RCN Reconstitution Announced @ Mole XIX
The reconstitution of the Resource Centre Network (RCN), an initiative to promote and strengthen information and knowledge management services within the water and sanitation sector in Ghana, was announced at this year’s Mole XIX conference.
The reconstitution of the Resource Centre Network (RCN), an initiative to promote and strengthen information and knowledge management services within the water and sanitation sector in Ghana, was announced at this year’s Mole XIX conference. Eugene Larbi of TREND/TPP announced this when he presented a paper (power point presentation) to sector key stakeholders who met at the Capital View Hotel in Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana, to deliberate on the theme for this year’s conference: “Reaching the MDGs for Sanitation: Options to Expand and Accelerate Coverage”.
Mr. Larbi touched on the concept of knowledge management (KM), acknowledged the growing importance of KM globally and called for close collaboration within the sector in order to share information and experiences so as to build synergies and avoid duplications. He gave an overview of the Resource Centre Network initiative and the knowledge management (KM) activities in the WASH sector in Ghana. He mentioned challenges which will require more effort and resources to achieve, including strengthening coordination of KM activities, improving resourcing of KM activities, intensifying efforts to change attitudes towards KM, the development of KM at decentralised levels, etc .
The reconstitution and establishment of the RCN secretariat, which will eventually be anchored in the Ministry of Water Resource Works and Housing (MWRWH), was announced and the specific role of the RCN secretariat outlined. These will include, planning and coordinating of Steering Committee and RCN activities, facilitating communication between the Steering Committee and the RCN partners, facilitating knowledge product development in cooperation with the resource centres, etc.
Mr. Larbi expressed the hope that the emergence of new projects like the WSMP, TPP, WASHCost, SWITCH, etc., with a focus on knowledge generation and dissemination will provide great impetus for RCN to expand in membership and function effectively. According to Mr. Larbi, the RCN is at a point of restarting the process of bringing together key organizations to produce and disseminate knowledge. He bemoaned past experiences of lack of interest and funding that led to a near collapse of the process. ‘The difference this time is that there is much more commitment towards KM than before, that there are knowledge generating projects and that a funded secretariat has been established’ He added