Knowledge management critical to service delivery—Official
Local Development Fund (LDF) acting executive director Charles Mandala has called for documentation of all best practices generated from the programme to support district councils in service delivery.
Mandala made the remarks last week on the sidelines of a two-day knowledge management workshop for four districts participating in the Local Enterprise Development (LED) project. The districts are Mangochi, Mzimba, Ntchisi and Phalombe.
He said documentation of best practices in the implementation of LED project is essential in consolidating service delivery, especially at local authority level where most of the LDF projects are carried out.
“We are attempting at creating LDF as a knowledge base, which can contribute to the improvement of service delivery in district councils with clear, demonstrated evidence of efficiency, effectiveness and performance,” said Mandala.
He stressed that improvement of knowledge processes and sharing is critical to empowering local authorities with capabilities and competencies to deliver good quality social services.
Mandala said LDF technical support team embarked on the process of institutionalising knowledge management and making it an integral part of the organisation’s operations, adding that the process started with an audit which identified key issues in knowledge management practice.
“The audit process culminated into the development of a three-year knowledge management strategy with a vision of LDF as a knowledge-driven, continuous learning and adaptive agency for local development in Malawi,” he said, adding that the goal of the strategy is to establish and entrench the practice and culture of knowledge management within the operations of the LDF.
Mangochi District Council director of planning and development Walter Chikuni commended LDF team for coming up with a knowledge management initiative, saying it was an enlightening experience which would go a long way in capacitating local councils on how to manage critical information for project implementation.
“There has always been a need for management of the knowledge and information available in the councils. We need these skills which will not only be used in LDF-supported projects, but also in other development projects undertaken in the council,” he said.
Chikuni said the establishment of the knowledge management structure at the district council would serve as a reference point for perfecting some of the project activities initiated by government and different development partners.
Some of the objectives of the three-year pilot knowledge management strategy include positioning LDF as the centre of excellence for local development knowledge and experience and embedding and sustaining knowledge management processes and practices in LDF operations, among others.—Mana
