The Project

The World Bank has identified as one of its goals improved decision making and pro-poor resource allocation in transport and rural utilities, and through its TRISP programme aims to strengthen the demand for, and improve access to relevant knowledge for stakeholders (defined as those working in transport and rural utilities in developing countries).

DFID is working with the Bank on the TRISP project, and as an initial contribution has proposed a knowledge demand assessment which will:

• Review what is known about patterns and processes of knowledge demand from the literature, and what are the gaps in this understanding;
• Assess the demand for information and knowledge by different categories of the stakeholder community dealing with transport issues;
• Describe the patterns of information use by each category of stakeholder, and constraints to effective access and uptake;
• Map the knowledge and learning environments in the World Bank and DFID and their transport information products with intended audiences, circulation and evidence of impact.

Project activities will include:

• An internet-based literature review to identify existing knowledge about the demand for information about transport issues, and current understanding about the role of knowledge in policy processes. More..
  
• A targeted, incentivised questionnaire to identify the information needs of each respondent; how these needs are satisfied; what are the constraints and bottlenecks and what simple and practical measures could ease their knowledge and information bottlenecks. See the Questionnaire..
  
• A review of knowledge and learning environments in World Bank and DFID to identify constraints to effective dissemination and uptake of the knowledge that has already been generated inside the two institutions, and unearth communications ‘best practice’ and bottlenecks that should inform the design of TRISP in the longer-term.
  
• Five national workshops with cross-section stakeholder groups to identify information needs, constraints and opportunities for improvement. More…
  
• A TRISP website will be developed to share the ambitions and progress of the knowledge demand assessment and provide a platform for electronic discussions and an on-line survey.
  
• Final discussions of the results through workshops and seminars involving DFID ad World Bank staff.