THE CHALLENGE AND INNOVATION
Field data collection can be challenging when connectivity and technology are accessible. Imagine collecting data for 29,000 children with a pen and some paper. This is ChildFund Uganda’s (CFU) reality. A process which took them over 31 days to complete for 1 child. CFU had to dedicate a considerable amount of resources and lacked the necessary data to make evidence-based, time-sensitive decisions, and monitor a child’s progress from when it entered their programming to when they exit as young adults.
Using a Human Centered approach, V2I and a team of skill-based volunteers worked alongside ChildFund Uganda to develop and test a tool that would hopefully help CFU to improve their impact by leveraging technology.
To get the full story of our original pilot click here
THE IMPACT
- The time required to complete a child visitation was halved from 30-45 minutes with pen and paper to 20-25 minutes through the new tool
- The time required to input and upload a child visitation form was completely eliminated saving ChildFund Uganda 135 hours total for the pilot region (541 Children)
- Staff responsible for data collection used to conduct 2-3 home visits a day, this amount has since doubled and they are now able to visit 6 children per day
- This solution has allowed staff to reduce the time required to complete data collection by 44%
- Beyond greatly freeing up staff time to focus on program development and implementation, CFU has been able to increase the amount of children in age appropriate programs by 8% or 124 children in the pilot region
- Staff have also uncovered new cases of Gender Based Violence, which they are now addressing through targeted interventions
- This project engaged a team of 11 volunteers (2 designers, 1 product manager, and 6 programmers) from Salesforce, Microsoft, and Telus, reflecting 75 dedicated volunteer hours
THE BENEFITS OF THE PROGRAM
From our Partners
“The new data collection tool allows for faster action in case there is an area that needs to be addressed as compared to the previous way of using paper where time was lost in data entry. This system has also made it easy for the country office to track progress on monthly visitation of children by LPs [local partners] without having to rely on them sharing the data since we can access the records of children who have been visited. ”
“The data collection tool is amazing. With the digital family visit now, it is easier to identify those children who have not been visited in the entire quarter and a community staff can make follow ups with that volunteer to ascertain what could have happened to the child/family. Also in terms of participation, we are able to tell which category of children don’t participate or benefit from the program given that data collected is in life stages (quick analysis can be made as opposed to the paper data collection).”
“Through the management team lens, the digital family visitation is helping PfCW [Partnership for Children Worldwide] to generate data per community mobilizer in a month. This has enabled management to take decisions on how to remunerate community mobilizers in relation to the number of children visited. This is beginning to motivate the community volunteers thus increasing the number of children visited despite other activities that engage the community mobilizers.”
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Our impact was created alongside employees from the following companies
Their expertise and passion for leveraging technology for the greater good greatly supported this project’s success.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND OUTCOMES
- Before the project the % of children with complete home visitation forms was 45%. Our target percentage was 100%. Our results were 100%
- Before the project the % of decisions being made based on evidence was 5%. Our targeted result was 50%. Our actual results were between 60-70%
- Before the project the % of children participating in age appropriate programs was 65.92%. Our targeted result was 100%. Our current result is 78.60%
NEXT STEPS
- Take the knowledge gained from the pilot project and expand the use of tech-based data collection systems.
- Train staff in other areas of Uganda how to use the new data collection system and adopt the new system in other areas of Uganda so that eventually all 29,000 children will be assessed using the new system
LIVE EVENT WITH CHILDFUND UGANDA