2016 ICT4D Conference

Monitoring program quality is critical to achieving positive change. Technology, especially in hard to reach environments, allows for data to be used in real-time to monitor implementation, quickly address quality issues and hold all parties accountable to agreed upon deliverables. The Adolescent Girls Initiative - Kenya, part of a longitudinal, randomized trial, works with adolescent girls 11-14 years old in two marginalized areas in Kenya: the Kibera slum in Nairobi and rural villages in Wajir County, on the border of Somalia. Program implementers use a suite of tech solutions to ensure access to real-time monitoring data, including: 1) use of the Open Data Kit app on android phones to collect attendance data on weekly girls group and community meetings, 2) biometric fingerprint readers linked to an app on an android phone to collect daily school attendance (which is used to calculate eligibility for a cash transfer conditioned on school attendance), and 3)using Salesforce, a cloud-based relational database to store all program data on each beneficiary. Panel presentations will include 1) an overview of the technology used and how it increases program quality and accountability, 2) insights into the challenges and modifications in an urban slum environment, and 3) insights into the challenges and modifications made in a remote, arid, rural area with little to no network coverage. The panel will be facilitated by the project director who will highlight how having integrated, accurate program data is critical for quality and accountability and how it will be integrated into the research study's data. Participants will gain exposure to user-friendly technologies that can be integrated easily into their own programs.