RESULTS BASED MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF ICT4D PROJECTS OF NISG – NATIIONAL INSTITUTE OF SMART GOVERNMENT FUNDED BY UNDP

M&E is central to all our work. Good M&E is essential to effective management and is also the basis of successful planning and budgeting, but these key activities are often not effectively linked. We assist our clients to design, install, manage and review M&E systems with a multi-disciplinary approach. We use Results Based Management approach with the concept of results chain for building and managing M&E systems for improving performance. This includes developing systems for performance measurement, learning and reporting.

We are working with donor and public sector agencies in implementing RBM both at the community (supported organizations) and agency level. We are implementing RBM to one of current client National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), Hyderabad where-in we are working with 10 ICT4D pilot projects implemented by government agencies and non governmental organizations. The programme is funded by UNDP. 

We are following a 3 step approach/ method in implementing RBM both at supported both partner organization/agencies level and at NISG level for Results Based M&E. The approach technically supports partners and NISG in Planning, Implementation and M&E using RBM. The whole system is augmented by a RBM tool. We have developed and customized 2 software packages one at the partner level and other at the agency (NISG) level. 

The partner package takes in as masters the developed Results Framework and Performance Framework with schedules for both activities and results. The activities are scheduled on monthly basis and the output results on quarterly basis. The outcome results are scheduled either annual or quarterly. The partners update the activity implementation monthly and performance of results (outputs/outcomes) on quarterly basis. The package provides various analytical reports and status at individual or cumulative activities/ results.

The agency level package takes in the reports sent by the partner organizations and provides various analytical reports and overall picture of the project performance and implementation status. The dash board report (screen shot) at the agency level package (NISG) is attached as sample which provides status of all 10 pilot projects. The tool also takes care of budgeting (results based) and financial reporting.

The 10 ICT4D projects are:

Bangalore One: Implemented by the Government of Karnataka, the Bangalore-One project provides services of the Central, State and Local Governments to the citizens of Bangalore in a convenient manner with efficiency, courtesy, and certainty, through a chain of Integrated Citizen Service Centers and also other multiple access channels.

Integrated Community Service centers (i-CoSC): Implemented by Department of IT, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, the project aims at setting up one-stop-shop information resource and service centres for the people in the State, using simple but state-of-the-art methods of organizing, sharing, and communicating information. 

e-Krishi / Agri-Business centers: Implemented by Kerala State IT Mission, the project envisages facilitating and enabling farmers and other Stakeholders through Agri Business Centres to interact with Agricultural Service Providers in the Private, Government and Non Government sectors . 

DRISTI: Implemented by the Department of Panchayati Raj, West Bengal, the DRISTI (Decentralised Rural Information Services & Technology Initiatives) project aims to promote better efficiency in managing various programmes and delivery systems, design and use planning tools (including GIS based technology) for village level planning, creation of a better monitoring & compliance machinery, and promote social audit. 

Ashwini: Implemented by Byrraju foundation, Project ASHWINI seeks to create a platform for multi-dimensional interaction between experts and service providers in towns/cities and defined target segments. The project empowers rural population by providing timely access to an array of high quality services using a virtual delivery platform. In functional terms, it involves delivery of high quality healthcare, education, agriculture, livelihoods training and e-governance.

Creating Rural Entrepreneurs through ICT enabled Enterprise Development Services: Implemented by Development Alternatives, the initiative ‘Creating rural entrepreneurs through ICT enabled enterprise development services (EDS)' focuses on providing entrepreneurship opportunities to youth, women, self-help groups, landless and small land holders in the areas of non-traditional agriculture and natural waste recycling based manufacturing through TARAkendras, TARAhaat's rural business community centers. 

Village Information System: Implemented by Gujarat Informatics Limited, Govt. of Gujarat, Village Information System project (an extension to e-Gram) is targeted at rural population of Gujarat to bring better, efficient, transparent and effective governance, and citizen services that are easy and simple to access with minimum associated costs. VIS (eGram) seeks to integrate all the projects under the Government of Gujarat’s e-Governance initiatives. 

Mahiti Mitra: Implemented by Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan, an NGO in Gujarat, the Project envisages the creation of Setu ICT kiosks through the existing Setu centres, and developing the kiosk as a platform which enables the Gram Panchayat bodies and Gram Sabhas to access various ICT technology applications. The kiosks provide simple informational tools and services in order to improve both, their ability to self-govern and generate better development opportunities. 

e-Justice: Implemented by the Centre for Good Governance, a registered society, the project aims at creating awareness among the citizens residing in the rural and semi-urban areas about the legal provisions and the roles and responsibilities of the governmental functionaries. The project generates awareness about the existence of various legal support agencies and groups. 

Mahiti Manthana: Implemented by IT for Change, an NGO in Karnataka, the Mahiti Manthana project aims to appropriately ICT-enable the ‘Resource Center’ strategy of Mahila Samakhya, Karnataka, so that the information and communication processes of the sanghas and federations are sufficiently strengthened, for them to function autonomously, and for achieving the goal of women’s empowerment at higher levels of effectiveness.