Using card collection method to ensure participatory decision-making

My colleague in the Knowledge Sharing Team Meena Arivananthan and I recently organized a training session on a knowledge sharing method called “Card Collection”.

The Card Collection method is not new and was first described by Neill McKee, formerly at UNICEF Bangladesh, in 1993. This method is similar to the ToP Workshop Method currently taught to FAO Staff in the Facilitation I: Guide Group Participation Training Course.

The Card Collection Method is a facilitated process that supports groups with strong hierarchies or diverse ideas. I have also used this method in a setting where participants did not know each other. Personally, I find this method extremely useful for the following reasons:

• Allows everyone to share their thoughts, ideas, solutions, suggestions, etc. on a specific topic of common interest
• Due to its participatory nature, the results often have a higher buy-in when compared to decisions that are not participatory.
• Because no idea is discarded, everyone feels at equal level.

To learn more about this method, please visit the CGIAR/FAO Knowledge Sharing Toolkit: http://www.kstoolkit.org/Card+Collection.

Are you planning to attend the Knowledge Share Fair "AgKnowledge Africa 2010"?

As we start preparing the Share Fair in Addis, we need to have a general idea about how many people are currently thinking of attending the event.

Are you planning to attend? If yes, please complete this short ‘Expression of Interest to attend’ survey: Expression of Interest

AgKnowledge Africa: Call for Proposals is available

Like the 2009 edition in Rome, the upcoming AgKnowledge Africa Share Fair will be a ‘fair’ that brings together the diverse knowledge of the continent and the multiple innovative ways it is created, shared, communicated, and applied. We will be sharing the experiences of a wide range of people and organizations: Farmer organizations, extensionists, researchers, students, academia, policy shapers, information and communication specialists, private sector actors, international and regional organizations, and governments.

The heart of the fair is a series of thematic ‘learning pathways’ in a process of mapping, sharing and connecting people and activities. These pathways will showcase how African ‘talents’ are creating, sharing and using rural knowledge - at the grassroots, in research and policy, and through intermediaries. The pathways will focus on agriculture and climate change, land, livestock, and water.

Download the brochure [PDF].

Call for proposals can be downloaded here. Please submit your proposals by sending an email to: sharefairaddis @ gmail.com. The submissions closes on September 5, 2010.

More Share Fairs around the corner

The first Share Fair (January 2009) was organized to raise awareness about innovative knowledge sharing practices as well to enable colleagues in Rome-based agencies to showcase, recreate and invent ways to share knowledge and improve access to it.

Since the first event, several Share Fairs have taken place in different parts of the world. Here is a list of all the events we organized to date:

• FAO Climate Change Days - Rome, Italy - 21 - 23 June 2010
• Foire aux Savoirs, EMIG, Niamey - Niger 15 - 17 juin 2010
• Feria del Conocimiento CIAT Cali, Colombia - 25 - 27 May 2010
• Share Fair FAO Rome, Italy - 20 - 22 January 2009

Several events were also organized in affiliation with us. These include, but are not limited to:

• ABDC-10, Guadalajara, Mexico - 1 - 4 March 2010
• 1st IAAH Consultation, Rome, Italy - 22 - 24 June 2010

In the remaining months of this year, two similar events are going to be organized.

The first one, is an Inter-Agency Fair organized by the United Nations Development Group. The event will take place in Vienna from 28 - 30 September 2010. This event will focus on " Policy Advice vs. Implementation: how to find the right positioning for UN development activities at the country level?"

For more information, please visit: http://bit.ly/bzhwZo

The second Share Fair will take place at ILRI Campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event will take place from 18 - 21 October 2010 and will showcase innovative approaches to knowledge sharing and provide platforms and spaces where these innovations can be shared, spilling over to other regions and countries through partnerships and joint ventures. The subject areas covered are agriculture and climate change, agriculture and water, livestock and fisheries, and land.

For more information, please visit: http://bit.ly/sharefairaddis

To learn more about the Share Fair and how it is organized, visit: http://bit.ly/aboutShareFair