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DEVELOPMENT OF MIS FOR WATERSHED PROJECT OF GRAM VIKAS: 1. INTRODUCTION: The Orissa Watershed Development Mission has been created in order to streamline the efforts being carried out by the different governmental agencies and to minimize the duplication of developmental interventions by the different agencies in the same areas and villages. The watershed developmental activities being carried out under the different schemes like drought prone area programme (III & IV), additional central assistance (ACA), employment assurance scheme (EAS), western Orissa rural livelihoods programme (WORLP) have been streamlined and are being managed through the watershed development mission. The programme is being funded by both the central and state governments. Also the capacity building of secondary stakeholders is being facilitated through DFID, India. The local NGOs having expertise and experience of working in the area and the local institutions such as PRIs and line departments of the government are being selected as the project implementation agencies in this project in order to facilitate capacity building of the local institutions. Gram Vikas has been selected as the PIA for the Bongomunda block of Bolangir district under this project. Currently there are 39 villages in 16 watersheds being managed under this project in this block. The different operational programmes for which Gram Vikas is the PIA in this block are: DPAP- III: 4 watersheds and 8 villages DPAP- IV: 4 watersheds and 8 villages ACA

: 2 watersheds

WORLP : 6 watersheds The funding patterns and monitoring systems for all these schemes are basically the same except those for the WORLP watersheds. The difference arises from the watershed plus component of

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WORLP in which the focus is on creating secure livelihood opportunities for the disadvantaged sections of the society. The funding pattern is based on the treatable area of the watersheds and the present cost norm is Rs. 6000 per hectare under the DPAP and ACA schemes. For the WORLP villages an additional Rs. 3500 per hectare is intended for creating secure livelihood opportunities in the region. The watershed development activities are both technical and social in nature. The technical component focuses on sustainable management of natural resources through various activities such as land development, hill treatment, plantation, afforestation, creation of water harvesting structures and soil conservation measures, transfer of technology for improved agriculture and horticulture, aquaculture etc. The social component aims at building peoples’ capabilities through mobilizing effective peoples’ institutions. For instance the programme aims at effective management of the assets created through peoples’ institutions such as watershed committees, watershed associations etc. in order to bring out ownership and proper post implementation maintenance of the assets created among the local communities. The programme builds upon the concept of users groups and watershed development fund in the villages. The users group consists of homogeneous group of people who are being most affected by a developmental work under the project. The group has to contribute 10% of the total costs of that specific intervention which has to be deposited into the WDF and maintained for the maintenance work. If the work is benefitting the whole community the contribution is limited to 5% of the total cost. Also in case of SC/ ST or BPL beneficiaries the contribution is limited to 5% of the total costs of the intervention. These contributions can be in the form of cash, labour or material. In case of the contribution being in form of labour or material an equivalent amount is to be deposited into WDF by the PIA. This contribution is not a substitute for the contribution by government and is meant only for the maintenance of the assets created. The user group is responsible for all the decisions regarding the proper operation and maintenance of the assets created under the programme. Also the interventions to be carried out in the watershed are determined in consultation with the watershed association that is constituted of and by the villagers themselves. The operational and

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financial aspects of the interventions are managed by the watershed committee, which is again constituted of the villagers themselves. The watershed committee president and secretary are selected from among the committee members and are entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the accounts and record keeping of the activities undertaken. Another aspect of the project is mobilization of the villagers to form self- help groups and facilitating uptake of income generation activities by the self help groups created. Linkage of the groups to different financial institutions is being facilitated through the village level workers of the PIA. There is the provision of revolving fund in which seed money to the amount not exceeding 50000 is given to the groups as a loan for undertaking IGAs, which is to be repaid within six months that is not exceeding 6 monthly installments. Amount to be given should not exceed Rs.5000 per group. The formation of savings and credit groups and self help groups is intended to help the villagers in coming out from the clutches of usurious moneylenders through internal generation of funds and to help them escape the vicious cycle of poverty through the initial provision of loans for generating income for the group. The programme also aims at capacity building of the local communities through various training programmes aiming at expanding the skill base of villagers and facilitating technology transfer to them. The PIA is entrusted with the responsibility of identifying the training requirements of both the local communities and the staff and liaisioning with the resource persons competent of fulfilling these requirements. In this programme after the selection of a particular agency as the PIA for a particular region the PIA has to constitute the watershed development team with professionals of the requisite qualification at the earliest A watershed development team is constituted/ appointed by the PIA and is meant for technical facilitation of the works carried out. This team has to be constituted of minimum four members and should consist of specialists from the field of plant/agricultural sciences, civil/agricultural engineering, sociology and at least one of the team members should be a woman. The WDT should have a project leader selected from among its members. Selection of the watershed to be treated by the PIA is based on the village/ watershed wise prioritization already developed. The prioritization is based on various criteria like the possibility

