title: Communities of practice: the missing link for knowledge management on implementation issues in low-income countries?
abstract: The implementation of policies remains a huge challenge in many low-income countries. Several factors play a role in this, but improper management of existing knowledge is no doubt a major issue. In this article, we argue that new platforms should be created that gather all stakeholders who hold pieces of relevant knowledge for successful policies. To build our case, we capitalize on our experience in our domain of practice, health care financing in sub-Saharan Africa. We recently adopted a community of practice strategy in the region. More in general, we consider these platforms as the way forward for knowledge management of implementation issues.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. bmeessen@itg.be
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Meessen
authors.forename: Seni
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kouanda
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Musango
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Valéry
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ridde
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soucat
mesh_terms: D017954:Africa South of the Sahara; D019058:Community Networks / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003906:Developing Countries; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D058436:Knowledge Management / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards; D011203:Poverty