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Here's how to better prepare your team to embrace TolaData!

At its core, TolaData requires teams to have a strong foundation for monitoring and evaluation (M&E), have program management in place and practices/processes established that promote data quality. Depending on the current capacity of the country team, the preparation to be TolaData ready, prior to actually rolling out the system, can be the bulk of the work. This would include supporting teams to improve their M&E and program management practices.

This guidance is broken up into three tiers: minimum requirements, best practices, and a self assessment.

  • Tier I: Minimum requirements, are those things that must be in place before a country is ready for a rollout of TolaData.

  • Tier II: Best practices, is a list of tools, practices, and skillsets that make a country better prepared and equipped for adoption of the TolaData system.

  • Tier III: Self-assessment, is a set of questions to assess the current state of a country’s processes, procedures, and capacity, and what type of support a country will need for rollout.

These three tiers of “readiness” will help the TolaData team make decisions about how a roll out plan might need to be adapted for a specific country team, and what kind of support will be required to ensure a successful implementation of the system.

TIER I: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

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![](/assets/Screen Shot 2017-09-28 at 4.28.49 PM.png)Buy-in from country leadership and program managers.

Commitment of staff time to be dedicated to and support the rollout. Full-time, country-level M&E position (cross-funded from grants)

Funding / resources allocated in the following areas:

• M&E staff and any additional in-country resources needed for the implementation • Additional hardware and software such as tablets, mobile data collection app license fees, etc.

TIER II: BEST PRACTICES

While the items below are not mandatory for TolaData, they make a country better equipped for adoption of the system:

  • Digital Data Collection - use of digital data collection tools as applicable and relevant, authoring XLS forms, and adoption of third-party service provider like Ona or Kobo Toolbox .
  • Cloud-based record retention - documents are accessible in a digital format within a standard folder structure for retaining documents and basic understanding of tools like Google Drive or DropBox .
  • Adherence and adoption of Program Management minimum standards . We recommend that applicable positions be PMD Pro certified.
  • Standard indicators are in use for existing programs where relevant and included in new proposals (alongside budgets for proper measurement and collection).
  • Standard tools and monitoring forms - data collection tools (recording and reporting tools) in any format (paper or digital), standard formats for logframes/M & E plans.
  • Adopted measurable country-level key performance indicators (KPI) that can be aggregated across multiple programs
  • M & E and ICT/IM requirements and responsibilities are articulated in all key positions (program, program quality, M & E, operations, etc).
  • M & E is articulated in the country strategy or annual plan as a priority
  • Having the above mentioned qualities will help your team become successful TolaData champions!