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or willingness of peoples’ participation for operation, maintenance of assets created, acuteness of drinking water scarcity in the villages, preponderance of non-forest waste lands and degraded lands, proportion of SC/ST or BPL families in the villages, difference between actual and minimum wages specified, contiguity to another watershed which has been treated earlier etc. After the selection of watershed based on this prioritization the PIA carries out PRAs in the villages to identify the needs and resource base from the peoples’ viewpoint. Also this exercise helps to find out which are the most needy families in the village and which interventions will benefit the poorest most. Since the programmes specifically aim at benefiting the poorest this is very important for fulfilling the programme objectives. After the PRA the watershed development team members carry out a survey, which is mostly technical in nature. In this the team members study the topography and soil type, land distribution patterns, nature of land degradation etc. so that they can identify interventions, which will be technically feasible in nature. Then an action plan for the implementation of the project is prepared in consultation with the villagers. This action plan specifies which interventions will be taken up in the village, identifies the user groups for the various interventions based on who will be the people most affected by the activity, specifies the detail estimates of the interventions. Care is taken at this stage to ensure that the indigenous interventions which people have been practicing since long is adapted and adopted so that people identify with the developmental work and the project is not abandoned in the post implementation phase. Also the watershed committees and various user groups are constituted in this phase and the watershed committee president and secretary are selected from among the members by all the watershed association members. In watersheds, which constitute of more than one village care is taken to ensure that the committee represents the interests of all the villages. That is it is ensured that the watershed committee president and secretary are selected from different villages. The action plan also specifies the clear demarcation of watershed, ownership details and location of proposed works/activities. After the preparation of action plan the interventions are started in the village. The interventions can be of various nature and usually range from activities like afforestation (plantation, agro-

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forestry, horticultural development), land development, pond renovation and excavation, development of small water conserving structures like farm ponds, check dams, percolation tanks, construction of soil conservation measures, fisheries development in village ponds, pasture development, crop demonstrations, repair, restoration and upgradation of the existing common property resources( CPRs), provision of veterinary services etc. emphasis is on generating peoples’ involvement in the developmental works being carried out and for this the concepts of peoples’ contribution towards the WDF and formation of users groups for the various interventions have been identified. Funds are released to the PIA and the watershed committee by the funding agencies earlier mentioned on a periodic installment basis. The funds are segregated into the PIA fund which is to be utilized for the administrative, community organization and training activities and the watershed committee funds which is to be exclusively spent on the works component of the watershed activities. Subsequent installments are released only when the unspent balance of the previous installment is less than 50% of the previous installment. Also both watershed committee and the PIA have to submit periodic utilization certificates to the district monitoring agency countersigned by the watershed committee president, secretary and the watershed development team project leader. 1.1 ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE: The organization structure consists of the executive director of Gram Vikas, the programme manager (livelihoods), and the project coordinator at the project office or district level and the watershed development team at the block or field level. Also there is a supervisor at the village level. In addition to these other functions like the planning, monitoring, evaluation and documentation department and accounts department of gram Vikas are also involved in the project. Two accountants (one at the field office and one at the project office) level are responsible for maintaining the accounts and keeping tab of the expenses and funding. Also the internal audit section and finance section of gram Vikas are responsible for the accounts of this project. The external stakeholders include the director, watersheds at the state level and the project director, watersheds at the district level. The Orissa watershed development mission is

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the principal monitoring agency involved. The DFID, India is also a major stakeholder including the beneficiaries i.e. the local communities and them peoples’ institutions in the villages where the project is being carried out.

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The organization structure of Gram Vikas for the project is illustrated below.

Executive director

Manager, finance

Programme manager (BST & livelihoods)

Manager, PMED

Project coordinator

Watershed support unit/ WDT

Village level worker/ supervisor

Director, watersheds (State level) DFID, India Project director, watersheds (district level) (External Stakeholders)

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Beneficiaries/local communities

2. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

–

A system is an organized, interacting, interdependent, and integrated set of components or variables. The environment is external to the system and encompasses everything outside the outside the system’s control. It also determines to some extent the performance of a system, so the system and its environment are interrelated and interdependent.

The management of a system consists of activities aimed at planning and control. Planning encompasses setting goals, utilizing resources, and developing a program for undertaking different activities and a strategy for developing a program for undertaking different activities and a strategy for dealing with the environment. Control deals with executing plans. Associated with control is the flow of information and feedback so that a system can evaluate its plans. Information is some entity, tangible or intangible, which reduces uncertainty about a past event. Information systems are thus asset of organized procedures that when executed provide, provide information for decision-making, communications and control of an organization. The reporting can be to meet three kinds of needs of organization hierarchy:

2.1 Transaction processing information in which day to day transactions need to be recorded and reported. 2.2 Management reporting for middle management in which they use this information for medium term planning say a fortnight or month 2.3 Decision Support System in which the organization uses the reported information for long range planning.

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The MIS system needs to provide all these kind of information to the management to be an appropriate system. 3. THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE: For the development of MIS for this project the systems development life cycle (SDLC) approach was adopted. The systems development life cycle is an integral part of the systems approach adopted for the development and design of management information systems. This approach comes in as very useful for the development as it considers all the phases from studying the requirements to the physical design, implementation and post implementation maintenance of a system developed for a project.

