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Let’s Run this Race Together

There is a special race in Jordan called the “Dead to Red”.  It is a 250km running race.  You take a relay team of ten people, and you have 24 hours to get from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea.  You start at 6pm, and you run all through the night.  It’s a massive, crazy relay race.  The runners run for about one minute at a time, sprinting as fast as possible, before they pass the baton to the next person.  Minute after minute.  Hour after hour.

A Long Race Tests You…

The race tests your fitness – you end up running more than a half-marathon through the night.

It tests your endurance – you had better believe that running one-minute sprints every ten minutes for hours in the freezing desert night gives you cramps – in your legs, and every other part of your body.

It tests your spirit – not only are you pushing yourself physically, but you’re also pulling an all-nighter.  You’ve got to believe in yourself and your team even when it feels impossible.

In the dead of night, 2am, 3am, 4am – it feels that the miles will never end.

Then comes the light

But then comes the morning sun.  The glorious light that reveals a different landscape than the one you started the race in.

And you realize you’re only one marathon away from the finish line.  You still have a long way to go, sure.  But you can start to see that there’s an end to the madness.

What you do in the dark is what gets celebrated in the light.

And you, yes YOU, can do hard things.

The COVID-19 Race

I don’t know what you’re facing in the midst of coronavirus.  Whether you’re busier than ever, or whether you’re stuck at home worried about losing your income.

It might be the middle of a dark night in your life.

But I want to reach out my hand to you in the dark, and pass you a baton.  I want to extend an invitation – can we run the race together?

Wherever we are in the world, we will be facing similar challenges. This crisis will bring us all a little bit closer.

12 Tips for Reporting to Communities - Rethinking Accountability

Reporting to your beneficiaries is important: Lessons about Beneficiary Accountability from COVID19

If you now find yourself in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, let me ask you how much you appreciate getting data and information every single day about the crisis. You probably read daily about 1) how the crisis itself is progressing and 2) what your government is doing (or not doing) to mitigate the effects of the virus and help you and your community.  Is this what “beneficiary accountability” looks like – our governments report to us daily about their progress and their impact!

How many of you visit various websites every day to check on these two indicators for your country:

  • # of new cases
  • # of daily deaths

And how many of you turn on the news each night to listen to your country’s governmental leader to hear an update on:

  • What they’re doing to make sure the health system has enough beds, face masks, or testing kits
  • What they’re doing for families and individuals who can’t work due to the crisis

If you’re like most people, I bet you find this information crucial during this lockdown.

Watch The Video

This article is in video format, hope you enjoy listening!

The data that gets presented to us each day isn’t perfect.  There are mistakes in it.  But that’s okay.  There’s a level of transparency and accountability that our governments (hopefully) have to us.  There’s a level of leadership they feel compelled to show to get us through this crisis.

Beneficiary Accountability and the Typical Flow of Data

Now, what does this have to do with humanitarian data?

In your humanitarian programme, you probably have funding from donors.  Those donors probably require you to report to them every month, every quarter, or every six months.  Because they want to see the progress you’ve made against your agreed plan.  You probably have to do a finance report and report on indicators to show the impact your programme has had so far.

This means – you have to go out and collect data, analyse data, and visualize that data.  And then you can report it to your donors.

Now, I write every week about humanitarian data.  I love data.

But there’s a big problem with the humanitarian data system.  It encourages a one-way flow of information.  We collect the data from people and communities we work in (beneficiaries).  Then we analyse the data and report it internally upwards to our managers.  Then they report it externally to donors.  And that’s it.

Typical Flow of Data in Humanitarian Programmes

Does the data ever get reported back the other way??  If it does, it usually only happens rarely.  And sometimes, we don’t fully think through beneficiary accountability from other stakeholders’ perspectives.  How often do you get a report back from your managers?  Many times, the data collectors (enumerators), who went out gathering all the data for each report, they never see the final report.  And very rarely do communities or households ever get a report about the progress or impact of a programme.

Let COVID-19 Inspire You towards Better Beneficiary Accountability

So I have a question for you:  When your organization works in a community – do you show transparency, accountability, and leadership by reporting your data back to your beneficiaries?  Do you tell them your plans, your progress, your impact?  Or do you only collect data from your beneficiaries and then report that data to your managers and donors?  (see here for another article about adapting the way you collect M&E data during the pandemic.) What’s your true level of beneficiary accountability?

