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Do you sometimes wish you had a better understanding of context in order to respond in a relevant and proportionate manner to your NGO’s needs? Do you find it hard to decide which areas and which beneficiaries need your help the most, or to ensure that your help is effective in the long run? You are aware that there are loads of new tools out there you could use to collect data, but do you know which ones to use and how?
As the first step in any assessment, data collection is crucial to ensure quality data for adequate decision-making. Mobile data collection (MDC) uses smartphones to collect primary data about beneficiary needs, population movement, infrastructure location and assessment. Compared to the traditional paper-based survey approach, a properly designed mobile solution can help you save time, standardize responses, collect diversified information and produce ready-to-share and ready-to-analyse data. In technical terms, setting up a mobile data collection system is getting easier by the day, with great tools available for a growing number of needs. However, surveys, standard operating procedures and logistics can still present a challenge for organizations that have just embarked on MDC.
Learn more about how CartONG can help you with your Mobile Data Collection projects:
You can also visit the Information management and Capacity building pages as both are also necessary if you want your mobile data collection to be useful in the long term.
Since March 2018, CartONG has been providing support to the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS) of UNHCR, in particular for its Livelihoods and Energy programs.
In 2018, DRS undertook a comprehensive revision of the framework for monitoring the UNHCR Energy and Livelihoods programs on a global level. DRS developed mobile data collection tools which are scalable and a monitoring system that helps implement both Livelihoods and Energy activities across operations. The monitoring system is a system that allows data flow integration linking the data collected by UNHCR operations on KoboToolbox to a centralized online interactive spreadsheet for analysis and data validation before finally publishing to the program’s Livelihoods and Energy Open data platforms.
In 2018, CartONG provided timely technical guidance and support to the UNHCR DRS field operations through the following activities:
You may learn more about checking our 2018 Annual Report.
CartONG has helped Tdh to support its field teams through the development of tutorials and tools to help improve the data protection practices in the field.
All of the public documentation is available on the MDC-Toolkit website. The MDC Toolkit is composed of 40 documents – created under a free license- to support the use of mobile data collection by the Tdh’s field teams as well as all the actors of the humanitarian and development sectors. The MDC Toolkit is combined with a Data Visualization Toolkit whose purpose is to help field staff improve their data visualization practices, and which may be found in the Analyze your data section of the website.
Dans la cadre d’un projet de lutte contre la déforestation en Côte d’Ivoire, CartONG a été financé par l’AFD pour mettre en œuvre un outil de suivi des parcelles forestières et agricoles des bénéficiaires de NITIDÆ (ex-Rongead/EtcTerra) dans la région de la Mé. Ce projet a permis l’implémentation de la suite d’outils GeoPoppy, également pour la première fois, par CartONG à l’occasion d’une mission de deux semaines sur le terrain.
Au-delà de cette mise en pratique, CartONG a également été sollicité pour aider NITIDÆ à améliorer son système de Suivi-Evaluation en effectuant un diagnostic du système en place et en émettant des recommandations d’amélioration – à savoir, le cadre logique, les indicateurs utilisés, les outils de collecte de données primaires – ainsi que des procédures qui lui sont associées. A cet exercice s’est ajouté un travail plus général et assez complexe, de compilation de suggestions portant sur l’amélioration de l’accompagnement en Suivi-Evaluation que l’AFD offre à tous les partenaires qu’ils financent.
CartONG a présenté le projet et l'outil aux chefs de projet de l'AFD à Paris en janvier 2018.
CartONG a réalisé une étude sur les usages des NTIC dans le cadre de micro-projets de développement, comprenant un travail de recherche général sur l'utilisation des NTIC dans le domaine des micro-projets, et également une boite à outils composée de fiches Outils, Méthodes et retours d'expériences à destination des associations de solidarité internationale pour les aider à utiliser ces technologies de manière pertinente.
Accéder à l'étude et à la boite à outils ici.
CartONG has been supporting Solidarités International delegations since 2015 with a hotline helping operations under 24h with their conception dilemmas, their choice of tools or their MDC strategy
For SOS Faim, CartONG did a one-week training on MDC in Mali for their field partners working in the agricultural sector.
CartONG supported the Cash Consortium Irak (CCI) in improving and streamlining its data collection, management and visualisation systems. CartONG evaluated each partner's needs, helped to choose the most relevant tool to be used by all partners and accompanied the consortium to adopt the tool (SurveyCTO was the chosen tool).
The CCI is composed of Mercy Corps, Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Rescue Committee. CCI partners have so far provided cash assistance to over 10,000 newly displaced households and conflict affected vulnerable households across nine governorates including Baghdad, Kerbala, Salahaddin, Kirkuk, Dohuk, Ninewa, Diyala, Erbil and Sulaymaniyeh.
CartONG was appointed by Terre des Hommes to carry out a study on Case Management tools used in the Protection field. CartONG therefore undertook the evaluation of needs (with interviews with Tdh staff and with other NGOs), before testing out a certain number of tools,and working with Tdh on the strategy for the future on these subjects.
Find out more about the project through this infography.
This project helped ACF-US and governmental partners to set up and maintain over time the Water Information Management System of South Sudan. The solution chosen to ensure than field teams could update the information on a regular basis was Akvo Flow.
At the end of the project, an Aweil East State Water Points Functionality Map was also published.
CartONG developed a large part of the mobile and analysis components of FACET, a facility monitoring tool for Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in schools (WINS) and in health facilities (WIH).
The tools are based on Kobo/ODK for mobile data collection and on a Power BI dashboard for online visualisation of indicators and an Excel offline dashboard for more advanced analysis.
The WASH in Health Facility Evaluation Tool (FACET), jointly developed by Terre des hommes, Eawag and CartONG with support from the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), is based on globally recognised indicators and is suitable across the continuum of humanitarian and development interventions.
In 2017, CartONG also designed an online dashboard with Power BI linked to the FACET WASH Health Facility (see an example with test data) and School evaluation mobile data collection tools (here).
In 2018, CartONG helped build the new version of the FACET mobile data collection and analysis tools, based on a review of the needs and also an update of the key JMP indicators on which the tools are based.
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