Problem identification

Organization and systems requirement specification (Conceptual/ systems approach)

Requirement, concepts

Requirement analysis

Systems development (Process approach)

Logical design Physical design

Implementation Feedback/control/ modifications

Post implementation maintenance

(THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE)

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3.1 WHY SDLC? by understanding the project and the nature of activities we see that here adoption of process approach rather than systems approach seems more justified. This is because of the following reasons.



The project has funding from the Orissa Watershed Development mission. The administrative costs of Gram Vikas for the implementation of this project are met by the mission.



There are specific inputs in the form of the five water, forest, land, livestock and humans to the process.



The range of interventions which can be carried out are also clearly defined.



The expected outcomes or the output are also clearly specified in the logical framework of the project.



The beneficiaries are also specific and defined as the poorest and the most marginalized sections of the society.

The information system to be developed is expected to facilitate the generation of data at the village level in such a way that the field staff does not have to spend much of their time in collection of data. This is to be done by avoiding redundancy in data to be collected and by specifying the tasks at each level resulting in elimination of duplication of tasks. Presently the field staffs have to report to multiple authorities (OWDM and Gram Vikas) and they often end up preparing the same report in different formats at different points of time. Also the information system is expected to meet the reporting requirements (both financial and programmatic aspects) of all the stake holders in the project. It has to be simple and easy to understand to facilitate comprehension by the villagers as capacity building of local institutions is the ultimate objective. Also the information system is expected to perform as a toll of performance appraisal by reporting of the achievements vis-à-vis the targets and to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the ongoing project in both the process and impact outcomes.

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Thus though the project title specifies the development of MIS as the objective after understanding the nature of the project and the requirements it is the development of a reporting system which comes across as the desired output. Since the issues to be addressed are quite focused and the responsibilities are well defined the SDLC mode has been adopted for the development of the reporting system. 3.2. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION: The problem identification phase of the development of MIS involves the specification of MIS mission statement so that the MIS developed can be aimed at fulfilling the specific organizational requirements. The MIS mission has to be derived from the organization vision and mission in order to make it consistent with the organizational goals and objectives. 3.2.1. VISION AND MISSION OF GRAM VIKAS: The vision of Gram Vikas is: an equitable and sustainable society where people live in peace with dignity. The mission of Gram Vikas is to promote a process which is sustainable, socially inclusive and gender equitable, to enable critical masses of poor and marginalized rural people or communities to achieve a dignified quality of life. 3.2.2. Deriving MIS mission from mission of the organization: The MIS mission for the project is to facilitate the documentation and monitoring of the ongoing project such as to capture the socio-economic progress of the poor and marginalized in the project area as well as the physical and financial progress of the activities. In addition the MIS for the organization should integrate the documentation of the project with the documentation in other project areas of the organization and also should be able to fulfill the information requirements of the external stakeholders.

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3.2.3. Problems in the current system: 1. Major emphasis on the physical and financial aspects only. Lack of generation of information, which will help, in studying the socio-economic aspects of the programme. 2. Lack of generation of qualitative data. 3. Redundancy and unnecessary generation of huge volume of data without any consequent analysis of the data generated. 4. Lack of timeliness in data generation. 5. Lack of generation of narrative information like case-lets and stories, which will help in learning from the successes and failures in the project. 3.2.4. Learnings: The problem identification stage involved examining the organization’s mission and studying what objectives it can have in pursuing the programme. This also involved identifying which parameters are the important factors in determining whether the programme achievements are consistent with the organization objectives or not. Studying the existing system and interviews with the people who are involved in the implementation helped find out the shortcomings in the present system. Major difficulties encountered during this phase were the unclear or vague understandings of the field level employees as to what is lacking in the present system. This required proceeding in some structured way so as to facilitate the identification. Also the presence of multiple stakeholders and their different expectations created difficulties in understanding the situation. 3.3. REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS: The next phase in the systems development life cycle approach is the requirement analysis or the expectations, which the system is required to fulfill. For this first the project and its various activities were studied in detail to gain a complete understanding of the project. This was done by –

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

Interview with the field level staff to learn about the routines and activities. Also a stay in the villages where the project is operational currently helped in understanding the various aspects of the programme.



Interview with the programme manager (BEST& livelihoods) and manager (PMED) to understand their requirements and expectations from the project.



Interview of representatives from various external stakeholders such as OWDM and WORLP to get an understanding of their requirements from the system.



Examination of the registers maintained by watershed committee and various reports being generated at present such as the monthly progress report being submitted to the district level monitoring agency, quarterly progress report, the SHG report being submitted to the head office, Gram Vikas etc.

Gram Vikas requires that the reports being generated be compatible with the reports being generated under some of its other programmes and also with the reporting requirements of all the schemes in addition to capturing the socio economic details of the programme and being useful for effective monitoring of the programme benefits and the programme fulfilling its objectives. From the requirement analysis the major requirements from the system came out as: •

Development of a separate monthly progress report format for Gram Vikas, which will help in capturing the socio- economic aspects of the programme as well.

•

Generation of both qualitative and quantitative information. Qualitative aspects should include case-lets and lessons from successes and failures, which will help in achieving a demonstration effect in future, interventions.

•

The Focus on specific analysis and consolidation of data generated

rather than only

generation of data. •

Facilitating maintenance of records by the villagers themselves by making the reporting requirements simple and easy to understand.

