Living Our Vision: Applying the Principles of Digital Development as an Evaluative Methodology

by: Sylvia Otieno, MPA candidate at George Washington University and Consultant at the World Bank’s IEG; and Allana Nelson, Senior Manager for the Digital Principles at DIAL

For nearly a decade, the Principles of Digital Development (Digital Principles)  have served to guide practitioners in developing and implementing digital tools in their programming. The plenary session at MERL Tech DC 2019 titled “Living Our Vision: Applying the Principles of Digital Development as an Evaluative Methodology” introduced attendees to four evaluation tools that have been developed to help organizations incorporate the Digital Principles into their design, planning, and assessments. 

This panel – organized and moderated by Allana Nelson, Senior Manager for the Digital Principles stewardship at the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) – highlighted digital development frameworks and tools developed by SIMLab, USAID in collaboration with John Snow Inc., Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) in collaboration with TechChange, and the Response Innovation Lab. These frameworks and toolkits were built on the good practice guidance provided by the Principles for Digital Development. They are intended to assist development practitioners to be more thoughtful about how they use technology and digital innovations in their programs and organizations. Furthermore, the toolkits assist organizations with building evidence to inform program development. 

Laura Walker McDonald, Senior Director for Insights and Impact at DIAL, presented the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (developed during her time at SIMLab), which assists practitioners in measuring the impact of their work and the contribution of inclusive technologies to their impact and outcomes. This Monitoring and Evaluation Framework was developed out of the need for more evidence of the successes and failures of technology for social change. “We have almost no evidence of how innovation is brought to scale. This work is trying to reflect publicly the practice of sharing learnings and evaluations. Technology and development isn’t as good as it could be because of this lack of evidence,” McDonald said. The Principles for Digital Development provide the Framework’s benchmarks. McDonald continues to refine this Framework based on feedback from community experts, and she welcomes input that can be shared through this document.

Christopher Neu, COO of TechChange, introduced the new, cross-sector Digital Principles Maturity Matrix Tool for Proposal Evaluation that his team developed on behalf of DIAL. The Maturity Matrix tool helps donors and implementers asses how the Digital Principles are planned to be used during the program proposal creation process. Donors may use the tool to evaluate proposal responses to their funding opportunities, and implementers may use the tool as they write their proposals. “This is a tool to give donors and implementers a way to talk about the Digital Principles in their work. This is the beginning of the process, not the end,” Neu said during the session. Users of the Maturity Matrix Tool score themselves on a rating between one and three against metrics that span each of the nine Digital Principles and across the four stages of the Digital Principles project lifecycle. A program is scored one when it loosely incorporates the identified activity or action into proposals and implementation. A score of two indicates that the program is clearly in line with best practices or that the proposal’s writers have at least thought considerably about them. Those who incorporate the Digital Principles on a deeper level and provide an action plan to increase engagement earn a score of three. It is important to note that not every project will require the same level of Digital Principles Maturity, and not every Digital Principle may be required to be used in a program. The scores are intended to provide donors and organizations evidence that they are making the best and most responsible investment in technology. 

Steve Ollis, Senior Digital Health Advisor at John Snow Inc., presented the Digital Health Investment Review Tool (DHIRT), which assists donors investing in Digital Health programs to make informed decisions about their funding. The tool asks donors to adhere to the Digital Principles and the Principles of Donor Alignment for Digital Health (Digital Investment Principles), which are also based on the Digital Principles. When implementing this tool, practitioners can assess implementer proposals across 12 criteria. After receiving a score between one to five (one being nascent and five being optimized), organizations can better assess how effectively they incorporate the Digital Principles and other best practices (including change management) into their project proposals. 

Max Vielle, Global Director of Response Innovation Lab, introduced the Innovation Evidence Toolkit, which helps technology innovators in the humanitarian sector build evidence to thoughtfully develop and assess their prototypes and pilots. “We wanted to build a range of tools for implementors to assess their ability to scale the project,” Vielle said of the toolkit. Additionally, the tool assists innovators in determining the scalability of their technologies. The Innovation Evidence Toolkit helps humanitarian innovators and social entrepreneurs think through how they use technology when developing, piloting, and scaling their projects. “We want to remove the barriers for non-humanitarian actors to act in humanitarian responses to get services to people who need them,” Vielle said. This accessible toolkit can be used by organizations with varying levels of capacity and is available offline for those working in low-connectivity environments. 

Evidence-based decision making is key to improving the use of technologies in the development industry. The coupling of the Principles of Digital Development and evaluation methodologies will assist development practitioners, donors, and innovators not only in building evidence, but also in effectively implementing programs that align with the Digital Principles.