The knowledge agency

Development cooperation is experiencing major changes as a result of new policy foci, new development tools and the impact of globalisation and new technologies. This paper reflects an analysis of 85 interviews gathered over a relatively short period of time in what was explicitly conceived of as a preparatory phase of research. Morethan usually, therefore, its findings are intended to be provisional. It seeks to examine the likely implications of these new trends.

It concludes that:

• there is great plurality of thinking within agencies but, nonetheless,organisational cultures and discourses do shine through to a significant extent
• The notion of the knowledge agency is becoming increasingly important for development cooperation practice
• There is scope for this to be positive both for agencies and their partners, but that a positive outcome cannot be assumed
• The embracing of the notion of the knowledge agency is part of a broader wave of new ideas in the agency world. However, there are strong grounds for seeing much of what agencies are doing as repackaging rather than representative of a paradigm shift.

[author]