Knowledge Management & Sector Support Program

CML’s Knowledge Management (KM) vertical has the mandate of creating, collecting and disseminating knowledge relevant to the development sector.

Activities taken up under this vertical are of the following nature – Independent exploratory research work, sourcing of development related news and information, creation of a knowledge based resource pool and its regular dissemination to the stakeholders, facilitating internship management, preparation of sector data base, initiating systematic convergence with other important sectors of society, training module preparation, organizing sector related seminar, conference and annual sector event, sector related advocacy etc.

Under its pursuit of creating and sourcing sector related knowledge, KM has taken up independent exploratory research and prominent among them are; doing research andpublishing a paper on Eri Subsector for interventions made by Grameen Sahara, Development of a toolkit to analyze the impact of micro credit on beneficiaries of Grameen Sahara’s micro finance intervention, a paper published on the marketing possibilities of pineapple produced by a proposed producer company in Nagaland, A study on the vegetable subsector to understand supply chain coordination in the Darrang, Barpeta and Kamrup district of Assam, a study on the tourism subsector of Northeast India etc.

For dissemination purpose KM uses both print and web based mediums. On weekly basis, development related news; collected from different credible sources are rolled out to not less than 400 social organizations connected to CML. CML’s Bi- annual newsletter “Livelihood” published by KM brings out sector specific information and articles. Other than that, KM also publishes papers, based on various research works conducted by CML directly or indirectly by engaging other resources. In order to reach out to more people who shows interest in the activities of CML as well as the sector,CMLs Facebook page administered by KM has proved to be an important tool. KM is also looks after CML’s resourceful library as well CMLs website with regular updates on the sector.

Publishing a sector overview report which comprises of information on around 200 NGOs from Assam has been another milestone achieved by KM as there is dearth of published NGO information in Northeast. After successful publication of its First Sector Overview report in 2010, preparation for the second edition Sector Overview Report has been undergoing, which would comprise of NGOs from all the Northeastern states.

KM has also been engaged in providing need based advocacy service to sector. Important activity under this role could be mentioned as preparation of white paper on the Microfinance sector of Northeast India after the Andhra crisis and facilitating NEDFi on developing representation from stakeholders on MF Bill 2012.

In CML’s endeavor to be a resource hub in the Development Sector, KM identifies the need of convergence with other important sectors in the society. Towards this KM has initiated a forum called as “Development Colloquium”, which provides a platform to people from varied background to discuss debate and form opinion on various social issues. This forum meets once in each month. Another forum, which has been conceptualized by KM is the “Forum for Development Communication” to strengthen the linkage between Media and development sector for future collaborations.

Besides the mandated activities, in order to substantiate its objective of being a sector support vertical, KM has taken up some additional ad hoc works. Doing a collaborative study with IIE on micro, khadi and village industries, writing case studies for Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), developing proposals for local NGOS etc. are some prominent work done in this sphere.