Within the broader ICT-KM Program, the Knowledge Management & Sharing Project deals more with the cultural and behavioral changes that the CGIAR needs in order to improve KS practices and build support for such an approach among centers and partners. KM/S has the potential to put people, information, processes, and tools together in such a way that CGIAR scientists can collaborate more closely and make better decisions, leading to improved performance in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, and financial sustainability. But collaborative tools, while contributing to improved performance, cannot by themselves ensure successful partnerships, collaboration, or teamwork. To make significant gains requires major changes in organizational culture and individual behavior. Only through better understanding and application of KM/S principles and approaches can the CGIAR system make its organizational culture one of continuous learning and knowledge sharing.

Enhancing KM/S in the CGIAR will permit more effective and efficient use of knowledge not only within the CGIAR, but among partners and stakeholders, especially NARS. Thus, beyond its benefits for individual researchers, centers, and the CGIAR in general, the KM/S project will help meet the pressing needs of stakeholders.

Many of the KM/S techniques that could be of value to the CGIAR have been applied in the for-profit corporate world with success. A key task for this project, then, is to achieve wider application in the CGIAR of lessons learned about KM/S in the corporate world, from the OCP, and from recent research.