I hope the level of data reporting you get every day in the coronavirus pandemic inspires you to share more data with your communities and people reached through your humanitarian programme.

While you’re stuck working from home, can I encourage you to create a simple report to share with your communities?  I’ve even made a simple example report that you can go and download and modify to use with your own programme.

Simple Community Report in PowerPoint - Free Template

I’m going to give you a few very simple tips for how to provide reports back to the people you work for, and please download the super-simple template, modify it, and start reporting to your own communities.

So, a few tips:

Tip 1. Make the reports visual.

Maybe your donor likes to read big blocks of text (and maybe not).  But I can assure you that most humans don’t read long reports.  We like infographics.  We like pictures.  Use icons and pictures to convey meaning.  One resource that I love is The Noun Project. You can get all kinds of icons (including OCHA’s humanitarian icons) from there for creating your own infographic.

Tip 2. Use the local language.

A lot of humanitarian reporting in the world is done in English.  Which means you’ve got to think through new work-flows if you’re going to start producing short reports in a local language.  The people who maybe write your English reports might not be the same people that should write your local reports.

Tip 3. Only report the indicators that matter to people.

Don’t report everything. Think carefully about the indicators that people most care about.  For example, in the coronavirus we want to know a couple indicators on how bad the crisis is (# of cases, # of deaths).  And we want to know what’s been done to mitigate disaster.  And we want to know what the plan is to get us out of the disaster.  Think about your own programme and what people most need to know.  Only report those things.

Tip 4. Reporting to people is about dignity.

We report to people that we want to show respect to.  To our managers.  To our donors.  We show them respect.  By showing respect, they then show us respect. Our managers let us keep our jobs.  Our donors give us additional funding next year.  Well, what about your beneficiaries?  If we don’t report to them, we show them disrespect.  And that’s when tensions can start to rise.  Show respect.  Share your information.  We’re all human.

Tip 5. Use simple words.

You might be an expert in your sector or subject.  But most other people aren’t.  Don’t use acronyms.    Use easy terms that everybody understands when you write a community report.

Tip 6. Distribute reports to your local stakeholders.

Identify who are key local stakeholders that would benefit by having access to more information. They might include field data collectors, local community governments/leaders, local community households, local clinics, schools, or community centers.  Then ensure that they receive regular update reports.

Tip 7. Choose a reporting frequency you can manage.

You probably can’t report your results on a daily basis.  But what about monthly?  If it’s just a simple report, can you produce it once a month?  The more frequent you can produce it, the better.  Again, just think about how much you appreciate frequent data updates about the COVID crisis…

Tip 8. Personalise the report if you can.

If you are able to report to each community about the impact in only their community, it might make people more interested!

Tip 9. Use a simple reporting software.

Use something like PowerPoint to create a simple, visual report.  If you like Microsoft Word, use that.  Don’t use something complicated.  If you make it simple, you’ll be more likely to get it done.

Simple Community Report in PowerPoint - Free Template

Tip 10. Get creative about ways to share your reporting.

When you report to a donor or manager, they often have reporting templates for you to use.  But your communities don’t have a template!  So be creative in how you reach them!  Community meetings?    What about a report on your Facebook page?  Or delivered to them via WhatsApp?  Or is there a notice board at the local clinic?  Maybe post it there?  Or deliver hand reports any time you’re doing a programme activity.

Tip 11. Even if your data is incomplete, report what you can.

No one has perfect data.  So don’t let this be an excuse of why you don’t report.  Be transparent if you have data limitations.  But still get out there and show these communities your respect by reporting to them.

Tip 12. Your data collection will improve.

I promise you this, when you show people respect by reporting to them, they will help you out with better data collection.  Your field data collectors will be more accurate and thoughtful in their reporting when they see the end-result they help produce.  Your households and communities will contribute more willingly when they know they will be recipients of the final report.

In Conclusion

If you’re already reporting regularly to your local stakeholders, good for you!!  If not, now is a great time to get started. Beneficiary accountability shouldn’t just be “humanitarian jargon”.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you’re still reading.  If you’re a humanitarian or development worker, I try to create useful tutorials and guidance for data collection, analysis, visualization, and reporting.  I’d love you to join!  So please subscribe and share this video and article with anyone else who you think would benefit.

