Quality Measurement of Key EiE Indicators for Improved Evidence-Based Programming

• In Event: Bridging the Divide – Using Digital Tools/Platforms to Implement Data Driven Educational Programming

Proposal

In an increasingly digitalised world, technology plays a critical role in supporting humanitarian and development programming. Technological advances have greatly improved the ability of organizations to gather data even in the most volatile of contexts. While the increase in data can lead to improved educational programming for even the most marginalised children and youth, concerns around ‘data justice’ and how organizations are collecting and using the data they collect still persist.

In order to support ethical data collection, People in Need (PIN) developed IndiKit, a practical, online tool designed to help humanitarian and development practitioners select the right indicators and collect the required data to the highest quality and relevant standards. With huge workloads and limited resources, humanitarian and development data can often be unreliable, unusable and unethically collected, which not only leaves us unaccountable to stakeholders, but is also inconsiderate of those who provided the information. To address this and to help facilitate quality data collection and analysis, PIN developed a comprehensive package of indicators, based on globally standardised indicators from reputable sources, as well as detailed, well-tested guidance on how to collect the required data. The result was IndiKit: an open source and user-friendly platform featuring hundreds of indicators from education to food security, nutrition, WASH, health, DRR and other sectors, as well as cross-cutting guidance.

PIN has recently undergone a lengthy process of reviewing its Basic Education indicators. The indicators and guidance were reviewed to align with existing international frameworks and current best practice, and involved a review of hundreds of existing indicators across a range of education actors, including the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), the Global Education Cluster (GEC), the European Commission’s European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG-ECHO), Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UNRWA as well as cross-sector indicators, particularly those related to the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CPAoR). The indicators have been carefully mapped and cross-referenced to generate a comprehensive list of final indicators that cover the key thematic areas of education, including:

Access to education and the learning environment
Protection and wellbeing
Teaching and learning; and
Teachers and other education personnel

These categories align to the INEE Minimum Standards Domains 2, 3 and 4. Once mapped, we began the long process of developing guidance for each indicator. This involved collecting lessons from the field, writing up proven guidance and consulting technical and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) experts within PIN as well as from GEC, INEE and ECHO. PIN’s priority has been to ensure that IndiKit content is methodologically correct and in line with the existing standards, ethics and guidance.

This presentation introduces Indikit, talking listeners through the platform, as well as the process for mapping and developing the new indicators and related step-by-step guidance. It discusses how the indicators can be used, who they were designed for, and how they were developed.

Author

• Laurel Jansury, People In Need