by Bennette Roach
In simple terms, DevInfo means Development Information, and is a software which will allow for one standardize data entry from various sectors or Ministries, online. The project titled, ‘Implementation of DevInfo and Strengthening Capacity to Manage for Results’. DevInfo is a database system used to compile and disseminate information on human development.
Participants at the workshop
The project was to be rolled out within 18 to 24 months. It is on track, and there are different aspects of the project, “This first part of the project is about developing the DevInfo plan so that we can plan with all the Ministries on how to get the data.”
Montserrat is now one step closer to having a national database of official statistics this follows a one week national stakeholders workshop shop held to facilitate the preparation of a comprehensive Dev Info Implementation plan,
The workshop featured representatives from the various government ministries and agencies which will be expected to contribute to the database, these included the Ministry of Health Education, Social Services, Agriculture and Housing, The Royal Montserrat Police Service and the Telecommunications Industry, as facilitator Garry Goldman explains the objective of the workshop was to set timelines and milestones for the project going forward.
Last year on March 27, 2014, the statistics department in the Ministry of Finance launched a project to enhance the capacity of Montserrat and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat to monitor progress and report on the Caribbean Specific Millennium Development Goals (C-MDGs).
In the CARICOM region most of the Member Countries are at the initial stages of implementing DevInfo whereas Jamaica and Saint Lucia are relatively more advanced. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat has also made significant progress in establishing DevInfo as an information dissemination tool. At least 13 Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) have received training in the DevInfo application and they have developed their DevInfo national desktop and web adaptations.
Mr. Gary Goldman, Programme Advisor, is an experienced trainer and manager with a background in international development and sustainability. He has conducted over a dozen DevInfo capacity-building workshops for Ministries of Statistics and United Nations agencies in Burundi, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Senegal among others.
From Monday, August 10, concluding with a full day (Friday) dedicated exclusively to the Statistics department, Mr. Goldman conducted a workshop which featured representatives from the various government ministries and agencies. It was designed to bring Montserrat one step closer to having a national database of official statistics.
The one week national stakeholders workshop shop was held to facilitate the preparation of a comprehensive DevInfo Implementation plan.
Mr. Goldman explains that his job this week was to sit down with the ministries and other stakeholders, “to sort of organize the project vision, the output of the activities, He said, “it is one thing to dream of having a statistical system but there is a reality/ There is to be data that goes into that system,” effectively making sure that ministries can exchange the data with this department of statistics/
He said, “you have to ensure that it’s done in the timely and in a reliable way and ensure that it’s done consistently.”
He explains further that the next step is actually building the database and conducting the training with both the heads of departments and also with other stakeholders, like the Media and like people who work within the ministries on how to not only access the database but manage it.
The region has been facing challenges of non-adherence to standard procedures for defining metadata, for overall data integrity and for data compatibility. There are also significant data gaps in the published data used to populate new DevInfo databases. National Statistical Office (NSO) and the key stakeholders have limited human and financial resources to support DevInfo implementation and to fill data gaps. This CDB funded project is expected to directly address some of these implementation challenges. This project will facilitate the development of DevInfo implementation plans to bring structured implementation and database management process. On the technical side, this will reinforce the need to ensure data quality for all agencies within the national statistical systems. It will also expand the pool of trained DevInfo users and administrators at the national level and increase the cadre of available DevInfo trainers at the regional level.
Participants were exposed to the fact that one important issue that needs to be addressed in this project is the harmonization of the DevInfo formats across countries. This will enable ease of consolidation of the DevInfo dissemination tools at the Regional level without having to re-enter the data.
Generally, the Objective was to facilitate the preparation of a comprehensive DevInfo implementation plan in consultation with key stakeholders within the national statistical system using the following guidelines:
- To review the latest status of DevInfo implementation, identify the challenges being encountered and the approaches taken to address these challenges and the implications for the ongoing implementation and effectiveness of DevInfo.
- To develop and administer a self-assessment instrument to assess readiness to implement, or progress made in implementing DevInfo as a national knowledge dissemination tool; and to determine implementation support needs;
- To facilitate the national DevInfo stakeholders’ workshop to conduct DevInfo orientation session and identify the resources, timeframe, milestones, roles and responsibilities, project organization structure required to support the implementation of DevInfo.
- To finalize the DevInfo implementation plan based on the feedback from the Director at each NSO/representative agency, the Project Implementation team, Project Steering Committee, other national stakeholders, CARICOM Secretariat, CDB and UNICEF. The DevInfo Implementation plan must detail among other things, the project vision, outputs, activities, timelines, resource requirements (including the computer hardware and software needs of the NSOs, key line ministries and agencies), budget, roles and responsibilities and major assumptions.
The Benefits of of the onsite mission is customized as per the country’s requirements. The
DevInfo consultant was and will be available for technical meetings and discussions and facilitate the stakeholder’s workshop. Best global practices and advance methods of dissemination were introduced to the country’s data users.
DevInfo is a database system that focuses on promoting the use of national statistics in evidence-based policy and planning dialogues at global, regional and national level. This programme is termed as the “DevInfo initiative”. At its core, DevInfo programming is based around a database system that provides a method to organize, store and display data in a uniform format to facilitate data access at the country level among government institutions, their development partners and the general public.
The latest version DevInfo 7 is the core of DevInfo package. This version represents a complete overhaul of the system and brings it in line with the most modern standards in information technology and data exchange. DevInfo 7 is more user-friendly than previous versions and allows one to not only access data more quickly, but to also present and visualize it in a wider variety of formats
Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for UNICEF in the Eastern Caribbean, Oladimeji Olowu speaks more about the project.
He informed: “The purpose of the project is to help policy makers in Montserrat to take better decision. Our thinking is that if we have better data we can take better decision so that’s a software platform called DevInfo that can take data from health education, social protection, from the police, the customs; and then we can have that data plan for research of a reporting of the millennium development goals.
