Better or different or both?

by Linda Raftree, Independent Consultant and MERL Tech Organizer

As we delve into why, when, where, if, and how to incorporate various types of technology and digital data tools and approaches into monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), it can be helpful to think about MERL technologies from two angles:

1. Doing our work better:  How can new technologies and approaches help us do what we’ve always done — the things that we know are working and having an impact — but do them better? (E.g., faster, with higher quality, more efficiently, less expensively, with greater reach or more inclusion of different voices)
2. Doing our work differently:  What brand new, previously unthinkable things can be done because of new technologies and approaches? How might these totally new ideas contribute positively to our work or push us to work in an entirely different way.

Sometimes these two things happen simultaneously and sometimes they do not.  Some organizations are better at Thing 1, and others are set-up well to explore Thing 2. Not all organizations need to feel pressured into doing Thing 2; however, and sometimes it can be a distraction from Thing 1. Some organizations may be better off letting early adopters focus on Thing 2 and investing their own budgets and energy in Thing 1 until innovations have been tried and tested by the early adopters. Organizations may also have staff members or teams working on both Thing 1 and Thing 2 separately. Others may conceptualize this as process or pathway moving from Thing 2 to Thing 1, where Thing 2 (once tested and evaluated) is a pipeline into Thing 1.

Here are some potentially useful past discussions on the topic of innovations within development organizations that flesh out some of these thoughts:

• A discussion on how to encourage innovation in development organizations
• A discussion on the capacity of international civil societies organizations to be nimble?
• Insights on developing an organizational ICT4D strategy

Many of the new tools and approaches that were considered experimental 10 years ago have moved from being “brand new and innovative” to simply “helping us do what we’ve always done.” Some of these earlier “innovations” are related to digital data and data collection and processing, and they help us do better monitoring, evaluation and research.

On the flip side, monitoring, evaluation and research have played a key role in helping organizations and the sector overall learn more about how, where, when, why and in what contexts these different tools and approaches (including digital data for MERL) can be adopted. MERL on ICT4D and Digital Development approaches can help calibrate the “hype cycle” and weed out the shiny new tools and approaches that are actually not very effective or useful to the sector and highlight those that cause harm or put people at risk.

There are always going to be new tools and approaches that emerge. Humanitarian and development organizations, then, need to think strategically about what kind of organization they are (or want to be) and where they fit on the MERL Tech continuum between Thing 1 and Thing 2.

What capacities does an organization have for working on Thing 2 (brand new and different)? When and for how long should an organization focus on Thing 1, building on what it knows is working or could work, keeping an eye on the early adopters who are working on Thing 2. When does an organization have enough “proof” to start adopting new tools and approaches that seem to add value? How are these new tools and approaches being monitored, evaluated and researched to improve our use of them?

It’s difficult for widespread adoption to happen in the development space, where there is normally limited time and capacity for failure or for experimentation, without solid MERL. And even with “solid MERL” it can be difficult for organizations to adapt and change due to a multitude of factors, both internal and external.

I’m looking forward to September’s MERL Tech Conference in DC where we have some sessions that explore “the MERL on ICT4MERL?” and others that examine aspects of organizational change related to adopting newer MERL Tech tools and approaches.

(Register here if you haven’t already!)