Sharing Tacit Knowledge for Humanitarians: A Resource Pack
Commissioned by ALNAP and co-developed with national organisations from different crisis-affected countries.
The Task
As part of ALNAP’s Learning Series, we facilitated the development of a resource pack to support organisations to capture, value and utilise important knowledge and learning from staff working in local and national organisations that interact closely with communities over time.
The process
We wanted to ensure that the resource pack was developed collaboratively and responded to the needs of organisations. We did this by mapping gaps in existing approaches, establishing a expert steering group and undertaking an iterative design process.
The Steering Group were key in shaping five key aspects of the Resource Pack:
That ‘tacit knowledge’ as a phrase for capturing the concept of frontline workers knowledge was valuable.
That a range tools already exist for capturing and sharing tacit learning, but having a framework that brings best practice and emphasised the organisational learning culture would be useful.
That individual and organisational learning are important to recognise within how tacit learning is used.
The importance of community knowledge should not be ignored.
That all types of humanitarian organisations should value the knowledge of their staff and partners.
The Result
An open-source Resource Pack available through ALNAP and Reliefweb’s websites, which includes a tacit knowledge framework and five resources that can be used together or separately, by individuals and as part of an organisation’s learning process. The resource pack has been translated into Arabic, French and Spanish. Access the full resource pack HERE.
You can watch the webinar about developing the resource pack here.
Project Lead: Joanna Knight
In collaboration with: The Research People
Themes: Co-production; Learning Together; Humanitarian Response; Social Justice.
Read here about how COAST Foundation in Bangladesh used the resource pack.