Using Communication Tools for M&E

The Tiger Brands Foundation uses mobile phone technology to communicate information about its in-school breakfast provision projects to the foundation’s head office in order to compile daily reports. In this way, real-time information is used to address issues or make improvements to the programme. Kelvin Glen notes, “We look at things like how many kids were fed, what was fed, the hygiene conditions of the cooks that are preparing the meal, the hygiene conditions of the kitchen where the meals are being prepared, and then any other factors that influence our school feeding programme, which provides healthy breakfast meals for school children.”

Tiger Brands Foundation’s team of provincial coordinators, school principals, and school monitors (unemployed out-of-school youth who are contracted to work at the schools on a part-time basis) are tasked with tracking the in-school breakfast feeding programme and its mechanics. The Mobenzi Technology app has been loaded onto standard cell phones and issued to the monitors and schools.

The application was designed specifically to measure various elements of the in-school feeding and school monitors follow pre-loaded questions. This data is transferred directly to the foundation, from which reports can be extrapolated to provide up-to-date real-time reporting.

Glen says that the daily M&E gives the foundation a unique advantage by allowing the team to independently evaluate its programme and helping to ensure that it is delivering on its objectives. The data collected can be used to track trends and measure impact. This information can then be communicated to everyone involved, from funders to partners, other organisations doing similar work, and the media.

Takeaways are critical, bite-sized resources either excerpted from our guides or written by Candid Learning for Funders using the guide's research data or themes post-publication. Attribution is given if the takeaway is a quotation.

This takeaway was derived from Communication That Counts.