•

Avoiding duplication of tasks at the field and project offices levels by specifying what needs to be done at which level.

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•

Avoiding redundancy and unnecessary generation of huge volume of data, which are not needed, for any meaningful analysis further.

3.3.1. Learnings: Requirement analysis involved identification of the requirements and expectations from the system being developed. This stage involved interviews with the field level staff, the project office staff, the programme managers concerned and the external stakeholders, observation of the activities, analysis of the existing system etc. as explained earlier. Major difficulties encountered during this phase were regarding peoples’ expectations from the system. For instance the capacity building team at the district watershed development mission expected generation of case lets and narrative details from the successes/ failures in the project areas. However integrating these requirements into a periodic reporting system was unrealistic as this would have led to diversion of the staffs’ time away from the field level activities. Also Gram Vikas requirements were to align the system with the existing system in RHEP villages. However this proved difficult in some cases like the health and education details because the manpower availability in the RHEP villages is sufficient for providing the detailed information as required in the existing format whereas here it was not so. 3.4. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS: 3.4.1 Internal stakeholders: The watershed development team, the project office staff and the authorities at the Gram Vikas head office constitute the internal stakeholders. The watershed development team are concerned with the actual implementation of the project at the village level. They are the technical and managerial facilitators and also supervise the financial and physical progress. Their responsibility in this system includes the collection and entry of data at the village level. They have to ensure that the accounts are maintained properly at the watershed committee level. The project coordinator and the PMED assistant at the project office constitute the middle management. The project coordinator has the responsibility for the implementation of the project and is to supervise the performance of the watershed development team. The PMED assistant has to document the project and report to the authorities. From the project office reports are sent

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to the DWDM office and also to the Gram Vikas head office. Primary processing and consolidation of data is to be done at this level. The finances of the PIA are handled at this level. The programme manager (livelihoods), programme manager (PMED), and the executive director form the top management at the head office to whom the reporting is to be done. The reporting system is expected to facilitate the decision making by them and also in monitoring whether the programme achievements are consistent with Gram Vikas’ objectives or not. 3.4.2. External stakeholders: The village beneficiaries and communities are one of the major external stakeholders. Since capacity building of the local institutions is one major objective of the programme the formation of village institutions which are self reliant in the operation and maintenance of the assets created is an important component. As such the village institutions such as the watershed committee, user groups and the self help groups are important stakeholders in the programme. Orissa Watershed Development Mission is the central agency which is responsible for integrating the approaches under different schemes and implementing the programme as explained earlier. Funding and capacity building are facilitated through this mission and reporting is also done to the mission by both the PIA and the watershed committee through the PIA. The reporting authority is constituted by the director, watersheds at the state level and a project director, watersheds at the district level. Various aspects such as finance, monitoring and evaluation, systems are handled by a project support unit in the mission at the state level. Since capacity building is one major objective in the programme there is a capacity building team at the district level which is responsible for the identification of training needs of both the beneficiary communities and the staff and arrangement of training programmes to meet these needs. In addition this team is also responsible for monitoring the performance of the village institutions created. This capacity building team is funded by DFID which is another external stakeholder.

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3.5. LOGICAL ANALYSIS: 3.5.1. Understanding of the different systems: The development of a MIS involves identification of the different systems involved in the information processing. These are transaction processing systems, management reporting systems and executive support systems. These various components in the present context are explained below.

1. Transaction Processing System (TPS): extensively meets the operational aspects in an organization. In this case the transaction processing system will facilitate and monitor  technological interventions and transfer of technology details  physical progress of work at site  maintenance of funds received and expenses incurred at the watershed level.  Purchase and supply of materials  Formation, facilitation and monitoring of SHGs, savings and credit groups  Facilitating the conduct of meetings and trainings for capacity building

2. Management

Reporting System (MRS): looks after the structured/ semi- structured

reporting system at the middle level. In this case the MRS will cover  facilitation of implementation of interventions  monitoring both progress and impact and physical and financial targets and achievements  facilitating sanctioning/ allocation of funds or resource mobilization.  Review of project  Recruitment, selection, induction & training and performance appraisals

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3. Executive Support System (ESS): it meets special needs of the management which can be produced out of the structured reporting system. In this case ESS will look at  review of project (bi- annual and annual)  identifying problems in implementation midway and suggesting corrections  resource mobilization  selection of new watersheds

3.5.2. Preparation of process matrix: In the next step of the logical design phase a process matrix is prepared to get an understanding about the workflow and corresponding data flow in the organization. Preparation of a process matrix also helps in examining the different activities, routines and functions in the organization so that all the report generation requirements can be fulfilled. Table 1: process details Sl.no. Process details 1 Identify watersheds,

type Core

Process rules Select village as per the

Process logics Area should not exceed

villages

ground water, proportion of

10,000 Ha s in the

Beneficiaries

SC/STs, water scarcity,

district

contiguity to treated 2 3

4

Conduct PRA Prepare action plan

Identify/estimate projects

Core Core

watershed etc. Gather village map Assess technology

Peoples’ contribution

requirements

for

Assess peoples’ contribution

Individuals->= 10%

Assess post project

Community and

maintenance activities

SC/ST/BPL >= 5%

Support Estimate should consider the Labour: material labour-material ratio.

