Development of MIS system for Tana Beles Watershed Monitoring

Development of MIS system for TanaBeles Watershed Monitoring Samson G/mariam November. 2011

Contents • Steps for Tana Belse MIS Development • Web based MIS/M&E Application Development • Assumptions, Problems and Recommendations in the use the system • Future Tasks

Management information system (MIS) • A management information system (MIS) is an integrated user-machine system for providing information to support management and decision making. Simply MIS is a system or a tool that helps us to provide accurate and timely information about our time to time activities. It is an important input at every level in the organization for decision making, planning, implementing, monitoring and controlling. • The MIS system utilizes computers, manual procedures and a database. Now a day internet and other application development environment facilitate the use of MIS in web based environment, i.e people can enter, update and view their day to day activity from remote.

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS There are Seven steps should be followed to develop a sound MIS • Establish management information needs /why we need the information system? • From the management, monitoring and evaluation point of view, the TanaBeles MIS system expected to have all the necessary information in the area of watershed development activities. • Specifically the system objectives for TanaBeles are:- • To collect information related to all integrated watershed activities at community watershed level. • To exchange monthly, quarterly and yearly report from Woreda. • To monitor the status of indicators • To build Capacity at BoA system in the use of Database application.

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. 2. List the possible information units for data collection and processing in different level. • To achieve the intended objectives, the MIS system should have an information units in different level throughout the project area. For TanaBeles, four information/ data processing/ units are identified. • Community Watershed Team • DA or Community Facilitator • Woreda NRM /Woreda Watershed Team/ • RPCU

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. 3. List positions or managers who need information for decision making. Discuss the type and importance of this information for those decision makers. • String committees at different level /National, Regional and Woreda/ Coordinators and decision makers • Agriculture office at woreda and zonal level • Bureau of Agriculture Implementers • Bureau of Water Development • The World Bank Source of the money and decision makers • MFA etc.

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. 4. Develop a general system description of a MIS design. • Why we need the application? To store data about each activity at community watershed level throughout the project period and beyond and to retrieve an aggregate report for the woreda and region. • Decide about the type of access for different information units or stakeholders. There is different password for data manipulation and uniform or no password for report generation. • Decide the type of database at the back ends. It depend on the size, security level and budget we have. We used MS Access for stand alone and MySQL for web application. • Decide the software for application development. There are different programming software for application development here we used Microsoft visual basic 6, MapObject 2 and Crystal report designer 8 for interface, embedded GIS and reporting format development respectively • Identify the basic data needed for the database /to be store/. Based on the identified indicators, 173 possible activities are listed. All the necessary data such as planning and achievement of activities, project budget needed and used, community contribution in labor and in kind will be stored in the database • Design the planning and achievement reporting format. • Design Database by following the database design procedures. /identifying the basic entities, design the conceptual data model, design the E-R Diagram, design the logical modeling and map to the physical model/.

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. Entity Relationship Diagram(E-R Diagrams) 1 1 M M

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. 5. Decide how information will be collected, processed and distributed. /Positions and responsibility will be allocated for the different information units./ • A weekly data will be collected by watershed community team member • DA/ Community facilitator/ aggregate the weekly data into monthly and submit to the woreda agricultural office • The woreda expert enter the monthly data into the system and copy the database to RPCU by CD • RPCU update the regional database by copy and paste method.

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. 6. Discuses the relevance and handling of the quality assurance aspect in the system. • One of the most challenging issue in the process of data manipulation is poor data quality at different level. • Quality problem in planning phase. Eg. Cost estimate for activities, high ambition and expectation from the community etc.. • Quality problem from the source of information especially at output level /underestimate or exaggerate the information/ • Quality problem in data aggregation from weekly to monthly • Quality problem in data entry stage • Besides preparing Data quality assurance guideline and awareness raising strategy, continuous follow up and capacity building should be necessary to alleviate the above problems

Requirement /Steps/ used to develop MIS cont.. 7. Develop a network showing information flows.

