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Using Open Source Solutions for Managing Development Interventions:
IDEAS Global AssemblyJohannesburg, 19 March 2009
Arab Salem & Demetrio Innocenti
Background
The Community Driven Recovery and Development project (CDRD), funded by DFID and the WB, is a multiagency Community Driven Development project (WB, DRC, UNICEF and UNHABITAT) currently on-going in Somaliland and Puntland (Somalia).
The project is currently in its pilot phase and has three objectives:
– Creation of social and economic infrastructures/services in the target communities
– Community empowerment– Institutional development, promoting bottom-up governance and
building the capacities of the local authorities.
Objective
This presentation focuses on the technical solutions that this project developed for managing human and financial resources while providing quantitative evidences of the results achieved.
The final goal of the system developed is delivering solutions financially and technically viable that can be handed over to the national and local governments in Somaliland and Puntland and, in general, replicated as a model in other developing countries.
Sustainability at the core
1. Observation: situation analysis to build on what is already there, investing in what is not present yet
2. Creativity: developing, implementing and testing ideas/solutions to effectively filling the gaps assessed in step 1 against the (scarce) resources available
3. Learning by doing: investing in what has worked and mainstreaming of what are the good practices learnt and solutions into government front line agencies agenda
4. Flexibility: Replicate successes and adapt the system to the different contexts and situations
Finding cost-effective management solutions
CDRD Portal (Content Mgmt System)
- Based on Joomla open source framework.
- Enables non-technical users to add or edit content on the website .
- Using a simple, browser-based interface, the users will be able to easily publish CDRD news, press releases, files, images, and create an unlimited amount of sections or content pages on the CDRD site
- Classified according to the project phase, the portal makes all CDRD tool kit related resources available to communities, districts and financial agents; and government institutions and donors
Project Management System
- Based on dotProject open source framework.
- Designed to assist project managers in project scheduling and control.
- Includes modules for communities, projects, tasks (with Gantt charts), forums, files, a calendar, contacts, multi-language support, and user/module permissions.
- Incorporates a basic file version control system
- has a modular design that allows extra modules (such as procurement and inventory) to be added in
E-Forms and Surveys Management System
- Based on Limesurvey opensource framework
- Web-based application that enables non-technical users (without coding knowledge) to develop, publish and collect responses to e-forms and surveys
- Allows the development of multi-question multi-lingual surveys
- Large range of question types, and presentation methods
CDRDInfo (M&E System)
- Based on the freeware software DevInfo
- It allows to effectively report quantitative information on indicators at different level of the logical framework
- It allows integration with other organizations that use the same platform (i.e. in Somalia with UNICEF SomInfo)
System Integration
DevInfo
Apache HTTP Server
Open Source Technologies Utilized
What is an Open Source Software
We refer to open source softwares using the definition of the Open Source Initiative (http://opensource.org/)
Open source software license implies source code available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent copyright restrictions. In other words this is a cost-free resource for the end user either individuals or private/public entities
The importance of open source for e-governance in developing countries has been long discussed within International organizations. Among others, the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) responsible of the organization of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and UNDP International Open Source Network (IOSN)
Features
Challenges and Limitations
Thank you!
• For further information:Visit www.somcdrd.org
And ContactArab [email protected]
Demetrio [email protected]
