What are the advantages of RSI’s advanced technology based Monitoring and Evaluation Systems, and how does it fit your program?
Our technology based Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) solutions range from basic technology support for data collection to innovative and advanced biometric M&E systems. Our technology based M&E solutions can be easily and quickly tailored to the unique needs of each project, and address challenges associated with paper-based M&E systems, or basic technology based M&E systems.
Depending on the unique needs of your program, our technology based M&E system will allow you to:
- Know all your program beneficiaries (subjects) at any time of the project. Our unique Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system allows you to quickly register each individual beneficiary of your program. This is a one-time registration which takes approximately fives minutes, where our technology solution captures individual’s demographics. Once registered in the system, you don’t have to ever ask your beneficiary about his demographic information. The system will automatically allow you to recognize your beneficiary every time they show up for participating in the project activity i.e., training, workshops, events or others.
- Collect single or multiple data points from the same individual (beneficiary or non-beneficiary) and keep a log of it. Our technology based M&E system allows you to collect multiple data points from the same individual over the life of the project, and keep track of the resulting data along with the individual’s profile. This way your multiple data points from the same subject are at one location. This way, one can easily see the trend in data over the course of the project, which is almost not doable in paper-based M&E system, subjected to multiple biases.
- Avoid data entry between “data source” and “data analysis”. Our technology based M&E solution helps you avoid the time-consuming and labor-intensive data collection on papers, which is then entered into Excel or other manual database management system. Our technology allows your field teams to complete the checklists directly on the digital devices in the field. The resulting data collected at the spot is directly linked to the interactive dashboard.
- Access real-time updates and provide complete feedback to field teams for improving data quality. Data coming from the field needs constant review for data quality in terms of completeness, consistency, and logical tests. We have on-board data quality assurance (DQA) officers, who regularly reviews the quality of the data received, and provide timely feedback to a particular researcher in the field. The data quality assurance officers also have the privileged rights to the system, where they can discard particular data from the field if it doesn’t meet the standard data quality merits. Thus, the collected data in real-time receives real-checks, which results in high quality data for decision-making.
- Address most of the major challenges associated with the program beneficiaries. In insecure environment and culturally difficult to access areas, the challenge of knowing the exact program beneficiaries becomes a major obstacle. Development projects often face the issue of “ghost beneficiaries”, “multiple counting” of the same beneficiaries with different names, or “different recipients of the benefits than the one who are on the original list of beneficiaries. These challenges particularly exist in inputs (in-kinds, cash or similar other programs) distribution programs, or cash incentives to poor communities. Our technology based M&E system addresses all these challenges by doing a biometric registration before the intervention, and then allowing the registered individuals to receive their respective benefits on the day of distribution.
- Export data into formats you can use for basic and advance data analysis. Our technology based M&E system isn’t only designed to store and retain a range of dataset from different program activities, but also gives you the option to explore any particular dataset – of your interest – for basic and advance data analysis. Our built-in dynamic dashboard allows you to export data from into other formats (.csv or Excel spreadsheets, reports in PDF or Word), where further analysis can be done on it.
- RSI’s M&E Support goes beyond the provision of an innovative technology based M&E for your program. Our M&E support to your program is not only limited to providing you with a good technology based M&E system, but also helping your team implement it. We believe that no matter how good a technology based solution is, at the end of the day it matters what research design and research methodology is appropriate for your program, how the questionnaire is designed, how is it deployed into the technology based M&E system, and how the field teams are trained on these tools. Our M&E experts – with more than 20 collective years of solid experience in the field of M&E – help you choose the appropriate design for your program, help you with the appropriate methodology and tools, and provide training or assist in training your field teams on the use of these tools. In summary, our M&E support includes, but not limited to, the followings:
- Performance Management Plan in line with the donor priorities
- SMART Performance Indicators.
- Tools for collecting performance data
- Management Information System or Data Management System.
- M&E Guidelines on who, when, where, and how will the performance data will be collected
- Standard Data Quality Assessments (DQA) protocols and its implementation
- Training staff Monitoring & Evaluation Basics and Advance; some related key topics includes research designs, data collection, data management, and data analysis and reporting
- Targeted trainings on the RSI’s advanced technology based M&E solutions
- RSI enables your team to track and measure your program outcome and impact. Our team of experts assists your team to track and measure the outcomes and impact of your program on the targeted community (ies). This calls for increased collaboration and skills, which our team brings to the table. Our experts work with your team to extract and harvest the relevant outcome and impact data from the dedicated dashboard for your program, and do basic and advance analysis to explore the casual links between your program and the results achieved. Specifically, this includes working on the resulting datasets from program participants, their participation in the program activities, and the various surveys conducted with the subject over the course of the project. In brief, our support in tracking outcomes and impact includes the followings:
- Appropriate research design for your program
- Extraction of the relevant dataset for measuring outcome and impact
- Basic and advance data analysis to explore the casual links between your program and the results achieved
- Tabulation, presentation, and report writing
- Training your program team on data analysis
RSI Gives Dedicated Interactive M&E Dashboard for Your Program and Project. Our support includes providing your program with a dedicated interactive M&E dashboards where you can track your program activities, beneficiaries, and all surveys carried out with them in real-time. The resulting data from your program can be presented in different visuals and tabular form for program decision-making, as well as reporting to donors. The dashboard also increase your team capabilities to oversee and monitor all program activities, and keep tracks of the necessary documentations and resulting data from the field monitoring missions. This is further supported by interactive communication capabilities provided within the dashboard. In addition, our technical team also provides you the necessary support in using dashboard on as-needed basis.
Our dedicated M&E experts are working to support M&E components of the development programs to help them meet the most pressing needs of development challenges. If you’d like to know more about us, please explore our work on different development projects, or contact us at info@rsiconsultingaf.com