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components = 60: 40

5

Form village

Support Proper representation of all

6

institutions Maintain accounts at

sections of the society Support Maintenance by villagers

watershed committee

themselves, only facilitation

level

by the WDT. Proper

7

Prepare monthly

8

village report Monitor progress of

maintenance of accounts. Support The watershed development team has to prepare. Core

Consider the targets set

project at site

in the monthly meetings and achievements during that period.

9

Monitor accounts

Support Proper tallying of the funds received and expenses and

10

Monitor SHGs and

balance in hand Support Consider the income

Matching the deposits

savings and credit

generating initiatives and

and withdrawls and the

groups

benefit sharing mechanisms

balance.

in the group. 11

Identify training

Support

Proper representation

requirements and 12

conduct training Monitor the

Support Accountability, transparency Emphasize capacity

performance of VI s

building of local institutions

Table 2: process matrix Process Process

Process

Shared

18

No.

Description

Owner

by

1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11

12

*

* * * *

*

*

*

* *

* * * * * * *

*

*

Proces s 1

Identify

Programme

watersheds,

Manager,

villages

WDT

2 3

Beneficiaries Conduct PRA Prepare action

WDT WDT

4

plan Identify/estimat

WDT

5

e projects Form village

WDT, CO

6

institutions Maintain

Watershed

accounts at

Secretary,

watershed

Vis, WC,

* * *

7

committee level WDT Prepare monthly WDT,

8

village report Monitor

accountant WDT, WC,

progress of

WA

9

project at site Monitor

accountant

10

accounts Monitor SHGs

CO, WDT

*

* *

* * * * * *

*

*

* *

*

* * * * * *

*

* * * * * * * * *

*

*

* * *

*

* * * * * *

*

*

* *

*

*

*

*

*

*

* * * * * * * * *

*

*

and savings and 11

credit groups Identify training

HR,

requirements

WDT

CO,

*

and conduct 12

training Monitor the

WDT,

performance of

programme

VI s

Coordinato

*

19

r

and

manager

3.5.3. Preparation of data matrix: The next step involves the preparation of a data matrix, which with the help of the process matrix as the base identifies the data associated at each level of the project, and thus gives the complete data requirements for the project. DATA SOURCES Table 3: Data Sources SOURCE NGO/PIA

DATA ASSOCIATED Name, date of establishment, area Of operation, previous experience Of work in the region, executive

Office

Director, programme manager, related details Office name, office type, locational Details, number of employees,

Location

Infrastructural facilities Location name (village, block, district), Infrastructure, resource base, issues

PRAs

Needing intervention, related details. Village name, date, status, issues identified, Interventions proposed, participants (male &

Watershed

Female), related details Name, number and name of villages, operational scheme, total treatable area, total project outlay, watershed association, watershed committee, WC

Village survey

president and secretary, members Village name, demographic details, resource Base, topography, drinking water sources,

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REMARKS

Total treatable area, ground water table, forest cover, average rainfall, waste and common lands, NTFP base, migration details, land distribution pattern, operational project/scheme, user groups and self help Action plan

groups Interventions identified and their locations, user groups,

technology

demarcation,

identification,

ownership

details,

cost

watershed estimates,

Land

designs and execution procedures Irrigated/ non-irrigated land

distribution

upland/middle/low land, soil types, proportion of

pattern

large, small and marginal land holdings, cropping

Interventions

patterns Estimated costs, outlay, targets (set and achieved),

holdings,

area to benefit, households to benefit, employment generated, User groups

contribution

to

WDF,

nature

of

contribution, and nature of intervention. Name, number and name of members, land holdings (location and area), intervention, contributions, nature

and proportion of contribution Savings/ credit Name, number and names of members, type of group, groups

date of formation, rules and bylaws, total funds controlled, linkage with financial institutions, monthly collection, loans outstanding (internal and external), interest rate, frequency of savings, repayment rate,

Self groups

mode of collection help Name, number and names of members, type of group, date of formation, rules and bylaws, total funds controlled, linkage with financial institutions, monthly collection, loans outstanding (internal and external), interest rate, frequency of savings, repayment rate, mode

of

collection,

meetings

held,

additional

activities undertaken, benefit sharing mechanisms,

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Meetings

revolving fund repayment. Date of meeting, type of meeting, number of participants (male & female), issues discussed,

WDF

decisions taken, follow up action (if any). Total funds, proportion of total cost of works, contributions works wise, nature of activity (Individual/community), nature of contribution, name

Watershed

of bank account, interest rate. Name and composition, registration details, president

committee WDT

and secretary, membership details. Project leader, composition,

qualifications,

experiences and remuneration details, location (field Employee

villages) Employee name, designation, location, experience, qualification and remuneration details, years with the

Trainings

organization. Purpose, nature (staff/beneficiary), venue, duration, number and composition of participants, resource

Funding

persons (internal/external), cost details. Name, location, agreement details, clauses and

agencies

conditions of funding, monitoring and governance

Activities

mechanisms. Name, location, budget, expenditure, employees incharge, physical and financial details, technical

Technology Tour diary Materials

specifications and other related details Technology identification, description, unit costs Employee name, location, other details Suppliers, amount, cost, date of order and related

EPA

details Village, Nature, estimated cost, set targets, peoples’

CPRs

contribution etc. Nature, households benefitting, estimated amount of benefit/ anticipated

return,

status,

increase

in

interventions number

benefitting and amount of benefit.

