Integrating Technology into Evaluation
Alex Tran
Director - MEL Data Systems
Mercy Corps, United States
Johnstone Lowoton, n/a
Data Platform Architect and Engineer
Mercy Corps, United States
Martin Peter (he/him/his)
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Systems Advisor
Mercy Corps, Borno, Nigeria
Location: White River Ballroom D
For the last 12 months Mercy Corps (non-profit humanitarian organization working in over 40 countries responding to various humanitarian crises) has developed and piloted the use an automated data analysis and reporting process to enhance both timeliness (analysis/results available within less than 1 day using automated processes, down from up to 5 weeks using manual processes) as well as comprehensiveness of analysis (especially dynamic disaggregated analysis – sex, age, persons with disabilities/chronic illness, pregnant/lactating persons, etc.). This process includes integrating commonly available tools and software such as CommCare mobile data collection/case management platform, Microsoft Azure cloud data engineering/database platform, and Microsoft Power BI to create an automated data stream and dynamically visualize data to create powerful narratives to further adaptive management and decision-making of humanitarian programs. Join us as Mercy Corps humanitarian MEL practitioners present 3 use cases of this automated process and the how we were able to use it to evaluate programs in relative real-time, tell different narratives/stories that go well beyond basic reporting, and drive forward tangible change in programs to be more equitable, inclusive, and ask major questions of our humanitarian response approaches. Presentations and use cases include: 1) Mercy Corps’ current Sudan regional response in which iterations of the process have enabled Mercy Corps to more effectively target humanitarian assistance/support to individuals in Sudan and in surrounding countries (South Sudan and Central African Republic) and shape humanitarian action. 2) Mercy Corps Nigeria’s combining post distribution and redemption data to produce insights about participants redemption and consumption profiles 3) As part of a recent agency level Organizational Outcome Measurement Initiative to better determine what types of program interventions may more effectively address food insecurity in different contexts, Mercy Corps presents the recently used automated process to aggregate data from multiple humanitarian programs together to conduct disaggregated analysis of portfolio level trends across different regions and countries to explore how Mercy Corps humanitarian programs improved food security conditions for persons affected by crisis. This analysis showed insight on where and during what programmatic periods food security outcomes improved most which led to Mercy Corps to more closely explore and evaluate programmatic approaches that appear to be most effective in different regions, countries, and humanitarian contexts.
Presenter: Amy Joce, n/a – Mercy Corps
Presenter: Tatiana Klymenko, n/a – Mercy Corps
Presenter: Alex Tran – Mercy Corps
Presenter: Johnstone Lowoton, n/a – Mercy Corps
Presenter: Martin Peter (he/him/his) – Mercy Corps
Presenter: Alex Tran – Mercy Corps