Internal Monitoring and Evaluation

Driving learning and impact through highly-rated monitoring and evaluation systems

Our comprehensive monitoring and evaluation systems were highly rated by ImpactMatters (now Charity Navigator). These systems track the implementation of all five components of our programming and allow for ongoing and timely performance management using TaroWorks for data collection and Salesforce’s relational cloud-based database for information management.

Adaptive Management

Driving impact with adaptive management

To continue to improve the quality of our program delivery and increase our impact, Village Enterprise has invested in a comprehensive, adaptive management system in order to effectively measure the progress of our businesses and business savings groups, activity implementation, and staff performance, and to feed insights back into decision-making. By using adaptive management, we can proactively identify issues and find solutions based on robust, data-driven decision-making.

Dashboards

Using the TaroWorks offline mobile field service application on Android devices for data collection, we pair our technology to Salesforce’s cloud database for data and customer relationship management.

Village Enterprise has developed tools and dashboards that allow our field staff to better monitor and assist the businesses and business savings groups they oversee. The objectives our team identified, based on the organizational needs, were:

• Improved timeliness: Real-time availability of data
• Greater reach: Data shared with ALL staff
• Accessibility: Data shared in a format that is understandable to all staff

After an extensive collaborative process, the team created data dashboards that all field staff could access digitally and developed customized reports that would be automatically sent to staff based on pre-defined triggers. The dashboards show business and business savings group data, along with an automated calculation of “business health rating.” This allows field staff to monitor their businesses and business savings groups and to proactively adapt their mentoring, creating greater success and impact.

Village Enterprise’s dashboards won the contest for best dashboard at the MERL Tech Conference in Washington D.C. in 2019 based on dashboard goal, organization of underlying data, why the design was chosen, and impact it had on decision-making.

Internal Monitoring and Evaluation

Village Enterprise cares deeply about measuring and understanding the impact of our program on first-time entrepreneurs’ lives.

To measure the effectiveness of our program, we use the following internal tools and processes:

• Targeting: We use Innovations for Poverty Action’s Poverty Probability Index (PPI) to ensure that at least 95% of program participants live below the poverty line.
• Monitoring: We routinely monitor all five aspects of program implementation as follows:
  • Targeting: We use GPS, photos, and timestamps as well as random back-checks to ensure all households living in a village receive a valid PPI survey.
  • Training: We use digital training attendance forms to monitor that training is being offered, and participants are attending the training. We use the Stallings Classroom Observation system as well as qualitative spot checks to monitor the quality of training implementation.
  • Savings Groups: Progress surveys conducted by enumerators and spot checks conducted by managers are used to track the progress of all business savings groups.
  • Business Formation: We use business plan applications, business progress surveys conducted by enumerators, and spot checks conducted by managers to track the progress of all business groups.
  • Mentoring: Digital mentoring logs are used to verify the ongoing provision of mentoring.
• To measure our impact, Village Enterprise uses baseline and endline household surveys to assess changes in entrepreneurs’ standard of living. Key impact measurements tracked include:
  • Average total savings per business savings group
  • Average increase in household savings
  • Average increase in annual household consumption and expenditure
  • Average increase in daily meal consumption
  • Average  increase in weekly animal protein consumption