A Red Cross that is better prepared, modern, and innovative can increase its impact, especially for those who are most vulnerable.
Knowledge management continues to be a challenge within our movement. Being a global network is in our nature, but it also means that cultural, linguistic, political, digital and ideological differences exist within and among our countries and national societies.
Under this premise, the workshop “Increasing impact through the management of knowledge, learning and innovation,” was held to identify, analyze and explore—in a deeper sense—the meaning and management of knowledge, learning, and innovation to improve our humanitarian work.
The session began with a valuable conversation among a team of experts: Ian O’Donnell, Senior Technical Advisor of IFRC’s Global Disaster Preparedness Center; Mario Itzep, Director of the Indigenous Observatory in Guatemala; Liliana Aguilar, the Mexican Red Cross’ National Training Coordinator; Brian Watkins, Executive Director of the University of West Coast, Campus in Miami; Javier Sotomayor, Director of the Ecuadorian Red Cross’ Superior Institute of Technological. The panel discussed, in-depth and with excellent group participation, subjects such as: knowledge management; the sharing of lessons learned; gathering knowledge from indigenous communities and vulnerable populations; and the benefits and importance of strategic alliances with universities.
Later the participants of the session divided into groups to analyze how this conversation may be able to inform the development of the next InterAmerican Framework of Action.
In a changing world, where the disasters, crises and challenges we face as a society are bigger each time, it is important that the Red Cross—as the greatest humanitarian network of the world—stays up-to-date and makes an effort to transfer knowledge in an effective way. Increasing our network’s knowledge and skills means that we are serving communities in the best possible way.
InterAmerican Conference 2015 