Making Mobile Feedback Programs Work : Lessons from Designing an ICT Tool with Local Communities
Does providing a free text messaging (SMS) reporting tool, which facilitates communication between farmers and the state-level Project Implementation Unit (PIU) overseeing the Fadama III Project, improve the quality of service of the program? This...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/05/19695130/making-mobile-feedback-programs-work-lessons-designing-ict-tool-local-communities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18712 |
| Summary: | Does providing a free text messaging
(SMS) reporting tool, which facilitates communication
between farmers and the state-level Project Implementation
Unit (PIU) overseeing the Fadama III Project, improve the
quality of service of the program? This note highlights
initial outcomes from a pre-pilot exercise conducted in 2013
with two program objectives: 1) to explore whether working
with local Community-Based Organizations (CBO) to train
farmers to use and to promote the tool was an effective
means to get and maintain user adoption; and 2) to examine
whether the ICT-generated information and system helped the
PIU better manage the project. Two main conclusions can be
drawn from this pre-pilot. Firstly, it was found that CBO
engagement led to significantly larger uptake and use of the
system. Secondly, the State PIU only minimally used the
reports that were being sent by farmers, despite
institutional excitement about the system and a strong
mandate from management to use the reports. The findings
presented here are based on the deployment of MyVoice, a
prototype SMS tool, in six communities in the Federal
Capitol Territory of Nigeria. The tool was rolled out over a
two-week period through training sessions in the community.
The tool was then left operational for an additional four
weeks for the communities and government to utilize it. The
data informing this note was from all six weeks. Despite the
fact that the prototype had significant technical and
usability limitations, which were well-understood by the
implementing team, its deployment allowed the team to test
and learn about the social adoption and use of the tool, as
well as to refine the program, training and final software
for a more formal pilot and launch. This responsive and
adaptive approach helped the team build a more locally
relevant and useful system. |
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