Key Takeaways

• Examples of external Communities of Practice sponsored by Businesses include the Impact Portfolio, The Effective Schools and Teachers Thematic Group, MIRPAL Community of Practice, the Asia-Pacific Community of Practice for Managing for Development Results (APCoPMfDR), and ProductTank Belfast.
• World Bank is an example of a business that sponsors external Communities of Practice called Knowledge Banks.
• The Asia-Pacific Community of Practice for Managing for Development Results (APCoPMfDR) is sponsored by the Asian Development Bank. 

Introduction

1) World Bank

• World Bank is an example of a business that sponsors external Communities of Practice called Knowledge Banks.
• While data on the time the World Bank started sponsoring external Communities of Practice (CoP) is unavailable, it certainly predates the year 2000, as its sponsorship was covered in a Havard Business Review article published in January 2000.
• An example of an external CoP sponsored by the World Bank is Effective Schools and Teachers Thematic Group.
• The Effective Schools and Teachers Thematic Group was focused on developing an "internal and external community of practice on teaching and learning."
• The World Bank also sponsors several external Community of Practice through Solutions for Youth Employment's (S4YE) Impact Portfolio.
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• The Impact Portfolio is S4YE's external Community of Practice that is made up of 44 youth employment programs.
• MIRPAL Community of Practice is an "external community of practice (CoP) on migration challenges related to economic crises." The community is also sponsored by the World Bank.

The Asia-Pacific Community of Practice for Managing for Development Results (APCoPMfDR)

• The Asia-Pacific Community of Practice for Managing for Development Results (APCoPMfDR) is an example of an external community of practice that is sponsored by a business.
• The Asia-Pacific Community of Practice for Managing for Development Results (APCoPMfDR) is sponsored by the Asian Development Bank. 
• The APCoPMfDR is committed to "introducing and institutionalizing the managing for development results (MfDR) agenda in public management. Its aim is to reinforce MfDR capacity through sharing experiences and peer learning, with the ultimate aim of improving development effectiveness."

ProductTank Belfast

•  ProductTank Belfast is an external Community of Practice that is run by Mind the Product. 
• ProductTank provides a platform for "Product Managers to exchange ideas and experiences about Product Design, Development and Management, Business Modelling, Metrics, User Experience and all the other things."
• ProductTank is open to event sponsorship by businesses. An example of a business that has sponsored ProductTank Belfast Meetup is Kainos. 

Research Strategy

• To provide details of at least three examples of external Communities of Practice that are sponsored by businesses, , we leveraged the most reputable sources of information that were available in the public domain, including those from Asia Development Bank, World Bank, Harvard Business Review, as well as those from industry sources like Mind the Product and Kainos. We prioritized the earliest sources in other to ensure we provided examples before the year 2000 but were only able to find one relevant example. Hence, we expanded to more recent sources to provide other examples.