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of

needed,

households

Soil and water Nature, estimated and actual cost, completion within conservation

time frame, number of beneficiary households and

measures

area benefited, user charges (if any), contribution by the beneficiaries to WDF, success criteria for the structure.

TABLE 4: DATA MATRIX Sl. No.

Data 1 2 3 4 5 6

description NGO/PIA Office Location PRAs Watershed Village

survey 7 Action plan 8 Land

Owner Organization Organization Organization Organization Technical Organization

Shared by Finance * * * * *

Technical * * * * * *

HR * * *

*

* *

*

* *

* * *

*

*

* *

* * *

*

* *

* * *

* * *

*

Technical Technical

distribution pattern 9 Interventions Technical 10 User groups Technical 11 Savings/ Technical credit groups 12 Self help Technical groups 13 Meetings 14 WDF 15 Watershed

Organization Technical Technical

committee WDT Employee Trainings Funding

Technical HR HR Organization

16 17 18 19

agencies 20 Activities 21 Technology 22 Tour diary

* * *

Technical Technical HR

*

23

23 24 25 26

Materials EPA CPRs Soil and

Technical Technical Technical Technical

* *

* * * *

water conservation measures The data matrix helps identify the complete data requirements for the project as well as determine how the data generated is to be shared so as to get some meaningful information from that. This facilitates development of internal data sharing mechanisms. The next step in the process is the preparation of an information matrix. The information matrix identifies how the data generated at the field level is to be processed further and reported so as to facilitate decision making in various levels of the organization.

3.5.4. Preparation of information matrix: FUNCTIONS: technical, finance, village, village organizations, funding agencies, HR A. INTERNAL AND REPORTED 1. village

B. INTERNAL AND PROCESSED 1. village

a. issues- problems, resource base

a. no. of villages watershed wise

irrigation, ground water

b. issues identified- village wise

forest cover, land pattern

c. issues intervened-village wise

b. demographic details

d. status-village wise

c. employment generated d. households benefitted

2. technology a. physical progress(variance)

2. technology

b. financial progress(variance)

a.technology available

c. activities village wise

b. technology transfer

d. technology transfer status

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c. physical progress of interventions

3. finance

d. land area treated

a. total funds received as on date

e. structures created

b. cumulative expenditure as on

3. finance

date

a. funding watershed wise

c. trial balance

b. expenses watershed wise

d. UC submitted as on date

c. expenses on various overheads 4. village organizations 4. village organizations

a. SHG and savings/credit status

a. PRA

b. User groups and WDF status

b. WDF contribution

5. HR

c. SHGs and user groups

a. employee performance variance

d. Training and meetings

b. trainings and meetings

5. HR a. performance appraisal employee wise b. qualification and experience details C. EXTERNAL AND REPORTED 1. finance

D. EXTERNAL AND PROCESSED 1. finance

a. budget- physical and financial

a. total funds received- watershed

b. watershed wise budget and

wise

village organizations status

b. budgeting and forecasting

c. expenditures- employee and

c. activities wise costing and

watershed wise

financing

d. funding- watershed wise

e.

d. WDF contribution as a

WDF contributions-user group

proportion of total works expense

activities wise

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watershed wise

e. Total expenses on training and

2. technical:

capacity building

a. data from finance- expenditure funding

2. technical;

b. total recruitment

a. total expenditures in watersheds

c. total trainings

as on date

3. HR :

b. total recruitment as on date

a. expenses field office wise

3. HR

b. expenses on employees ,

a. total expenses employee wise

trainings

b. total overhead expenses in the

c. man power requirement

organization

watershed wise

c. total no. of trainings being

d. training requirement

projected

e. cost watershed wise

d. total persons trained

The information matrix looks at the various information requirements of the project and how the data generated is to be processed so as to provide meaningful information. The consequent step is the identification of various reports to be generated with the help of the data and information matrices. The reports to e generated at all three i.e. field office, project office and head office levels are shown below along with the frequencies at which the reports should be generated.

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3.5.5. Identification of various reports to be generated

Place/ source Report description Field villages/ WDT & VLW: Field office 1. problem village wise 2. resources village wise 3. PRAs village wise 4. action plans village wise 5. VI s village wise 6. expenditure monthly a. village wise b. activities wise c. watershed wise 7.own expenses 8.peoples contribution Accountant: 1. daily accounts 2. trial balance at field office 3. total contribution of people Project office

Head office

Category Reported

With

identification of Processed

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the

various

reports

to

be

generated at all

Finance: Reported 1. monthly budgeting and expenditures watershed wise 2. trial balance watershed and field offices wise technical: Reported 1. technology requirement at watershed level 2. monthly expenses activities wise 3. man power planning activities wise 4. materials planning activities wise 5. budgets watershed wise HR: 1. performance of employees at field level 2. recruitment and training for employees at branch level Executive director: 1. MPR 2. QPR 3. bi- annual and annual reviews

the

Reported

Reported

the levels in the organization the logical analysis phase

of

the

MIS development is complete.

