CMT has developed and pioneered a sophisticated monitoring and evaluation system for the Outreach team. Working initially with Mindset Health, then with Cell-Life on the EMIT system, the M & E system is now in place.
CCWs and trainers complete a simple paper-based questionnaire. This captures data pertaining to the date, time, length, topic, number of participants (disaggregated by gender) and venue of each session. The completed questionnaires are verified and signed by a third party not employed by CMT – this is usually the site manager and/or medical officer in charge, or the manager of the organisation being trained.
Thereafter, the data is captured online to the centrally hosted EMIT system (hosted and managed by Cell-Life). This may be down via computer or via cellphone. The online form resembles the paper questionnaire and uses a check box format to limit the amount of typing required. After capturing the entire form and clicking on Submit, a unique session identity number is generated. This number is then copied onto the paper instrument, allowing the M & E team to link the paper form with the data entry.
The data is downloaded by CMTs M & E team in head office into an Excel spreadsheet. This simple format allows the generation of monthly updates on the number of sessions undertaken, the major themes addressed and the number of people attending (disaggregated by gender). The system enables CMT to monitor when, where and how much time each CCW or trainer has spent conducting sessions. By comparing online submissions with the timesheets and staff attendance registers it is possible to monitor and compare their performance. The information provided by the CCWs and trainers is validated through a random sample of 10% of all sessions that is checked by the head office M & E team.
CMT is currently in the process of working with Cell-life to further refine the generation of reports – utilising a system called Jasper to automatically generate reports which are used for funder requirements and programmatic management with regards to individual CCW and trainer work performance and guidance for topic selection.
