Building the capacities of the team members on facilitating Village Knowledge Centres for Knowledge Management

Dissemination of information, knowledge and skills through Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) is the core strategy in the project under Knowledge Management. An initiative was taken to build the capacities of the Project staff of Odissa and Assam between 13th to 16th February 2019. The main objective of the programme is to induct and train them on the concept, key processes and activities in establishing and facilitating the VKCs as a platform for Knowledge Management. Learning through seeing method was adopted to build their capacities by organizing an exposure cum interactive programmes with the existing Village Resource Centres and VKCs in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu. .

The programme included step-by-step processes in the establishment and management of the community-owned Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs). The training focused on how innovatively one can use the modern information and communication technologies to bring the difference in the lives of the rural poor families by providing demand-driven information on climate-smart agriculture, crop pest and disease management, care and management of livestock, weather information, civic services, entitlement schemes, market prices etc. In addition, the team were made to understand the necessity for continuous need assessment and creation of relevant contents in local languages. Hands-on training on the use of different ICT tools for the dissemination information such as mobile phone based audio advisories, farmers’ helpline services, audio-conference, video-conference, phone-in programme, conducting Plant clinic etc..

The team visited and interacted with the VKCs in Onangudi Village, the oldest one in Pudukkottai district and Mampathi (established under previous Clima-Adapt project) in Tiruchirappalli District. They interacted with the Knowledge Workers on the activities being carried out and the effect of mobilization of the community for various programmes. They were also facilitated to interact with the users and VKC Management Committee members where they gained first-hand experience on the establishment and functioning of the VKCs. Finally, at the debriefing session, members consolidated the

learning and prepared a detailed action plan for the establishment of VKCs and knowledge dissemination processes in both the states.