The

physical design phase

excludes

suggesting

the

MIS and IT architecture (systems architecture) relevant for an organization as the organization does not require a computerized information system keeping in view the cost – benefit factors. Also the organization lacks the infrastructure and resources required to make its information system computerized. the implementation and post implementation maintenance components are left to the organization and this MIS developed basically looks at the various information requirements and how those are to be fulfilled. With the help of the process, data and information matrices the data and the reporting requirements have already been identified. The next step involved the identification of a database containing the complete data requirements of the organization. This considered the present data requirements as well as the future requirements keeping in view the monitoring requirements of the OWDM. All the data requirements have been classified into three categories – 1. those that will remain constant 2. those that will change periodically and thus will need to be updated and 3. those that will essentially serve as a monitoring mechanism for identifying whether the programme objectives are being met or not.

The data requirements thus categorized are shown below.

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DATA SOURCE

DATA TYPE

DATA DESCRIPTION

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Watershed

Constant

1. Name of MWS, code no. Of MWS, project name 2. Total geographical area, total treatable area (arable and nonarable) 3. Total project outlay, project period, date of sanction 4. no.of villages, name of villages 5. watershed association and committee compositions, name of watershed committee president and secretary and watershed secretary 6. % of women in WC 7. WDT composition 1. total area treated till date,funds

Changing

received till date, total expenses incurred, unutilized balance 2. no. of user groups, members enrolled, no. of SHGs 3. WDF status Checks and balances

4. meetings and trainings details 1. funds received, cumulative expenditure and UC submitted 2. WDF status and its proportion as Total expenses incurred 3. cost break up of PIA funds and WC funds expenditure, trial balance 4. % households with involvement in CIGs

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5. increase in funds controlled by

village

constant

1. area of the village (arable and nonarable) 2. demographic details 3. land distribution pattern proportion of marginal, small and large farmers and the landless proportion of upland, middle and low lands 4. land utilization pattern 5. rainfall pattern, ground water level 6. drinking water sources and sources of irrigation 7. livestock details 8. return from crops and livestock 9. cropping pattern in the village 10. vegetative resources and NTFP base

changing

1. activities carried out and expenses incurred till date 2. no. of user groups and SHGs 3. members enrolled in CIGs 4. physical and financial progress

Checks and balances

of the works being carried out 1. balance of costs incurred and funds received 2. WDF as a proportion of total Works expenses 3. participation index and MoL 4. increase in GWL and gross and net cropping areas 5. % change in BPL and poorest

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households

SHGs

constant

1. name of group, name of village and date of formation 2. type of group 3. rules and bylaws 4. benefit sharing mechanisms and interest rates fixed by the group 5. linkage with financial institutions 1. no. of members

changing

2. monthly transactions i.e deposits and withdrawls from the group account 3. opening and closing balance with the SHG each month 4. income generating activity , nature and income generated 5. meetings details 6. mode of collection, mode of information sharing and record maintenance 1. internal and external loan

Checks and balances

repayments 2. increase in funds controlled (own) 3. increase in loan consumption capacity 4. income from additional activities 5. benefits retained within the group 6. resource mobilization from within 7. loan amount utilized for what purpose 8. proper maintenance of accounts

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Watershed development fund

changing

1. contributions to WDF, status of WDF month wise 2. contribution to WDF activity wise, nature of contribution

Checks and balances

1. amount of WDF contribution as a proportion of total works expenses 2. Amount of contribution vis-à-vis the minimum contribution required w.r.t the nature of work

Activities/ interventions constant

1.

initial cost estimates, targets, area to be covered, households to be benefited, user groups defined

changing

1. physical progress, area covered and structures created, saplings planted etc. 2. costs incurred, contributions activity wise, employment generated, households benefited, other benefits and details

Checks and balances

1. achievement Vs targets set 2. progress of work within time and cost estimates 3. benefit accruing to the poorest

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3.5.6. Learnings: The logical design phase involved identification of the data and information requirements through the help of process matrix, data matrix and information matrix. The process matrix and data matrix helped bring in accountability and ownership to the system as they identified how data is to be shared among the different functions. Also this stage involved identification of what is to be done at which level thus resulting in less duplication of tasks. The preparation of the different matrices helped in systematic study of the information requirements which was very important as the technical orientation of the project made it difficult at first to understand what could be the salient information requirements. This was also important from the control point of view as it helped identify all the relevant requirements and not missing some requirement which could be important for monitoring. Major difficulties during this phase were the difficulty in getting familiarized with the technical nature of the project within the time constraints as explained earlier and aligning the requirements to the requirements of the logical framework developed by the OWDM. 3.6. PHYSICAL DESIGN: 3.6.1 DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPORTING FORMATS The physical design phase included development of reporting formats using MS-EXCEL.The present reporting system in the project comprises of a monthly progress report and a quarterly progress report developed by the watershed development mission. However, as explained earlier these reports are insufficient to meet reporting requirements of Gram Vikas due to their exclusive focus on the financial progress and to some extent on the physical progress aspects. The reports fail to give an account of what is the actual benefit and to whom it is accruing, what is the progress in activities as compared to the targets set, what are the achievements in capacity building and skill enabling measures of the local institutions etc. To overcome these limitations in the system a new reporting system was developed under the project. The new reporting system comprises of a monthly progress report (village wise), a consolidated monthly progress report (watershed wise) and a quarterly progress report. While developing

