “work
smarter” in concert with others to accomplish USAID’s
mission. KfD helps people adapt to rapidly changing events,
policies, and strategies by making information and experience
easy to find and use for informed decisions and actions.
Why KfD is important
USAID is one of the world’s premier development agencies,
known for its rich international development experience. Its
people work worldwide, generating knowledge and requiring
timely information wherever they are. USAID’s knowledge
can be found in reports in a mission in Zagreb, in databases
in Cairo, in the expertise and skills of a Honduran employee,
or in the head of an employee in Washington. This knowledge
can be lost as people move from one post to another within
the organization or as someone retires. KfD supports the capturing
and sharing of this experience that is so important for continued
success.
What KfD does
- Provides timely, accurate, accessible information
- Improves capture of USAID experience
- Applies lessons and replicates successes to achieve results
more efficiently
- Retains and shares institutional memory
What they are saying about KfD
I now see that knowledge is a resource, and just as you
manage resources like funding, people and time, we must find
a way to manage our knowledge to get the most from it.
-USAID Mozambique Knowledge Coordinator
HR and KfD are joined at the hip in launching new initiatives
to establish a USAID expertise locator system and find a way
to plumb knowledge and experience from folks who are retiring
from the agency.
-USAID Chief Human Capital Officer
USAID does development by delivering technical assistance
and training. Thus its work is all about managing information
and knowledge.
-USAID Assistant Administrator for the Economic
Growth, Agriculture and Trade Bureau
How we do it
- After-Action Review (AAR)—the tool
for immediate review of an event—what went well and
why, what to improve and how.
- Communities of Practice (CoP)—a
means for collaboration and dialogue between people invested
in common goals, issues, or business practices—supported
with facilitation, guidelines and software.
- Collaborative Tools—standards and
guidelines for an integrated set of tools to facilitate
collaboration among USAID staff,
partners, and beneficiaries.
- Expertise Locator—connecting people
by linking those wanting knowledge with those who have it.
- KfD Training—to help USAID reap
the full benefit of a learning organization to apply experience
to new challenges.
Who we are
Contact the KfD team to obtain more information, request
KfD services, or share your knowledge:
Email: KfD@usaid.gov
Knowledge for Development (KfD)
Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination
U.S. Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 6.08
Washington, DC 20523
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