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Programming and Monitoring Systems to Coordinate Public and Private Action to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals

The world leaders have long recognized the need to make a common commitment towards alleviating poverty and addressing key global development challenges of the world. In 2000, the United Nations set eight quantifiable goals as the commitments of the Millennium Declaration by all UN member states by 2015.

The actual achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been a subject of intense debate globally. For example, the UN claimed that poverty reduced by more than 50% in the fifteen-year period.[1] However, many argue that this is just an expected consequence of economic growth and not due to any special development activities.

Moreover, progress on some indicators (e.g., infant and maternal mortality) was not encouraging. Overall, MDGs perhaps needed to be more rooted in specific development needs of the countries, identified ways to measure impacts in an accountable and verifiable manner, and even set goals and targets that would make a true difference in the lives of billions.

In this thought piece, I make a pitch for coordinated actions of public and private programmes under CSR with help of harmonized results framework and monitoring systems.

Development of Sustainable Development Goals

Responding to the needs to ‘better’ goals, global leaders developed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2013 aiming to build on the work already done by the MDGs, but more universally applicable to all 193 member countries of the UN.

SDGs include 17 goals with 169 targets to be met by 2030, and 230 indicators to measure this progress under various themes of environment, social inclusion, and economic growth. While these global goals are not legally binding to any country, the individual governments are still expected to take ownership and be held accountable in case of missing these global targets. If politicians around the globe stress, prioritize, and incentivize foundations and international development finance institutions to align their programs with the SDGs and measure the success using SDG (related) indicators, then even the national government would be able to demonstrate the achievements by both public and private programmes towards SDG targets.

 

Lack of coordinated Action between Private and Public programmes in India

NEERMAN’s monitoring and evaluation work across India makes us painfully aware that most private programmes in India are not sufficiently integrated and focused on working towards SDGs unlike the government or public programmes. Guiding frameworks and policies do not exist to drive CSRs, NGOs and other private social enterprises in a coordinated manner towards achieving SDGs as a country. As a result, private programmes sometimes get driven by personal preference and sometimes by interest area of the local implementing partner. Rarely do private programmes consider region-specific development needs, existing government programmes and policies, actual gaps that private programmes can address, and results framework that is aligned to indicators defined under SDGs or even to national frameworks. 

 

Use of Monitoring Systems and Secondary Data for Coordinating Action

While above is easier said than done, it is also not rocket science. A wealth of secondary data and programme monitoring data is available for government programmes and digital India initiative is making data accessible like never before. Government programmes are also more open to public-private partnerships to drive development faster, and technology has made rigorous monitoring and evaluation much more accessible to even non-researchers and programmes with limited funding.

Programme planning and development of results framework of private (mainly with CSR and private foundation funding support) can proactively ask a few critical questions to start with:

  • which are the SDGs this programme is working towards?
  • Are the indicators defined similarly to SDG indicators or can we construct SDG indicators from the available information?
  • Can the monitoring framework be integrated with MIS of relevant government programmes, at least in terms of overlap of key indicators?
  • Have we made reasonable efforts to target programme where the need is more acute (even within regions selected for strategic or business or convenience reasons)?

Ultimately, not only the public and private programmes and policies need to be geared towards achieving SDGs (after they are prioritized and contextualized to India’s or a local area’s needs), but even the M&E systems and research need to enable organization work towards the SDGs. 

As a small start from our end, NEERMAN will be freely making available data on a plethora of indicators that are linked with SDGs based on sources such as NFHS, Census, NCRB, and other such publicly available databases. Currently, the lowest unit at which data is available is at district level but hey it is a start!

We invite you to register on this platform for this resource as well as more we intend to develop over time, plus to get intimation of subsequent updates. 

Citations:
[1] The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015

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As a Research Assistant, Alron provides support on projects, proposals, data analysis, ideation. He has over two years of experience in MIS, economic analyses, and policy research writing. He is passionate about migration-refugee crisis, decoding and mitigating disinformation mechanisms, and has written extensively on these topics, among others.

Alron holds a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Mumbai and is currently pursuing a Diploma in International Affairs.

As a Research Assistant, Alron provides support on projects, proposals, data analysis, ideation. He has over two years of experience in MIS, economic analyses, and policy research writing. He is passionate about migration-refugee crisis, decoding and mitigating disinformation mechanisms, and has written extensively on these topics, among others.

Alron holds a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Mumbai and is currently pursuing a Diploma in International Affairs.

Hrishikesh works as a Research Assistant at NEERMAN where he applies his skills to the development of impact assessment. Apart from this, he volunteers his time by working for various projects and activities associated with the Rotaract.

He holds a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Mumbai.

Anshuman manages our survey research and data division. He leads a critical position that ensures researchers need for quality data are met on time and within budget.

He has an MPhil in Population Studies from IIPS, Mumbai and a Master’s degree in Population Education and Rural Development from the University of Lucknow. Prior to joining NEERMAN, he worked with UNICEF (UP) and IIPS.

Rupam is working as a Senior Research Associate at NEERMAN. She has over 4 years of work experience in social/ development sector. Her area of interest is in domains like population and development, maternal and child nutrition, education, reproductive and child health, gender issues, transgender study etc. She holds her Master's degree in Population Studies from International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS, Mumbai) and Bachelor’s from University of Delhi.

