Abstract

The case examines Solution Exchange (SE), the knowledge management (KM) initiative of United Nations Development Program (UNDP). UNDP’s SE initiative was first launched in India in 2005. SE in India comprised of 12 Communities of Practice (CoP) – education, AIDS, climate change, decentralization, disaster management, food & nutrition security, gender, maternal & child health, and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) for development, microfinance, water, work & employment. Through these CoPs, members could interact through a virtual forum, discuss issues and share problems. SE was successful in encouraging knowledge sharing by bringing together frontline workers, the experts and also the policy makers. As of October 2009, apart from India, SE was also implemented in Bhutan, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia. The case details the implementation of SE initiative in India and analyzes its benefits. It ends with a discussion on the challenges faced by UNDP to scale-up the SE initiative.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the KM initiatives of UNDP. Study the rationale for implementing the SE initiative. Understand the use of various information and communication technologies (ICTs) in implementing the SE initiative. Examine the benefits of implementing the SE init

Keywords

Solution Exchange, United Nations Development Program, Communities of Practice, Information & Communication Technologies, Good Governance, Millennium Development Goals, Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction, Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Energy and Environment, SURF System, Global Knowledge Network, Knowledge on Demand, Decentralization Community, National AIDS Control Organization, Knowledge Repository, Social Networking, Teamworks, Knowledge Networks, Millennium Development Goals