The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : UN initiative on knowledge sharing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

UN initiative on knowledge sharing

By Our Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA, MARCH 29. The United Nations Country Team in India has launched a new initiative called `Solution Exchange' that offers communities of development practitioners, a forum to exchange knowledge and find solutions to their problems.

"The move is about organising knowledge. We know that knowledge is contextual," says Anuradha Sen Mookerjee, knowledge management resource person for gender community of Solution Exchange.

Ms. Mookerjee is touring different places to disseminate information about the UN initiative. Interestingly, Vijayawada is the first city in her itinerary. "A lot of people in Andhra Pradesh have Internet connectivity. It is a significant territory for us as I can see a lot of work being done at the grassroots level. I strongly feel that work launched in a place like Vijayawada will be meaningful."

Open discussions

Addressing a gathering of Government officials, NGOs and academicians here on Tuesday, Ms. Mookerjee sought to clarify that it was an open forum where groups were being formed in nine different categories. These thematic groups were formed based on issues related to poverty, environment, health, HIV/AIDS, gender, food security, decentralisation and pro-poor governance, education and south-south cooperation on investment promotion, joint ventures and technology transfer.

"This is also an effort to strategise outreach of the local knowledge. The UN realises the importance of acknowledging their knowledge," she says.

Free membership

Membership in a group is free and open to all development practitioners. Those aspiring to get their names registered can be Government officials, field workers related to an NGO, service delivery administrators at State, district or community level, community leaders or activists, political authorities, planners, policymakers, entrepreneurs, donors, researchers and other individuals involved in poverty alleviation programmes.

Asked about the feasibility of the initiative, Ms. Mookerjee points out: "I have seen hugely successful net communities like MDG Net which has 4,000 to 5,000 groups. The move is about developing peer relationship.

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