LEVERAGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE ACCOUNTABILITY OF NGOS IN THE

DISTRICT

INNOVATIONS CONFERENCE| EGOVERNANCE

JUNE 10, 2014

BYARUN THAMBURAJ

GAYATHRI KRISHNAN

MAYUR DIXITIAS (OTS) | 2013 BATCH

AGENDA

Objective

Analysis of the problem described

Assumptions

Solution Proposed

Implementation Plan

Stakeholders, Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness

IDEALPUR DISTRICT HAS BEEN FACING DUAL PROBLEM OF POOR SOCIAL & HEALTH INDICATORS AND SURGE OF UNACCOUNTABLE NGOS

District facing multiple social and health issues: Water borne diseases Skewed sex ratio Chronic alcoholism

Number of NGOs have registered with District Administration for assisting in above mentioned causes but,

Fake NGOs have also got involved in the operations Strong nexus has developed between ruling party leaders and the NGOs

Leveraging ICT to improve accountability of NGOs in the district Action to be taken based on performance and social audit of NGOs Door to door social audit is not possible due to scarcity of funds Efficient grievance redressal mechanism is necessary to tackle the complaints

As a District Magistrate, to use information technology to solve the following problems: Dealing with fake NGOs in the district

Achieve better human development standards by efficient monitoring of the NGOs

AGENDA

Objective

Analysis of the problem described

Assumptions

Solution Proposed

Implementation Plan

Stakeholders, Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness

Poor social and health

indicators

Scarcity of resources

Existence

of Fake

NGOs

ANALYSIS OF EXISTING ISSUES POSE A CYCLICAL PROBLEM OF FAKE NGOS, SCARCITY OF RESOURCES AND POOR SOCIAL AND HEALTH INDICATORS

Case for the use of Information Technology in handling the problem

Improving accountability, reducing information gap, performing social audit and ensuring grievance redressal

Expectations from the administration

AGENDA

Objective

Analysis of the problem described

Assumptions

Solution Proposed

Implementation Plan

Stakeholders, Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness

FOLLOWING ASSUMPTIONS HAVE BEEN MADE WITH RESPECT TO AVAILABLE RESOURCES, DEMOGRAPHICS & CONCENTRATION OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE DISTRICT

RESO

URC

ES

Functional NIC unit Functional Social Welfare Office ASHA/ ANMs working in the district High teledensity (>90%) in the district Beneficiary identification data (name-address-mobile number) available

ISSU

ES Sex ratio on decline (940 to 916 in a decade) Increase in water borne diseases (number of

reporter cases have doubled in last 2 years) Rise in alcoholism and related crimes

NG

OS

District divided into four blocks Break up of 25 NGOs working in the district:

10: Water borne diseases (Block 2) 8: Skewed sex ratio (All blocks) 7: Chronic alcoholism (Block 3 and 4)

District Headquarter

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

River IdealWater logged areas of Block 2

Ultra sound centers concentrated in Block 1

Liquor shops along the state boundary

Inter-state Boundary

FOLLOWING SPATIAL ASSUMPTIONS HAVE BEEN MADE WITH RESPECT TO CONCENTRATION OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE DISTRICT ACROSS VARIOUS BLOCKS

AGENDA

Objective

Analysis of the problem described

Assumptions

Solution Proposed

Implementation Plan

Stakeholders, Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness

Web portal

Registration Module

Beneficiary Module

Beneficiary Verification Module

Reporting Module

Performance Monitoring Module

Grievance redressal Module

MULTI MODAL WEB PORTAL HAS BEEN DESIGNED INVOLVING ALL STAKEHOLDERS TO IMPROVE FLOW OF INFORMATION, EFFECTIVE AUDITING OF ACTIVITIES AND EFFICIENT GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL

Focus areas: Accountability, Transparency, Funding and Standards

Waterborne Diseases

• Number of households to which Chlorine tablets distributed

• Number households covered under awareness campaign

• Increase in number of households having toilets

• Increase in rate of immunization for diseases like Polio, Rotavirus, Cholera, Typhoid

• Number of checks and audits on quality of water supplied/taken by households

• Number of health camps conducted

Skewed sex ratio

• Number of awareness camps organized and total attendance in those camps

• Registration of births their domain

• Mandatory monitoring of health parameters of newly born girl child (number) for 1 year

• Any visible impact noticed/created in the households where NGO is active

• Any other IEC material circulated/hospitals or nurseries contacted/liaison with ASHA/ANMs

• Identification of beneficiaries for girl child focused government schemes

Chronic alcoholism

• Number of awareness camps organized and total attendance in those camps

• Any visible impact noticed/created in the households where NGO is active (testimonial from women in household about reduction in alcohol consumption?)