8 Ways to Adapt your M&E during the Pandemic

8 Ways to Adapt your M&E during the Pandemic

So all of a sudden you’re stuck at home because of the new coronavirus.  You’re looking at your M&E commitments and your programme commitments.  Do you put them all on hold? Postpone them until the coronavirus threat has passed and everything goes back to normal?  Or is there a way to still get it all done!?  This article reviews 8 ways you can adapt your M&E during the pandemic.

Here are a few ideas that you and your team might consider doing to make sure you can stay on track (and maybe even IMPROVE your MEAL practices) even if you might currently be in the middle of a lockdown, or if you think you might be going into a lockdown soon:

1. Phone Call Interviews instead of In-Person Interviews

Do you have any household assessments or baseline surveys or post-distribution monitoring that you had planned in the next 1 to 3 months? Is there a way that you can carry out these interviews by phone or WhatsApp calls?  This is the easiest and most direct way to carry on with your current M&E plan.  Instead of doing these interviews face-to-face, just get them on a call.  I’ve created a checklist to help you prepare for doing phone call interviews – click here to get the “Humanitarian’s Phone Call Interview Checklist”.  Here are a few things you need to think through to transition to a phone-call methodology:

    1. You need phone numbers and names of people that need to be surveyed. Do you have these?  Or is there a community leader who might be able to help you get these?
    2. You also need to expect that a LOT of people may not answer their phone. So instead of “sampling” people for a survey, you might want to just plan on calling almost everyone on that list.
    3. Just like for a face-to-face interview, you need to know what you’re going to say. So you need to have a script ready for how you introduce yourself and ask for consent to do a phone questionnaire.  It’s best to have a structured interview questionnaire that you follow for every phone call, just like you would in a face-to-face assessment.
    4. You also need to have a way to enter data as you ask the questions. This usually depends on what you’re most comfortable with – but I recommend preparing an ODK or KoboToolbox questionnaire, just like you would for an in-person survey, and filling it out as you do the interview over the phone.  I find it easiest to enter the data into KoboToolbox “Webform” instead of the mobile app, because I can type information faster into my laptop rather than thumb-type it into a mobile device.  But use what you have!
    5. If you’re not comfortable in KoboToolbox, you could also prepare an Excel sheet for directly entering answers.  Be warned that this will probably require a lot more data cleaning later on.
    6. When you’re interviewing, it’s usually faster to type down the answers in the language you’re interviewing in. If you need your final data collection to be in English, go back and do the translation after you’ve hung up the phone.
    7. If you want a record of the interview, ask if you can record the phone call. When the person says yes, then just record it so you can go back and double check an answer if you need to.
    8. Very practically – if you’re doing lots of phone calls in a day, it is easier on your arm and your neck if you use a headset instead of holding your phone to your ear all day!

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2. Collect Videos & Photos directly from households and communities

When you’re doing any in-person MEAL activities, you’re always able to observe evidence. You can look around and SEE impact, you don’t just hear it through an interview or group discussion.  But when you’re doing M&E remotely, you can’t double-check to see what impact really looks like.  So I recommend:

    1. Connect with as many beneficiaries and team members as possible through WhatsApp or another communication app and collect photos and videos of evidence directly from them.
    2. Video – Maybe someone has a story of impact they can share with you through video. Or if you’re overseeing a Primary Health Care clinic, perhaps you can have a staff member walk you through the clinic with a video so you can do a remote assessment.
    3. Pictures – Maybe you can ask everyone to send you a picture of (for example) their “handwashing station with soap and water” (if you’re monitoring a WASH programme). Or perhaps you want evidence that the local water point is functioning.

3. Programme Final Evaluation

It’s a good practice to do a final evaluation review when you reach the end of a programme.  If you have a programme finishing in the next 1-3 months, and you want to do a final review to assess lessons learned overall, then you can also do this remotely!

