A new online open source monitoring system provides quantitative and qualitative data to guide decisions and plans for BRAC WASH.
Published on: 13/10/2014
Rapidly analysing and using monitoring data is a challenge in many large-scale development initiatives. BRAC WASH covers 250 sub-districts of Bangladesh and does an annual survey of 4000 households using the Qualitative Information System (QIS). In the past, analysing survey data, required complex software and was inaccessible to most practitioners in the field.
The online database empowers field staff by simplifying access to and analysis of data.
To aid decision making and planning, BeDataDriven and BRAC's ICT department are building an online platform for collecting, managing and analysing data from multiple sources. An integrated statistical analysis module will facilitate the use of the data and make it available a much wider group of WASH practitioners, particularly those closest to the field.
WASH Info builds on ActivityInfo, which was developed by BeDataDriven for humanitarian programs. The platform will enable those closest to the field to easily and rapidly collect, access and use the geo-referenced data.
Moving forward, BRAC's ICT department will lead the integration of the expanded system with existing management information systems to provide a central portal for data analysis within BRAC, allowing staff at all levels to combine data to identify success or areas for improvement, and to prioritise resource allocation.
WASH Info will be run and maintained by BRAC-ICT as an open source platform and will be offered internally to BRAC projects as software as a service (SaaS).