• Number of counselling sessions conducted

• Number of chronic alcoholics on treatment (like Disulfiram, BZDs)

• Number of chronic alcoholics subjected to medical examination (liver function tests)

The above list is only indicative KPIs defined in consultation with the NGOs by the District Social Welfare Officer KPIs customizable for new NGOs KPIs should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable and Time bound

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI) NEED TO BE FRAMED IN CONSULTATION WITH THE STAKEHOLDERS FOR EFFECTIVE MONITORING OF NGOS’ OPERATIONS

AGENDA

Objective

Analysis of the problem described

Assumptions

Solution Proposed

Implementation Plan

Stakeholders, Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness

• Captures the NGO details – vision, mission, area of focus, strategy, target population, domain expertise, awards and honours, owner names with address and details

• Legal compliance – NGOs to submit scanned copies of registration document, tax compliance certificates, FCRA certificate if applicable

• Financial compliance – NGOs to submit audited financial statements, project plans, budgets, sources of funding

• Credibility – NGOs to submit rating from five supporters / referees on activities, effectiveness, social impact measurement, quality; to be verified by District Social Welfare Officer

• Beneficiaries - NGOs to upload list of past / existing beneficiaries with contact details• Terms and conditions – NGOs to agree to terms and conditions which include a provision for

blacklisting upon committing fraud• Username and password issued to NGOs upon registration

IMPLEMENTATION STEP 1: REGISTRATION MODULE

• Target beneficiaries – Profile of target beneficiaries including geographical, social, economic, age, gender details to be uploaded by the NGO upon registration

• Existing beneficiaries – List of existing / past beneficiaries, services offered, impact to be uploaded upon registration, along with date of interventions

• New beneficiaries – NGOs to login with the issued username / password and enter details of every new beneficiary including their name, age, gender, address, targeted problem, programmes offered to the beneficiary, impact if any already observed, phone number, email ID if any

• Beneficiary details captured in database linked to NGO

IMPLEMENTATION STEP 2: BENEFICIARY MODULE

• Module organically linked to Registration and Beneficiary modules; back-end operations oriented• Upon registration of NGO, SMS sent to existing / past beneficiaries based on list uploaded by NGO,

requesting toll-free response as to the correctness of claims of NGO; responses to be recorded in the database next to the beneficiary, including no response; maximum of 50 most current beneficiaries to be texted; in case of more than 25 percent negative responses, NGO to be provisionally blacklisted

• Upon registration of a new beneficiary, automated checking of contact details against telecom service provider database for the district and address against census enumeration data of the district – mismatch causes provisional blacklisting of NGO

• SMS to be sent to new beneficiary requesting toll-free response as to the correctness of claims of NGO; negative response causes automatic provisional blacklisting of NGO

• All provisionally blacklisted NGOs to be manually checked and verified by DSWO

IMPLEMENTATION STEP 3: BENEFICIARY VERIFICATION MODULE

• Reporting module for every NGO to update details of weekly activities, expenditure, social impact assessment

• Reporting to be done in a format which maps NGO activity to KPIs – star-rating in achievements of KPIs; automated blacklisting of NGOs not achieving KPIs three months in a row

• Reports to be generated online regarding funding by Government to each NGO, their credentials, beneficiary list, social impact assessment, rating

• Report regarding permanently blacklisted NGOs and provisionally blacklisted NGOs along with reasons

IMPLEMENTATION STEP 4: REPORTING MODULE

• DSWO to upload reports regarding each NGO after periodic sampling of beneficiaries and claims• Funding to be stopped immediately upon provisional / permanent blacklisting of NGOs.• All automatically blacklisted NGOs to be cross-verified by DSWO manually and detailed report to be

uploaded to the system - NGO permanently blacklisted if found to be fraudulent • Complaints from general public about services received, or regarding the claims in the reports

generated by reporting module shall be forwarded to DSWO, who shall investigate and report on the complaint, DSWO report available online and can be viewed based on complaint number

• Persistent and serious genuine complaints (based on DSWO certification) against NGO causes blacklisting of NGO

IMPLEMENTATION STEP 5: PERFORMANCE MONITORING MODULE

• 24-hour toll free number and email for general public to report on NGO performance, complaints – complaint registration number to be given by operator or auto-generated email

• Contact form in website to lodge complaints – automated reply with complaint registration number• User can track status of complaints using complaint registration number• List of complaints against NGOs to be available to the district collector and DSWO• Safeguard to anonymity of complainant if he/she so desires, no details to be collected unless

allowed by complainant

IMPLEMENTATION STEP 6: GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MODULE

AGENDA

Objective

Analysis of the problem described

Assumptions

Solution Proposed

Implementation Plan

Stakeholders, Sustainability and Cost-effectiveness

PROPOSED SOLUTION TO ENHANCE THE EXTENT OF STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS IN ACHIEVING THE DESIRED OBJECTIVES

Stakeholder Participation Sustainability Cost-effectiveness

•Use of community radio for collection and dissemination of information• Block level monitoring

committees and leveraging SHGs for social audit• Concept of Soochna Puraskar

in the context of Social audit• Community news bulletin and

publishing monitoring reports (Quarterly)• Creation and maintenance of

corpus fund for covering running costs of audit

• Convergence across schemes to ensure availability of funds for necessary monitoring• Community participation

(ASHAs, representatives) in planning and identifying beneficiaries• Incentives to better

performing stakeholders• Brand ambassadors (opinion

leaders)• Trust building activities

• Development of in-house web-portal using NIC resources• Involving local philanthropy

for referrals and monitoring of NGOs• Theme/cause owners for

creating awareness• Toll free number for grievance

redressal• Central information hubs for

dissemination and collection of information

An integrated multi-modal web-portal along with sustainable and cost-effective stakeholder participation will ensure proper functioning of NGOs and make them more accountable & transparent.

THANK YOU

Nelson, Jane: The Operation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in a World of Corporate and Other Codes of Conduct, Working Paper No. 34, March 2007, Harvard University

Samhita, Doing Good Better: Social Sector Consulting Firm; URL: http://samhita.org/; accessed on June 06, 2014

SOURCES