LocationsSystematized Data as a Management Asset
January 24, 2023
Written by: Sofia Silva, Head of Exploration, UNDP Cabo Verde Accelerator Lab
The sensing process
In the process of identifying the challenges of our society, the Accelerator Lab identified an interesting initiative of the largest municipality in the country.
The Municipal Council of Praia (CMP) has 25 community agents with different skills who go around the different neighborhoods of the city every day to identify and record the main problems of the community.
The areas or priorities to focus on are defined by the CMP as social action, urban safety, commercial development, urban economy, urbanism, civil protection, and relations with immigrant communities, among others.
Together, the AccLab team, the Community Agents Team Leader, and the Mayor of the City of Praia identified the need for a systematized data collection methodology that would allow the generation of metrics, behavioral insights, statistics, and patterns of situations and behaviors that would allow the generation of information to support actions.
This archaic collection, on paper and not subsequently incorporated into any system, does not allow the systematization of information, making it difficult to analyze data and prioritize actions and present evidence to partners when presenting new problems or projects.
The entire country suffers from a lack of information at various levels. Municipalities, by being on the ground and in the communities, are a huge potential for local data collection, which in addition to serving local power, can also serve the whole country, especially the municipality of Praia, which represents 25% of the population.
Future System Prototyping
The system was developed by a private company and selected through a competitive bidding process under UNDP regulations.
Once the project team was formed, the AccLab, the Chief of Agents, some agents, and some elements of the CMP, we started the process of designing the solution.
We made field visits with the teams to understand how they work in the field.
We met with all the departments of CMP to understand the needs of each portfolio/area and to better adapt to those needs.
We analyzed the internal data already collected by CMP to ensure that the solution would consider this data.
The development process was done in phases, starting with the design of simple questionnaires to better understand the solution by the agent team.
Data was introduced to understand the answers the system could provide.
Regular meetings were held with all agents to gather feedback.
What we have developed so far
The system is now fully developed. It consists of a front-office and a back-office module.
In the back-office module, the team manager can create, manage and view the results of the questionnaires.
In the front office module, the team members can open and fill in the questionnaires.
The system also has a small module that manages the tasks of the teams in the field, making the manager's job easier.
The front office is web-based, and the backend is based on the proven Kobo system, which is very versatile.
The experience
At the beginning of the year, we started to fill out questionnaires in the field.
The agent manager created simple questionnaires to test the system and analyze the results.
The team is getting used to filling out the questionnaires, testing the dynamics of understanding the challenges and translating them into the developed system.
Over the next few months, AccLab and the company that developed the system will follow up on the results.
We have identified a certain gap in the level of work on the data itself, and better preparation of the questionnaires, for results that will allow us to better translate the problems.
There may be coaching sessions on the data for better efficiency.
We will keep you informed.
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