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles To build web applications, we need the following software: • A web server such as ISS, Apache, etc.. A web server is software that serves files in response to requests from web browsers. • An application server that runs on web server. It is software that helps a web server process specially marked web pages. When such a page is requested, the web server sends the page to the application server for processing before sending the page to the browser. • A database system • A database driver /ODBC or OLEDB Provider/ • Programming /scripting/ software • The choice of application server, database software, web server and programming software depends on several factors, including the availability budget,

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. An illustration of the process of storing and querying a database and returning data to the browser in Web application

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. For Tana Beles project we choose to use an Open source software for sustainability purpose. Such as • Apache Web server • PHP Application server • MySQL Database • Macromedia Dreamweaver MX software for Programming /scripting • Now we are using Yahoo server by renting • For future we need to migrate from yahoo server to BoA web server, which is in procurement process.

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. • Develop database called WME_Databse on MySQL The Database has 9 tables The table structure /Schema is developed for all tables based on their purpose /objectives. All the necessary data is populated for most of the tables

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. • For simplicity we tried to use almost uniform interface with the previous stand alone MIS application. This will help the Woreda experts to easily cache the system. Main window for Stand alone program. Here we have one Password to access data for manipulation Main window for Web Application. Here we have Password to each data entry and update pages for data manipulation. For the report pages there is no password.

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. Stand Alone MIS Web Based MIS Planning Data Entry Format Achievement Data Entry Format

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. Updating Achievements in Stand alone Updating Achievements in Web application

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. Planning Report Format

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. Achievement Report Format

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. The system is open to add new community watersheds and activities. i.e. it is not project specific.

2. Web-based Application Development for Tana Beles Con.. The main purpose of MIS system is to provide timely and complete data for decision makers, here we tried to link this system with the output indicators. Output indicators are a direct result of activities in the MIS system. Schema /structure for output indicator table. By populating the selected activities and target for each activity we can create a relationship with the activity table Retrieved Information of Output indicators. Most of the outcome, object and Goal level information will filled by conducting assessment /status survey/ on specific time.

Assumptions, Problems and recommendations • Assumptions • The system will be very simple and user friendly for woreda experts. /no need of special skill / both the stand alone and Web based has similar interfaces. • There will be a continues training in different level on the issue of data collection, data management and quality and reporting . • Continues assessment on the implementation and functionality of the system. • There will be updated version of the system as needed. • There will be compatible web server at BoA • IT counter part to take over the task. especially to maintain security and database. • There will be an Internet connection at woreda level through CDMA apparatus or through Woreda Net. • Dedicated /committed/ person for data manipulation at Woreda level. • Less staff turnover • There will be full participation of DA in data collection by help of GPS • Continuous training for woreda and kebele level in the use of the system, GPS use and GIS application.

Assumptions, Problems and recommendations cont.. • Problems • Less attention or commitment both from kebele and woreda level in collecting timely data. • There is a tendency to continue in old way of reporting • There is a problem in reporting on output level, used project budget. • Problem in data quality /exaggerated figure, missing some achieved data etc.. • High staff turnover both at kebele and woreda level • A computer virus during CD exchanges • Lengthy procurement procedure eg. GPS, CDMA etc…

Assumptions, Problems and recommendations cont.. Solutions and Recommendations • Continuous follow up and capacity building both at kebele and woreda level in area of data collection, processing and quality issues. • On job training and assessment on the use MIS system for woreda experts. • To work on the use of GPS for data collection. It will minimize data quality problems • To recruit dedicated project coordinator at woreda level to look after the quality of the data, to coordinate kebele experts for timely data collection and to build capacity at woreda and kebele level. • To shift from stand alone application to web based database application. This is helpful especially:- • For central data administration and security problem • To speed up data exchange • To reduce the computer virus • To discourage the traditional way of report exchange and • To address all stakeholders timely information needs

Future Tasks to sustain the system Future task will be focus on Institutionalization and capacity building. Specifically it focuses on:- • Finalizing the web-based monitoring development • Prepare user manual for web-based monitoring • Give continuous training for woreda, zoneal and regional experts on the use of MIS and web-based monitoring • Continuous training on data collection and quality aspect • Revise list of activities in the system • Migrate all web data from yahoo server to BoA server /Based on the availability of the server/ • Training on Web based monitoring for data/ Server/ administrator at regional level • Extensive training on GIS and Geodatabase development for woreda, zone and region experts • Geodatabase development at woreda level • Update the system to incorporate comment form different stockholders • BoA support on implementation and IT equipment maintenance • To scale up the system to other projects etc…

Thank You

Development of MIS system for Tana Beles Watershed Monitoring