Knowledge and data management during project execution and organisational closure: learning from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development (CTA)

Abstract

Knowledge and data management have gained recognition as critical factors for organisational and project success. In development organisations, knowledge management (KM) has been in place from the early 80?s while its importance in project management emerged in the early 2000 and has become increasingly relevant for decision-makers in the development milieu. Knowledge is the foundation for equitable and sustainable development.  Owing to the need for reliable data and major developments in the area of data management for instance, access to IT platforms to put data in context, access to data storage and analysis capabilities at low cost. More and more development organisations have realized the importance of incorporating data management into organisational and project management programmes.  At the same time, well established developmental organisations are faced with an urgent need to adjust their knowledge and data management approaches due to improvements in technology, availability of data and data analysis tools. Additionally, some developmental organisations are facing institutional changes that will either see them changing their management approaches while some might even close their doors. This was the case of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), which started as a knowledge broker to driving wider investments, promoting innovation exchange on technologies, digital solutions, business models and relationships that have been critical to the sustainable transformation of ACP agriculture and the improvement of food and nutrition security. After 37 years in operation, CTA is coming to the end of its mandate as the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP countries, the legal and financial framework within which CTA functioned, has ended. These decades of investments have yielded knowledge and data which is extremely useful to the development sector. Though the Centre adjusted its approach from being a sole knowledge broker to driving greater sustainable agriculture development, the agenda of knowledge and data management remained key throughout its lifetime. This article aims to discuss CTA?s knowledge and data management approaches during project execution and its orderly closure phase and, hopes to serve as an example to other development organisations.