The International Financial Institutions’ (IFIs) Community of Practice on Knowledge Management (KM) converged for their 2022 Summer Meeting that was convened by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on 22 June.

Representatives from 17 organizations delved into discussions on knowledge management governance and functions. This is an essential topic for knowledge management as it entails discussion on the functions and positioning of a core KM team in an organization and their respective reporting lines. This is ultimately fundamental to show what the added value of KM is.

Led by moderator George Zedginidze, Head of Knowledge and Change Management at the GCF, the participants learned about experiences and challenges faced by other IFIs, UN entities and private sector thanks to a benchmarking exercise conducted by the GCF’s Knowledge and Change Management team and to a fruitful COP discussion.

A few concepts were specifically unpacked, such as the difference between central KM functions, which refer to a centralized team, and embedded functions in different divisions/offices. The participants agreed on the crucial need for both and to establish a strong and clear relationship between the two of them. Moreover, there was consensus on the advantage to report to the leadership of the organization. This provides a bird eye view on the organization and neutrality in the approach to different issues.

In the second half of the workshop, the participants had an opportunity to hear more from some organizations that volunteered to present their own case study. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) presented its client-oriented approach and effort in making knowledge management an inclusive and participated process. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) shared its exercise on taxonomy governance to ensure that knowledge management leaders are identified in key organizational positions and brought together to cooperate. Finally, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) presented its KM governance as strictly related with lessons learned from the portfolio and the sectors. The meeting ended with a lively COP discussion and the visualization of the main topics discussed that you can find below.