Institutionalizing learning in rural poverty alleviation initiatives

Résumé

This article describes a 5-phase approach for improving the learning capacity of rural development initiatives focused on poverty reduction that was applied in projects supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The approach is called ?Aprendizaje y Gestion de Conocimento? (AGC ? Learning and Knowledge Management). Like many development interventions, IFAD projects are not designed to be action learning processes. Yet they recognise the need for project-centred learning to improve their actions, either immediately, in next phases of funding or broadly within poverty reduction. The challenge is how to promote, design and conduct learning processes within organizations and project activities that have not been designed with this purpose in mind. The AGC process described here is based on work undertaken with 16 projects supported by IFAD in Latin America and the Caribbean. From 2002 to 2005, the projects were accompanied with varying degrees of intensity and success in undertaking systematic learning efforts around themes or questions of core concern. The article concludes with observations about the conditions needed for effective learning in rural development initiatives, and critical issues that require particular attention.