Tech for Impact — Year 3, pt. 1: Digital Case Management Empowers Programming in Gaza
In 2017, Mercy Corps’ Technology for Development (T4D) team partnered with Cisco on a 5-year program designed to use technology to deliver humanitarian aid and development assistance faster, more efficiently, and to more people. We’ve just completed year 3 of the partnership and in this Annual Impact Report you can learn more about our work on disseminating information about COVID-19 on our WiFi networks, using 3D printing to make assistive devices, leveraging social media platforms to engage communities with local governments, providing cash and voucher assistance using mobile phones, and more!
One of the strengths of the partnership is the unique opportunity for training and iteration it enables, starting with our team members and extending to our tech-enabled programming. This is the first in a series of 2 articles here on Medium in which we highlight the ways this partnership has impacted Mercy Corps staff and programming.
Stay tuned to read more about how T4D’s digital case management training has improved programmatic decision making in response to COVID-19 in Gaza and how we’ve built digital systems into cash and voucher programming that save time, protect participants, and improve reporting.
Digital Case Management Empowers Coordination and Programming in Gaza
T4I has empowered numerous Mercy Corps country teams to improve our programming through various data management trainings designed to increase programming efficiency, accuracy in reporting, and in the Gaza team’s case — set them up as a leader among partners.
Mercy Corps Gaza was conducting between five and seven different surveys per household to establish baselines, track vulnerabilities, and conduct post distribution surveys, among others, with a single digital application. While the application worked, it was not the perfect fit for all of the various projects. The application digitized the surveys, but without automated case management functions, it was time consuming and tedious to manage each household individually.
The T4D team provided technical support to the Gaza team through a series of trainings on digital case management tools to optimize their usage in the field. These trainings focused on building survey forms that employ hidden values and question logic, assigning mobile workers and users, and strongly reinforcing case management features that automate many of the data collection and follow up processes. In addition to the formal training sessions, T4D has continued to provide technical assistance through capacity building meetings and follow up on support requests.
The training empowered Mercy Corps Gaza’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to not only accomplish their tasks more effectively, but also to approach the case management software as an ally instead of the burden it once felt like. Farah Haddad (T4D) facilitated the initial two-day virtual training with Basma Zakout, Mercy Corps’ Gaza’s MEL Coordinator and several other members of the Gaza team. Basma said, “By implementing logic and validation questions we were able to reduce errors of all types,” enabling the software to compile the data, perform calculations, and prepare reports in real time. Moreover, the software and training helped the team track progress towards their targets with daily monitoring reports and mitigate problems related to breakdowns and other issues.
The software improvements empowered Basma and her team to conduct registrations, technical assessments, and needs analysis for community groups and farmers under a food security project. The team was able to track improvements in agriculture by capturing photos before and after interventions, approving follow up support, and responding to new change requests. Basma stated,
“It made the program management responsive to the new emerging needs due to the feature of remote data collection. Eventually our intervention helped farmers restore their livelihoods and improve their production capacity in their lands or farms by 96%.”
In addition to improving efficiencies, the software and training opened new doors for data-driven decision making in the field. The software helped quickly identify where program participants were not receiving enough hygiene items in their fight against COVID-19, allowing the Mercy Corps’ team to realign assistance where it was needed most, or refer participants to other programs; these kinds of programmatic adjustments may not have been possible in the past due to delayed insights.
“We are now experts at this,” Basma said. With a mastery of the digital case management software, Mercy Corps has been able to win new proposals and take charge of new responsibilities. Now the team is leading assistance projects and the associated data management in partnership with other international humanitarian actors in Gaza. Additionally, the training has been shared with over 35 field surveyors on projects that have impacted 3,500 vulnerable households in Gaza.
If you’re interested in learning more about Mercy Corps’ Technology for Impact partnership with Cisco, check out the Year 3 Impact Report and read about our work on disseminating information about COVID-19 on our WiFi networks, using 3D printing to make prosthetics, leveraging social media platforms to engage communities with local governments, providing cash and voucher assistance using mobile phones, and more!
Stay tuned for the next episode of our mini-series on Year 3’s Impact Report and the work we’ve done to bolster digital data management in cash and voucher assistance programming.