Anil has more than 25 years of experience in the area of data management and analysis. Previously he has worked with Nielsen India Pvt. Ltd. He is adept in facilitating operations for projects using CSPro (Version 7.6) Data Entry package and analysis of data using statistical package for social science (SPSS). He has proven ability in maintaining large databases and conducting field training of CAPI related aspects.

Free or highly subsidized power for farm irrigation has been a cornerstone of India’s agricultural policy since the 1970s, but it also results in high subsidies, technical and commercial losses, and ultimately poor service to the consumers.  Government of India is investing billions to separate feeders that supply power to farmers from other consumers for better regulation, measurement and quality of supply. However, no robust evidence was available on whether and how these infrastructure improvements benefit the end consumers.  NEERMAN in partnership with Asian Development Bank and Central Discom Madhya Pradesh undertook an impact evaluation of the Feeder Separation Project in Madhya Pradesh. The study proved that feeder separation benefit farm and non-farm consumers by decreasing power theft, increasing coverage of electrical connections, reducing irrigation, and reducing the use of diesel.

Read the study results in this published manuscript (paid access) or the summary in our blogs.

In a partnership between UC Berkeley, UCSF, IFPRI and NEERMAN – one of the largest mHealth programmes in the world with support from the World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of India. The study included multiple types of evaluations at multiple points in time. In addition to a strong research role from proposal to publication stages, NEERMAN also collected data from over 800 villages in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar and 6000+ mother-child dyads, 1500+ community workers for the evaluation and several interim surveys for process evaluation using qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study identified what mHealth can and cannot do and resulted in programmatic and policy decisions at national level about revamping the technology for nutrition programmes.

The study is published in a peer-reviewed journal – British Medical Journal (BMJ).

 

NEERMAN in collaboration with UNICEF and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation undertook a CBA of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Data came from household surveys from twelve Indian states that once contributed to over 90 per cent of open defecation in India. The time and money spent by households in building and maintaining toilets were monetised. Along with this, the government’s investments in subsidies and campaign activities were also costed out. Reductions in medical costs and mortality associated with diarrheal diseases, productive time saved from fewer diarrhoea cases and accessing outside defecation and an increase in the property value of having a toilet were all monetized as benefits. The findings of this study were presented to a high-power committee led by the chief economic advisor of India and used by the PMO and other prominent ministers as proof of the success of SBM.

The study findings are also published in the World Development Journal.

NEERMAN was the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning partner for UNICEF’s Adolescents Empowerment Programme for a period of three years between 2016-2019. Under the partnership, NEERMAN collaborated in developing the monitoring-evaluation-learning framework and plans for the national programme, collected multiple rounds of monitoring surveys across four programme states, developed android and multilingual quarterly process motoring systems for partner NGOs of UNICEF. Further, we managed data from multiple sources and analysed it for actionable inputs, conducted secondary data analysis to generate policy insights, participated in national and state workshops as a technical resource agency and advisors, helped several state offices develop monitoring systems and design evaluations in the child protection sector.

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Non Research Aspects of Research in India

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Randomised Controlled Trial – Concepts, Designs, and Implementation

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▪️ Ethics of RCTs
▪️ Practical insights into the planning and management of RCTs.

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Relevance of Evaluation in Developmental Change

In this video, Dr Milindo Chakrabarti - a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, and a Professor and Associate Dean at Jindal School Of Government and Public Policy - has covered the following key points:
▪️ What is evaluation?
▪️ Why evaluation matters?
▪️ How evaluation contributes to developmental change?

This video will also clarify your doubts about:
▪️ The concept of evaluation and why their importance is magnifying each passing day
▪️ How is evaluation different from monitoring
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      Pritesh is the backbone of the data processing and analytics division at NEERMAN and is responsible for data reporting, CAPI Design, STATE and ODK work in close collaboration with the Senior Data Manager. He also manages teams of assistants for data processing and QAQC. Pritesh holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of Mumbai.

      Vishal contributes to every phase of the project life cycle — from design, implementation, to report-making. With his sharp analytical skills and background in Econometrics, he regularly conducts data analysis on Excel and STATA. He has previously worked on a Health Impact Evaluation project and successfully carried out cost-effectiveness analyses using tools like Impact2 and LiST.

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      Simran collaborates with the internal team on research frameworks, CAPI and proposal development.

      Simran has completed a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from KC College, University of Mumbai, and a Master’s degree, also in Economics, from the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Mumbai. After post-graduation, Simran has worked on a project on digital financial Inclusion for migrants, on the Interstate Migrant Policy Index (IMPEX 2019), and in behavioural sciences.

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      As a Research Associate at NEERMAN, Debangana collaborates with our partners on projects focusing on qualitative data analysis, process evaluation and documentation. She is also a researcher-in-residence at our Assam field research office.

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      Suresh has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Mumbai and has held leadership positions in survey agencies such as Milward Brown, GfK, and TNS.

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      He has over ten years of experience managing research including study design, field management, questionnaire design, data analysis, and liaising with government officials, donors, and civil society organizations.

      Nandish holds a Master's degree in Public Policy from Tufts University, USA, as well as a Master's Degree in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India.

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      Before he founded NEERMAN, Sumeet worked at RTI International as a Senior Economist and at PRESTELS Mumbai as an Executive Engineer. He has also led a World Bank impact evaluation of a sanitation programme as a Staff Consultant.

      Sumeet holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and double Masters degrees in Economics and in Environmental Engineering from the NC State University.

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