Since our first blog
post on the Humanitarian Innogation Fund's website, on July 13, 2011, the pilot
accountability project, which uses SMS to gather feedback from
beneficiaries,has formally started on September 1st, 2011, with the hiring of
the Communications Officer.
The first phase of the
pilotwill be implemented primarily through the Community-Driven Recovery and
Development Project (CDRD). Partners for the SMS feedback testing were selected
from CDRD projects in ElefwaynDistrict, Sanaag region, Somaliland. The decision
to test the SMS feedback system on a CDRD project in Somaliland is based on the
fact that these projects are implemented in relatively stable communities where
members are most likely to own mobile phones which will enable the team to assess
the beneficiaries’ response to the project better. Once the feedback system is
up and running, it will be rolled out to all the other CDRD projects currently
implemented in Somaliland Puntland, and central Somalia until December 2011. In
February, 2012, a third phase of the SMS feedback will be rolled out to a
select number of families in Mogadishu who are receiving cash relief.
The plan to test out
the SMS using an android tablet from the start of October was delayed due to a
technical error which prevented it from delivering the SMSes as expected. The
android tablet will be used with a local SIM card to receive the SMSes, it will
then automatically synchronize with the Ushahidi platform on the dashboard of
our website: http://somcdrd.org/geo/dashboard/. After which,
we will process the messages and post them on the public section of the
dashboard. However, the planned trip went ahead without the tablet in place and
we have used a normal mobile phone to receive the messages until the tablet was
ready. The trip helped the team to get a sense of how the beneficiaries managed
the projects, their decision-making process, if they would welcome the idea of
SMS feedback and if mobile phone networks worked properly in the villages.
The delays caused by
the technical errors in putting the android tablet to use has meant moving the
original 13/11/2011 SMS roll out date to Mogadishu to February 2012. We have
recruited the Management Information Systems Officer, who will start on 19thDecember.
With these initial minor setbacks, we have decided to focus on SMS feedbacks
only from CDRD beneficiaries based in Somaliland and Puntland until end of
December.
SMS testing field trip summary
CDRD has implemented
projects in 17 villages in Elafweyn District,Sanaag region, Somaliland,
including Elefweyn town. Out of these, we have selected Elafweyn town and 4
villages, because they have diverse projects representing CDRD’s initiatives,
located in areas with different network coverage levels and at different
implementation stages. We think these are small and diverse enough group and
make ideal partners to get a good idea of how the SMS feedback system will work
and realistically assess any challenges that may arise.
The first SMS feedback
testing took place between the 4th and 11th October,
2011. We have partnered with beneficiaries from:
1. Elafweyn town, established in
1940 with a population of 9600.
2. Godaanood village, established
in 1960 with a population of 2100.
3. Kalsheikh village, established
in 1959 with a population of 1800.
4. Beerweeso village, established
in 1978 with a population of 1650.
5. And the most recently
established village and latest CDRD partner, Gal and Ka, established in 2004
with a population of 1500.
Purpose of the visit was to inform and explain to beneficiaries
of the new project, consult them on most effective way to get feedbacks and to
spread the word, get an idea of their level of literacy and communication
skills, and find out possible network and other potential challenges that might
affect the project.
To assess how the
beneficiaries of different projects will respond to the project, we have
selected beneficiaries from diverse projects ranging from roof water catchment
(tanks), schools, public toilets, irrigation canals, revolving funds (mainly
for women to run small income-generating businesses), distribution of
agriculture tools, to other beneficiaries and facilitators such as the
Community Development Committees and Village Development Committees.
From the first visit
to the water tank beneficiaries in Elafweyn town, we learnt most of them,
particularly the women, are illiterate and will not be able to participate in
the project without help. Luckily, during one such visit, we have met a
beneficiary with her young son doing his homework in the same room and when we
asked him if he would be interested in taking part of the project to both give
feedback about how having a class room, water tank, and access to public
toilet, all built by CDRD-funded projects, have affected his life. He was
enthusiastic and agreed to take part.
This gave us an idea
to incorporate school children, teachers and headmasters into the project to
partner with parent beneficiaries and act as the focal people to follow up with
in case we do not hear from particular town or village. We have also noticed
during meetings with the beneficiaries, the most alert and inquisitive people
were children and school teachers, followed by some of the female
beneficiaries.
Therefore, in each
village and Elafweyn town, we have asked a school teacher, headmaster or a
student to act as the contact/focal person in case there is no feedback, people
can’t write, or any other technical issues arise. So far, we have received very
few SMSes from the beneficiaries and after few more phone calls to the focal
persons, we expect more SMSes to follow. We are also trying to find out if the
few SMSes are due to financial difficulties as most of the beneficiaries are
very poor.
As part of the project
and to compliment the SMS feedback, we have set up social media pages to
document the pilot project from the start and share our lessons with other
Humanitarian agencies and stake holders. We have a blog, Facebook, Twitter and
anwebsite with interactive GPS maps of where our projects are based, people can
follow us here:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SomCDRDTwitter:http://twitter.com/#!/DRCSomalia
Website:http://somcdrd.org/home/
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