What’s happening with MERL Tech?

The world of technology enabled monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) has evolved rapidly since the start of 2020, in large part due to the so-called “COVID Connectivity Boost.”

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), for example, reported in November 2021 that almost two-thirds of the world’s population is now able to access the Internet (4.9 billion in 2021 up from an estimated 4.1 billion in 2019). This growth was largely driven by increases in the ‘Least Developed Countries’ (LDCs), which saw an average growth in Internet access that exceeded 20%.

Most development and humanitarian organizations were forced – like it or not – to move to remote program management and to swap face-to-face data collection out for a variety of remote methods. This included everything from key informant interviews conducted via Zoom to the use of mobility data to understand populations flows. The sector also identified a number of challenges to overcome in remote MERL, including data quality, exclusion of the most vulnerable, data privacy and protection, and trust-building.

MERL Tech — the community, the entity, and the conference — has been adapting as well. With no possibility of gathering in person and uncertainty about the need for yet another virtual conference on digital development or evaluation (‘Zoom fatigue’ is real!), we’ve focused on strengthening partnerships with other conferences and initiatives. We continued exploring the topic of “do no harm” in evaluation, with a focus on responsible use of technology and digital data. We also contributed to research and guidance (watch this space) on MERL Tech themes and spent some time thinking and strategizing about what the future might look like — with or without COVID-related restrictions.

One fun project in 2021 was designing a refreshed MERL Tech website (and a new logo!). The site now has three main tabs: news, events (MERL Tech conferences and events organized by others), and resources. It links out to the MERL Center (a partnership with GitHub’s Tech for Social Good team) where you’ll find some great resources related to MERL and Open Source.

We invite you to share your MERL Tech-related resources with us, and to let us know about events so that we can share them with the wider MERL Tech community. And of course, we are always looking for guest blog posts. Please get in touch if there are other ways that we can collaborate.

Stay tuned for news about some exciting work and partnerships that we’ll be kicking off this year, and new resources that we hope will be useful as we forge ahead in 2022 and beyond!