Climate and Development Knowledge Brokers Workshop Eschborn, Germany 3-5 June 2011 Workshop report

This report details a workshop held in Eschborn, Germany, from 3-5 June 2011, focused on improving collaboration among 'Climate Knowledge Brokers'—online initiatives that facilitate the sharing of climate and development information. Organised by CDKN, GIZ, and PIK, the event brought together 35 participants from 21 global and regional web initiatives to address 'portal proliferation syndrome', where fragmented and under-resourced platforms lead to duplicated efforts and information overload for users.

• The climate and development sector suffers from 'portal proliferation syndrome', characterized by a weak knowledge infrastructure where numerous online platforms operate in isolation, leading to duplicated efforts and difficulty for users to find reliable, up-to-date information.
• The workshop established a working definition for 'knowledge brokers' as entities that support knowledge sharing between stakeholders by raising awareness of diverse sources, improving access, and helping stakeholders use data for climate-related planning and actions.
• A mapping exercise of 21 initiatives revealed that improving access to information is the most common primary purpose, while practitioners and government decision-makers are the highest priority target audiences.
• There is a significant gap in reaching non-engaged audiences and decision-makers; many platforms primarily reach 'the converted' or advisors to decision-makers rather than the policymakers themselves.
• Participants identified 'constructive co-opetition' as the optimal balance for collaboration, noting that while cooperation reduces duplication, some competition is necessary to drive web innovation.
• The workshop identified several technical modalities for collaboration to reduce fragmentation, including Linked Open Data to maximize interconnectedness, shared search tools (such as the reegle facility), and the use of APIs for easier data exchange between platforms.
• The group agreed on a vision to move away from single-donor platforms toward a 'portal-of-portals' or a 'one-stop shop' that can signpost users to the most relevant specific climate portals.
• The workshop resulted in the formation of the informal 'Climate Knowledge Brokers Group' (CKB Group), with an agreed action plan to pursue joint projects on linked open data, portal signposting, shared search facilities, and the harmonization of metadata standards.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (n.d.). Climate and Development Knowledge Brokers Workshop Eschborn, Germany 3-5 June 2011 Workshop report. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-Climate-and-Development-Knowledge-Brokers-Workshop-report.pdf

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Climate and Development Knowledge Brokers Workshop Eschborn, Germany 3-5 June 2011 Workshop report. n.d. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-Climate-and-Development-Knowledge-Brokers-Workshop-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Climate and Development Knowledge Brokers Workshop Eschborn, Germany 3-5 June 2011 Workshop report |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-Climate-and-Development-Knowledge-Brokers-Workshop-report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetworkndclimate, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Brokers Workshop Eschborn, Germany 3-5 June 2011 Workshop report}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN-Climate-and-Development-Knowledge-Brokers-Workshop-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }