IICD stated their challenge as follows: "Imagine collecting data from 2000 beneficiaries per year in over nine developing countries annually." This sentence captures several interesting technical challenges:

• It's a continuous process, and the results of years have to be recorded. And be available in suitable formats, like SPSS.
  
• It needs to be done in various languages, at least English, Spanish, and French.
• The only certainty about the technical circumstances is uncertainty, of everything: browsers may be old, resources limited, a connection with the internet not available.

Moreover, the partner organisations should have access to the data as well. And with 13 questionnaires in 4 categories, in 3 languages each, it would be nice as well if you can add names of new countries or projects, without entering over a dozen times.

IICD and its partner organisations can then use the collected data, as input for their continuous learning and to measure and improve the effectiveness of projects and programmes.

IICD chose to partner with us, to develop WebEnq into a true open source survey tool, and have it tailor-made for their situation. In an ongoing process of design and discussion, together we combined ideas for, and experiences with online research, and technical solutions and a suitable interface to work with.

• We improved the SPSS output module, and starting working with the PSPP community, to work towards an open source alternative. As a result, a manager can download and open the results in their SPSS program with a single click.
  
• We added options to instantly create Word and PDF files for questionnaires, to print out and use if electricity or internet connections fail. Trainers, beneficiairies, and partners can do this at any moment, and always have an up-to-date questionnaire.
  
• We incorporated tailor-made questions for the specific list of IICD countries, projects, and trainings, so they can be managed in one place. Since the beneficiairies first select their country, it is also possible to then give them a concise (closed) list of running projects to choose from. This reduces errors in the input.
  

Since April 2005, IICD has switched to this new system, and partner organisations have begun using it. We continue to offer support and adaptations to changing needs, and when needed upgrade the system with new functions that may have been developed for other clients or projects.

IICD's public announcement: IICD launches online open source Monitoring and Evaluation tool

There is also a demo version of the IICD website, for training and experimentation.

 

 

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