How to Create an Effective Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
In recent years, organizations and employees are being measured not on their stories, but on their numbers. When you introduce your organization, people will always...
9 Data Sets to Improve Your ICTforAg Programs
At the recent ICTforAg Conference, the “What Works for Ag Data: Apps, Tools, and Visualizations” session brought together three digital development professionals...
5 Reasons Why Platforms Are Better Than Bespoke Technical Solutions
For many organizations, the struggle to choose between platform and bespoke solutions is becoming more and more unwieldy as technology choices increase exponentially....
The Status of Open Data Initiatives in West Africa
Open data offers many improvements for governance and services. As technology allows for more interoperability and a stronger free-flow of information, the government...
Randomized Control Trials Feed Our Fetish for Single-Focus Interventions
I am Ed Gaible of Natoma Group and I am here to report that RCT fetishism is alive and well in development.
Sometime in the early part of this millennium, Randomized...
The Dangers of Legal Ignorance in Digital Development
Some time ago I was working in a country that had enacted data localization laws requiring that all personal data that originates in that country must also be hosted...
Help USAID Find Evidence of Real-Time Data Use in Development
Development is messy and complex, but our projects are set up around linear information systems that are slow, one-way, highly siloed and paper-based. Project management...
The Global Archipelago of Internet Disconnection
For many people around the world, Internet access is an essential part of everyday economic, social and political activities (cf. Graham & Dutton, 2014). Yet...
Mobile Data Collection: Current Practice and Lessons Learned at Plan International
Smartphones and tablets offer an increasing array of applications and services that can be useful in our daily lives and work. Data collection, an important part...
Are Facebook Messenger Chatbots The Answer to Our Aid Questions?
Last week, everyone’s favorite frenemy – Facebook – held its annual developer conference in Silicon Valley. Waving our ICT4D flag in the crowd, Souktel...