    1. Make a list of all the stakeholders that would be great to talk to. Staff members, a few beneficiaries, government authorities (local and/or national), other NGOs, coordination groups, partner organisations, local community leaders.
    2. Then go in search of either their phone numbers, their email addresses, their Skype accounts, or their WhatsApp numbers and get in touch.
    3. It’s best if you can get on a video chat with as many of them as possible.  It’s much more personal and easy to communicate if you can see one another’s faces! But if you can just talk with audio – that’s okay too.
    4. Prepare a semi-structured interview, a list of questions you want to talk through about the impact, what went well, what could have gone better. And if there’s anything interesting that comes up, don’t worry about coming up with some new questions on the spot . Or skipping questions that don’t make sense in the context.
    5. You can also gather together any monitoring reports/analysis that was done on the project throughout its implementation period. Get any pictures of the interventions you can, too.
    6. Use all this information to create a final “lessons learned” evaluation document. This is a fantastic way to continually improve the way you do humanitarian programming.

4. Adapt your Focus Group Discussion Plan

If everyone is at home because your country has imposed a lockdown, it will be very difficult to do a focus group discussion because….you can’t be in groups!  So, with your team decide if it might be better to switch your monitoring activity from collecting qualitative data in group discussions to actually just having one-on-one interviews on the phone with several people to collect the same information.

    1. There are some dynamics that you will miss in one-to-one interviews, information that may only come out during group discussions. (Especially where you’re collecting sensitive or “taboo” data.) Identify what that type of information might be – and either skip those types of questions for now, or brainstorm how else you could collect the information through phone-calls.

5. Adapt your Key Informant Interviews

If you normally carry out Key Informant Interviews, it would be a great idea to think what “extra” questions you need to ask this month in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

    1. If you normally ask questions around your programme sector areas, think about just collecting a few extra data points about feelings, needs, fears, and challenges that are a reality in light of Covid-19. Are people facing any additional pressures due to the epidemic? Or are there any new humanitarian needs right now? Are there any upcoming needs that people are anticipating?
    2. It goes without saying that if your Key Informant Interviews are normally in person, you’ll want to carry these out by phone for the foreseeable future!

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6. What to do about Third Party Monitoring

Some programmes and donors use Third Party Monitors to assess their programme results independently.  If you normally hire third party monitors, and you’ve got some third party monitoring planned for the next 1-3 months, you need to get on the phone with this team and make a new plan. Here are a few things you might want to think through with your third party monitors:

    1. Can the third party carry out their monitoring by phone, in the same ways I’ve outlined above?
    2. But also think through – is it worth it to get a third party monitor to assess results remotely? Is it better to postpone their monitoring?  Or is it worth it to carry on regardless?
    3. What is the budget implication? If cars won’t be used, is there any cost-savings?  Is there any additional budget they’ll need for air-time costs for their phones?
    4. Make sure there is a plan to gather as much photo and video evidence as possible (see point 2 above!)
    5. If they’re carrying out phone call interviews it would also be a good recommendation to record phone calls if possible and with consent, so you have the records if needed.

7. Manage expectations – The Coronavirus Pandemic may Impact your Programme Results.

You probably didn’t predict that a global pandemic would occur in the middle of your project cycle and throw your entire plan off.  Go easy on yourself and your team!  It is most likely that the results you’d planned for might not end up being achieved this year.  Your donors know this (because they’re probably also on lockdown).  You can’t control the pandemic, but you can control your response.  So proactively manage your own expectations, your manager’s expectations and your donor’s expectations.

    1. Get on a Skype or Zoom call with the project managers and review each indicator of your M&E plan. In light of the pandemic, what indicator targets will most likely change?
    2. Look through the baseline numbers in your M&E plan – is it possible that the results at the END of your project might be worse than even your baseline numbers? For example, if you have a livelihoods project, it is possible that income and livelihoods will be drastically reduced by a country-wide lockdown.  Or are you running an education programme?  If schools have been closed, then will a comparison to the baseline be possible?
    3. Once you’ve done a review of your M&E plan, create a very simple revised plan that can be talked through with your programme donor.

8. Talk to your Donors about what you can do remotely

When you’re on the phone with your donors, don’t only talk about revised programme indicators.

    1. Also talk about a revised timeframe. Is there any flexibility on the programme timeframe, or deadlines for interim reporting on indicators? What are their expectations?
    2. Also talk about what you CAN do remotely. Discuss with them the plan you have for carrying on everything possible that can be done remotely.
    3. And don’t forget to discuss financial implications of changes to timeframe.

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