Reimagining Impact Culture: WeRobotics Partners with ActivityInfo

No one changes the world alone. The impact we strive for — meaningful and lasting — comes alive when we choose radical collaboration and build together on what already exists. This is why our partner ecosystem is a critical part of our work. Each partner organization brings something unique — technology, frameworks, ideas, methodologies, and often, a different way of seeing the world — and together, these pieces form something remarkable. We are thrilled today to welcome ActivityInfo by BeDataDriven into this ecosystem.

One of WeRobotics’ current focus areas is co-creating a strong quantitative and qualitative impact measurement and monitoring & evaluation (M&E) culture for both our organization and the Flying Labs Network. Over the years we have learned that measuring impact in a globally distributed, bottom-up network is both essential and complex. Flying Labs make their own decisions, manage their own priorities, and drive locally relevant activities. 

This approach creates authentic localization and collaboration between local and global actors, but it also presents unique challenges for gathering consistent and meaningful data. Here are three we’ve identified:

• Collecting meaningful impact data from Flying Labs.
  As Flying Labs operate independently at the grassroots level, identifying which data is most relevant and valuable to their contexts and to the Network as a whole is key. Rather than merely collecting activity data for the sake of it, our goal is to co-create systems that help us understand the impact that Flying Labs are creating and how that information can support the growth of the Network. The system will also serve as a self-evaluation tool for the Network, enabling Flying Labs to reflect on their own progress and identify areas they may want to strengthen.
• Measuring the impact of WeRobotics’ network and ecosystem building work.
  Much of our contribution lies in network and ecosystem building, facilitating, and coordinating. We also create replicable frameworks, methodologies and models and tell stories that aim at shifting narratives and mindsets — activities that can be quite difficult to quantify using traditional metrics. What data matters most and tells the story of our work clearly? We intend to explore which qualitative and quantitative indicators best reflect the true impact of this behind-the-scenes work.
• Redefining impact measurement for the Global South.
  Traditional M&E frameworks are often designed in and for the Global North and don’t always resonate with grassroots organizations like Flying Labs. We hope to reimagine impact measurement in a way that is meaningful and empowering, co-created in an iterative way with and for local experts in the Global South.

In our efforts to design an impact measurement strategy that will reflect the locally led, globally supported approach our Glocalization Model champions, we identified  ActivityInfo as an ideal tool for this journey.

BeDataDriven’s mission is to provide social impact organizations with a standard, easy-to-use and comprehensive data management platform so that as many organizations as possible can become data-driven to achieve better outcomes. They imagine a world in which local organizations in the Global South have equal opportunity to leverage data to drive impact for their stakeholders. We share their belief that this vision can and should be achieved in a manner that:

● Increases the power of local organizations to chart their own course

● Is sustainable over the long term

● Minimizes dependence on actors in the Global North.

Our partnership includes joint implementation of programs, projects, and activities. Through this collaboration, we will learn together how to create practical, context-sensitive systems for data collection, reflection, and learning.

The journey to co-creating a robust M&E culture that is locally led and globally supported promises to be an interesting one, full of experimenting, reimagining, and growing. We look forward to travelling with ActivityInfo and sharing the learnings we glean along the way.