RDI Consultation Readout

On September 23, Development Gateway hosted a consultation meeting for the Results Data Initiative (RDI). This initiative (which we’ve talked about before) will document the “situation on the ground” for people – especially at the local level – that are actively engaged in results management. We’re trying to understand how the development community can help these people collect, manage and use results data more effectively. To learn this, we’re interviewing hundreds of results data producers/users in three countries to learn about their experiences. We’re also looking at actual data to see how it indicators could be “linked up” across donors, government, and implementers to promote easier sharing and wider data use.

The goal of the consultation meeting was to get additional insight on the questions we should explore during this Initiative. Prior to the consultation, we shared our aim of having candid conversations to “better understand and address the practical challenges… development actors face while collecting, sharing, and using results data to inform programming”.

We are grateful for the attendance of representatives from Governments Of Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Tanzania, as well as bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental organizations. After presentations from government colleagues, attendees separated into breakout sessions around data quality, fostering data analysis and uptake, and data sharing – all topics which were voted on during a pre-event poll. At the end of hour-long discussions, key takeaway themes included:

• Need to include civil society in the results data ecosystem
• Desire for increased impact evaluations and results management activities investments
• Calls to incentivize data collection, management, and sharing
• Demand for standardized indicators to promote interoperability between government and development partner systems
• Calls to strengthen country M&E systems and harmonize parallel systems when possible

These points were well-taken and have been folded into our approach. As we move forward with the RDI, we’re eager for additional feedback from other members of the development community – and we hope some of you will answer our call. Specifically, what questions about results data collection, sharing and use would you like answered? And what outputs can we produce from this initiative that will be most helpful for your agency, organization or region? Finally, what output/outcome data can you share with us that can inform this attempt to “link” similar results indicators from different actors? We look forward to hearing from you – and thanks in advance.

Here’s some materials from the day for those interested:

• Consultation Meeting Agenda
• Presentation from Ms. Susan Stout, Principal Investigator, Development Gateway
• Presentation from Mr. Lambert Abusah, Director of M&ED for Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Government of Ghana
• Presentation from Mr. Dustin Homer, Director of Engagement and Partnerships, Development Gateway