Reinventing the flat tire… don’t build what is already built!


by Ricardo Santana, MERL Practitioner

One typical factor that delays many projects in international development is the design and creation from scratch of hardware and software to provide a certain feature or accomplish a task. And, while it is true that in some cases a specific design is required, in most cases the outputs can be achieved through solutions already available in the market.

Why is this important? Because we witness over and over again how budgets are wasted in mismanaged projects and programs, delaying solutions, generating skepticism in funders, beneficiaries and other stakeholders and finally delivering a poor result. It is sad to realize that some of these issues may have been avoided simply using solutions and products already available, proved and at reasonable cost.

Then, what do we do? It is hard to find solutions aimed at international development by just browsing through Internet. During MERL Tech London 2018, the NGO Engineering for Change presented their Solutions Library. (Disclaimer: I have contributed to the library by analysing products, software and tools in different application spaces). In this database it is possible to explore and consult many available solutions that may help tackle a specific challenge or need to deliver a good result.

It doesn’t mean that this is the only place on which to rely for everything, or that projects absolutely need to adapt their processes to what is available. But as a professional responsible for evaluating and optimizing projects and programs in government and international development, I know that is always a good place for consulting on different technologies that are designed to help accelerate the overcoming of social inequalities, increasing access to services or automating and simplifying the monitoring, evaluation, research and learning processes.

Through my collaboration with this platform I came to know many different solutions to perform and effectively manage MERL processes. Some of these include: Magpi, Ushaidi, Epicollect5, RapidPro, mWater, SurveyCTO and VOTO Mobile. Some of these are private and some are OpenSource. Some are for managing disaster scenario, others for making poll, for health or for other services. What is impressive is the variety of solutions.

This was a sweet and sour discovery for me. As many other professionals, I wasted important resources and time developing software that was found in robust and previously tested forms that was in many cases a more cost effective and faster solution. However, knowledge is power and now many solutions are on my radar and I have now developed a clear sense of the need to explore before implement.

And that is my humble advice to any who is responsible of deploying a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning process within their projects. Before we start working like crazy, as we all do, due to our strong commitment to our responsibilities: take some time to carry out proper research on what platforms and software are already available in the market that may suit your needs and evaluate whether there is something feasible or useful or not before re-building every single thing from scratch. That certainly will foster your effectiveness and optimize your delivery cost and time.

As Mariela said in her MERL Tech Lightning Talk: Don’t reinvent the flat tire! You can submit ideas for the Solutions Library or participate as a solutions reviewer too. You can also find more information on the library and how solutions are vetted here at the Library website.

Register now for MERL Tech Jozi, August 1-2 or MERL Tech DC, September 6-7, 2018 if you’d like to join the discussions in person!

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