Innovation and Knowledge

Knowledge and Content Management (KCM)

In 2017, Swisscontact implemented the knowledge transfer initiative developed the previous year, establishing Communities of Practice (COPs). Through discussion and exchange of experience, these global expert groups internal to Swisscontact develop mutually beneficial knowledge tools. They provide Swisscontact experts around the world with specific tools such as checklists, guidelines and manuals on various specialty topics. The objective is to foster innovation and articulate various topics, thereby improving quality and achieving conceptual development more efficiently. Eight COPs were created, with topics including migration, access to financial services, gender, tourism, and entrepreneurship.

Digital work tools, personal contacts

Working across 36 countries on four continents represents a formidable challenge. Digital work tools make knowledge exchange possible and are essential to COPs, but they are no replacement for human contact. For this reason, regional seminars are organised to bring COPs together.

The KCM Department advises COPs through regular training and coaching events. In September, the first training of COP leaders took place in Zurich. In addition, a week-long global seminar was held in Zurich in autumn as part of the “International Year of Sustainable Tourism”.

External networks

In 2017, the KCM Department also brought expert contributions in national and international networks, including BEAM Exchange, the FoBIZZ forum for vocational education and international development cooperation, Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), the SEEP Network and the NADEL Centre for Development Cooperation at ETH Zurich.

Successful knowledge transfer: Inclusive Markets

Swisscontact continues to develop the systemic market development approach. Commonly referred to as “Inclusive Markets” (formerly M4P, or “Making Markets Work for the Poor”), this approach offers effective assistance in various areas of local and regional economic development, including global value chains.

In 2017, Swisscontact introduced this project approach throughout the organisation. In six regional workshops, 99 internal project staff members and 20 mentors received training and continued education. A new comprehensive handbook with practical instructions, tools and interactive documents constitutes a guideline for hands-on project implementation. In addition to regional inventory-taking in project profiles, field consultancies helped to secure the approach in project implementation. The latest insights were shared on international platforms. Swisscontact experts shared their market development experiences with other practitioners at an experts conference.

Corporate Communications

Swisscontact reports on its activities regularly and close to the local target group population. From there, communications are maintained with all stakeholders, from the media to our donors on one end, and with target groups on the other.

The Swisscontact website is our most important communications channel. Our newsletter also gives regular additional accounts of our projects. Whoever wishes to gain an even more intimate glimpse into our project work can follow Swisscontact on Facebook and LinkedIn. Information and results are presented in various formats, and high-quality content is prepared with the specific target audience in mind. Videos and infographs document project close-outs.

In 2017, the Communications team successfully enhanced the scope and reach of our media work from the previous year. Press releases and guest articles in 2017 offered a broad range of reporting. Contact with individual journalists increased and interest in international development cooperation was also reflected in various social media platforms, where Swisscontact and its representatives and contacts generated over one million impressions. We overhauled our annual report and regional reports during the reporting year, presenting them in a digital format, while numerous publications present the approaches, innovations, figures, and facts from our project work.

In Eastern Europe, and Central and Southern America regions, our Communications Managers participated in seminars in order to exchange the latest developments in the communications field. Coordination of all institutional and project activities, as well as conveying proven problem-solving approaches in 36 countries, were paramount to these events.

Newly introduced corporate controlling tools prove the effectiveness of our communication in all its forms.