Field Learning Through ICT: The CRS/ NetHope/ Intel Collaboration and Great

Lakes Cassava Initiative Pilot

CRS Program Quality & Support Department

21 October 2008

Presentation Overview

• What is GLCI? Project overview & information challenges

• Opportunity: NetHope Partnership– Education– Data capture & feedback/ M&E

• Short Term Benefits• Long Term Benefits• Funding

Great Lakes Cassava Initiative

Great Lakes Cassava Initiative: Goals

• To enable > 1,000,000 farmer families to improve their livelihood security by controlling cassava diseases through increased access to improved cuttings and through improved production and marketing

• To strengthen the cassava seed system so that future shocks can be averted

GLCI Project Overview

• Phase 1: Four years building on C3P

• Six countries (Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda)

• 53 local partners

• Budget $22,376,283 (CRS $500,000)

• > 1 million farm families (± 5,000 farmer groups)

GLCI Challenges in Training, Data and M&E

• Staff time required to collect field data and transfer it to computerized database; errors

• Difficulty collating data from various locations• Gaps in project manager and farmer group

knowledge – language & curriculum barriers• Difficulty with feedback for trainings• IT: connectivity, staff savvy

SITE SUPERFICIE VARIETES PLANTEES ( Taux d'occupation du champ ) % REPRISE EstimationMM96/5280 MM96/0287 MM96/7688 MM96/0735 Abbey if MM96/1961

Kigina 6.07ha 0 80 10 0 10 0 75 455,250FHI 5ha 0 80 20 0 0 0 60 300,000ButeganaI 1.7ha 0 0 25 75 0 0 75 127,500ButeganaII 1.3ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 80 104,000Gasuru 2.5ha 0 0 0 10 90 0 70 175,000KimezaI 2.2ha 75 0 25 0 0 0 80 176,000KimezaII 1.5ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 85 127,500Mangoma 1.3ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 90 117,000Rusarasi 4.2ha 20 10 50 10 10 0 90 378,000Rutabo 5.7ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 90 513,000Murore 3.5ha 20 20 40 10 10 0 90 315,000RugaramaI 1.3ha 40 0 60 0 0 0 90 117,000RugaramaII 2.7ha 30 0 70 0 0 0 90 243,000Muhuzu 3ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 85 255,000Kibonde 7ha 0 80 10 0 10 0 75 525,000EMUSO 5ha 40 60 0 0 0 0 75 375,000KanyinyaI 1.5ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 70 35,000KanyinyaII 0.5ha 0 0 0 0 100 0 70 105,000KareheI 3ha 0 0 0 0 100 0 80 240,000KareheII 2.5ha 80 0 0 0 20 0 80 200,000Mutwenzi 0.5ha 0 0 0 75 25 0 90 45,000RunaniraIII 1ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 80 80,000Kigozi I 2.3ha 45 0 15 20 20 0 90 207,000Kigozi II 2ha 100 0 0 0 0 0 90 180,000Kigozi III 7ha 20 0 0 0 80 0 90 630,000Vyanzo 2ha 0 0 0 0 0 100 90 180,000Mihigo 2.62ha 0 0 100 0 0 0 65 170,300Vyuma 1.3ha 0 0 0 100 0 0 85 110,500Karira 2ha 0 50 25 25 0 0 80 160,000

TOTAL 6,646,050

NetHope Partnership

• NetHope is a non-profit consortium of NGOs, now 25 strong

• Facilitates partnerships between technology providers and NetHope members

• Focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of humanitarian work through the use of technology

Pilot Opportunity• Develop common, scalable education and data

collection solutions that – Help build local capacity– Operate in extreme environments– Support varying levels of internet access

• Leverage cost-effective components that have been used successfully in for-profit and non-profit environments– Low cost rugged laptops (Intel)– Learning management system (Agilix)– Electronic forms capture (FormRouter)

• Develop local business partnerships that support the use of this technology over time

Pilot Description

• Proposed Solution– Education: Build capacity of field agents to train

several thousand farmer groups– Data Recording: Monitor disease epidemiology– Reporting: Enhanced M&E tools

• Target users: – CRS and Partner Staff– Researchers from Ministry of Agriculture– Field agents with training and disease monitoring

responsibilities• Proposed scope: 250 laptops over 6 countries

Pilot description – education & training

• Curriculum and course management: – Course standardization and distribution

• Training module/ curriculum development support – Agilix to support curriculum developers to best utilize

platform

– Maintains training records

– Feedback mechanism: did you really learn this?

– Multi-media, interactive

• Multiple languages, cultures – different field versions saved & shared

Design Team

Disease cntl

Project staff

Marketing/ MF FG Org support

Project staff Project staff Project staff Project staff

Partner Teams

ClusteredBeneficiaryGroups5000 + groups

Design team2-5 pax

Theme leadersMaster trainers5-6 themes

ProjectField staff4-5 pax / theme

Local PartnerTeamsUp to 70

Field Agents200 + pax

Example Training Architecture

Partner Teams

Partner Teams

Partner Teams

Partner Teams

Partner Teams

Partner Teams

Partner Teams

Pilot description – data recording

• Forms development and management– Text and video/image capability

• Forms data entry– Simplified/ customized data entry

• Forms storage and routing• Operate in range of environments

– Fully connected to non-connected– Office to field– Powered to unpowered for extended periods of time– Mobile

• Feedback to field

Horizontal feedback loop

Short Term Benefits

• Reduce costs associated with data collection and analysis, improve quality and timeliness of data– Annual Disease Survey and Early Warning System– Participatory Variety Selection – Monitoring and Evaluation

• Standardize training, reduce cost of adaptation to local environments, provide tools for measuring its effectiveness– Farmer Group Training– Seed Multiplication Training

Long Term Benefits

• Extend use of technology to extend CRS and partnership’s outreach capabilities

• Provide a comprehensive solution that can be easily adapted by CRS staff to address the full range of:– CRS’ field, partner and household field data

collection and M&E needs– CRS’ field staff, partner, and beneficiary

training needs

Funding

• Initial analysis indicates that this solution will largely pay for itself through cost savings:– Eliminate data recording tasks– Eliminate rework due to data recording issues– Reduce costs of adapting and publishing training

material for multiple audiences– Reduce travel requirements for training– Reduce costs of evaluating training results

• Pursue an innovation grant to evaluate benefits and learning potential of the solution ($40K)