ShareWASHINGTON: The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Dr Khaled Mahdi, announced the launch of the international report on the knowledge index of public institutions in Kuwait - a joint exercise that was carried out in cooperation with the World Bank Group.
Dr Mahdi said in a press statement that this report is the first of its kind in the world in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, explaining that the study included twenty public sector institutions in Kuwait and a comparative study was done on the practices they carry out in the field of knowledge management as well as their relationship to human resources and information technology systems. An independent study was also done on the organizational structure.
He said that the report is based on the results of a survey that includes more than 2,200 employees in the public sector, indicating that the results that appeared are a result of the data collected by 20 public institutions participating in it.
He explained that this report aims to lead the way in which knowledge management is conducted in the public sector and whether the principles and practices undertaken are effective and efficient, stressing that this report is expected to raise awareness and focus on moving to a knowledge culture in the public sector. The report is also helpful to understand advanced concepts in Knowledge Management (KM), he added.
Dr Mahdi also expressed his hope that this report would be a first step in exchanging and transferring knowledge between the public sector entities in Kuwait to attain its highest performance in comparison with other entities, noting that the questionnaire will be revised and expanded in the future to include all state agencies from the public sector on a regular basis.
He explained that the report noted different levels of development in knowledge management among the participating government agencies, indicating that the distinction was evident in the financial sector and oil companies due to their well-established mechanisms for knowledge-sharing practices in this field with other companies involved in the same field.
He indicated that the KIA achieved the highest level of competency in the field of knowledge management, followed by the Central Bank of Kuwait, and then the Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company, explaining that the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development intends to issue this report every three years in cooperation with the World Bank.
Dr Mahdi said that this report could not have been possible without the cooperation of the participating parties, pointing to the importance of the continuous development of the survey and the involvement of more parties. He added that the World Bank expressed its willingness to apply the index methodology to the administrative units of the World Bank Group. The report and its results will be announced during the annual meetings of the World Bank in Washington, DC.
Dr Mahdi also gave a presentation at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington on policies of intervention to achieve reform in the fields of jobs and knowledge in Kuwait.
