Hippolyte Affognon (ILRI) writes: Implementing knowledge acquired through Social Network Analysis training

Eva Schiffer, an expert in Social Network Analysis (SNA), gave training on SNA on the campus of ILRI Nairobi, Kenya from 13 to 17th October 2008.
After the training we applied the knowledge acquired in many workshops in West Africa to identify relevant and effective pathways for disseminating research results on a BMZ funded project on [...]

The study I quoted below…

Dear Neil and Noora, your comments (see below) made me dig into this issue more seriously and I did finally find the study (302 KB) I talked about in the last post. Katie Liljenquist at BYU’s Marriott School of Management studied how adding a socially unique outsider increases both group discomfort and the quality of [...]

The trust you need for the evil deed

Isn’t “trust” a beautiful and positive attribute of the relationship between humans? We trust our friends. We argue that trust within or between organizations furthers good knowledge management and fosters innovation. Societies where people have lost trust in their neighbors (e.g. after a civil war) are defunct and dreadful places to live in. Trust is [...]

Have you used Net-Map yet?

Then please drop me a line. I would love to hear from you, learn from your experiences, see what worked and what didn’t and understand better how an idea like this spreads through the system and mutates/evolves as it goes.
I (or some of our readers) might be able to answer some questions or help you [...]

Policy approved – and implemented?

I want to use this blog to help you to use Net-Map in your own work. This is why  – every once in a while – I give you examples of how exactly I tackle a concrete question in the field.
For example: Policy approval and implementation in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Strategy Support Program of the International [...]

What others write about Net-Map at the Knowledge ShareFair

Vanessa Meadu of the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi sums up the experiences of using Net-Map that IFAD staff shared at the FAO Knowledge ShareFair in Rome:
“Chase Palmieri discussed how an analysis of the IFAD Asia-Pacific network revealed a number of connections and activities that the network facilitators had not been aware of, such as [...]

Moses Abukari writes: Sharing Net-Map among Development Practitioners

After Eva Schiffer gave a wonderful presentation of the potentials of Net-Map in development at IFAD in December 2007, I have been looking for opportunities to further promote Net-Map. In June 2008, IFAD organized a one-day knowledge event where I shared Net-Map based on an IFAD case study I did together with Eva and Jennifer [...]

The structural logic behind corruption

When discussing corruption, a lot of people from less corrupt systems talk about blatantly corrupt systems and you can hear a condescending undercurrent of: “These amoral corrupt people…” in their assessment of the situation. As if it was always the decision of this one corrupt individual to take or give bribes. And, understanding where they [...]

Paolo Brunello writes: Understanding group dynamics, identifying leaders

My 30 Burundian trainees are technical high school teachers whom I’ve carefully selected to install and administer a dozen computer labs in their schools. As I strongly believe that such a task can be accomplished only if the people involved share a common vision of the project as a whole, I decided to try out [...]

General or specific questions?

Yesterday I sat with a group of colleagues at IFPRI to discuss our plans for supporting the Nigeria Strategy Support Program to better understand how research influences (or doesn’t) agricultural policy making in the country. We want to know this for two reasons:

IFPRI is pretty active in Nigeria and aims [...]