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these report formats care has been taken to ensure that all the reporting requirements of the various external stakeholders are fulfilled through these. Also since the village wise monthly progress report is primarily intended for entry by the field staff simplicity in the data entry has been considered in these. The watershed wise MPR is to be consolidated at the project office level. The quarterly progress report is primarily intended at performance appraisal and review in terms of targets set versus achievements. Each report has basically three components those look at the physical progress, financial progress and benefits. The physical progress component looks at the number of saplings planted, land area covered, number of soil conservation measures created etc. The financial progress component looks at the expenses incurred, the contribution to WDF (both in terms of rupees and as a proportion of total works expenses) etc. Whereas the benefits component looks at the number of households benefited, employment generated, land area benefited, irrigation potential created etc. In addition to these aspects others like the progress of self help groups, meetings and trainings details, health and education details in the villages are also integrated into the reporting system developed. Progress of self help groups are in terms of their monthly transactions, opening balance and closing balance each month, number of meetings held and issues discussed each month etc. the quarterly progress report looks at the performance of self help groups in terms of loan repayment rate, increase in funds held and controlled by the groups and the frequency of savings. In addition other issues which provide an understanding about whether the self help groups are performing as intended like the mode of collection, frequency of savings, and record maintenance by the group members themselves are also included in the reporting formats. The reporting formats developed are provided in the annexure. 3.6.2. Monthly Progress Report (village wise) The MPR (village) has the following components. 1. Basic information: village name, micro-watershed name, scheme 2. Physical progress details: a. tree- plantation: species, land area covered, no. of saplings planted b. area treatment: SC measures created, land area treated, land area benefited c. drainage line treatment: structures created, land area covered

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d. irrigation infrastructure: numbers, conservation capacity, individual/community e. livestock interventions: activity undertaken f. agriculture: activity undertaken, area to be covered 3. Financial progress details: for each of the activity a. costs incurred b. contribution to WDF in amount and as proportion of total expense 4. Benefits: in terms of a. area benefited b. irrigation potential created c. employment generated d. households benefited 5. watershed development fund and user groups details: a. WDF opening balance b. Contribution during the month (amount and proportion), nature of contribution c. Closing balance d. User groups – no. of groups, no. of members (initial and final) 6. Meetings and trainings details: a. Date, venue, duration b. Participants- male and female c. Issues discussed, decisions taken, follow-up actions d. Resource persons 7. Self help group details: a. Opening balance, transactions during the month, closing balance b. Income generating activity undertaken, number of members involved c. Meetings held, mode of collection, linkage with financial institutions 8. Education and health details 3.6.3. Monthly Progress Report (watershed wise) The MPR (watershed) has to be consolidated at the project office. A watershed generally consists of 2/3 villages and the unit of intervention in this programme is the watershed. Hence reporting is to be done watershed wise. The MPR (village) is only intended for facilitation of data entry by

36

the field staff at the village level and also to portray a more detailed and realistic picture. The MPR (watershed) in addition to the MPR (village) features contains the following features. 1. Basic information: total project outlay, sanction and unutilized balance, total land area and total treatable area, demographic details, user group and self help group details 2. Physical progress 3. Financial progress 4. Benefits 5. WDF and user groups’ details 6. Self help groups details 7. Meetings and trainings details 8. Watershed financials: since the funding of the project is done watershed wise hence the finacials have to be treated so and can not be processed at village level. this has the following components. a. Current year position - opening balance with PIA, WC - Funds received by PIA, WC - Expenditures by PIA, WC - closing balance with PIA, WC b. funds received by PIA Expenses by PIA – training, community organization, administration Cumulative expenditure by PIA c. funds received by WC Expenses by WC Cumulative expenditure by WC d. total funds received Total cumulative expenditure UC submitted and unutilized balance UC pending 9. Education and health details

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3.6.4. Quarterly Progress Report (watershed wise) The QPR in addition to serving for an overall review of the project progress, has been designed to serve as a performance appraisal tool for the employees. Hence it looks at the project in terms of the targets set, achievements and reasons for difference. Thus for each of the activity the performance of employees are compared vis-à-vis the targets set. This brings accountability on the part of the employees. Thus we see that the information requirements as identified in the information matrix have been met through these reports. 4. CONCLUSION Development of management information system in this context basically focused on identifying the complete data requirements corresponding to the objectives of Gram Vikas and developing a reporting system so as to fulfill these requirements and facilitate decision making in the organization. However with the expansion of activities in the project area in near future timeliness and manageability of the information system will acquire much importance and computerization to some extent should be seriously considered in the organization. In the present context the MIS developed considers both the process and impact level monitoring and will facilitate in ensuring that the programme is in alignment with the organization’s objectives.

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