Case study

Improved Water and Sanitation for 8,000 Families

Overview

SCOPE needed to run a seamless baseline survey on water and sanitation issues. They previously used paper-based data collection, which led to data quality issues and needed lots of time for data entry and compilation. By using Collect, our mobile data collection app, just 12 people were able to collect high-quality data for 8,000 families in 6 months.

Partner

Society for Community Participation and Empowerment (SCOPE)

Sector

Nonprofit

6

months of data collection

8,000

families covered

10 mins

time saved per household

180 tons

of paper saved

The Problem

Finding and tackling water and sanitation problems

Nearly half of the people in the developing world don't have access to improved sanitation — hygenically separating human waste from human contact. Improved sanitation is key to reducing deaths and illnesses, especially among children.

To tackle this problem, the Society for Community Participation and Empowerment (SCOPE) trains Young Professionals (YPs) to act as change agents and take on water and sanitative initiatives in northern Karnataka. Before starting any initiatives, SCOPE wanted to do a baseline assessment of families' water and sanitation problems. However, they only had 12 YPs and 6 months to carry out this survey, analyze the data, and come up with actionable insights and initiatives.

The Solution

Using Collect for efficient baseline surveys

SCOPE partnered with us to make its baseline data collection faster, easier, and more effective. Its YPs used Collect, our mobile data collection app, to collect data on low-cost Android phones. Collect drastically reduced human error by eliminating data entry operators, saved time that would have been spent transporting reams of paper data back to headquarters, and ensured high-quality data.

I would definitely recommend Collect to other organisations because it increases efficiency and saves paper. Most importantly, however, it introduces innovative methods to the younger generations in the development sector, broadening their scope of thought and taking the sector forward.

Dr. Prakash Bhat
Dr. Prakash Bhat

CEO

SCOPE
20 question types
No code, no hassle
Create data validations
Add skip logic
  • With everything from simple subjective questions to complex tabular questions, collecting comprehensive data was no problem.

  • Our simple web dashboard made creating a form as easy as writing an email. Admins could build a custom survey in no time.

  • Admins could set rules on numerical questions, geographic boundaries on GPS points, selection limits for multiple choice questions, and more.

  • Layers of skip logic made each form quicker and easier. Admins can choose to link together multiple questions, or even link entire forms.

Optimized for low-tech users
No internet needed
Quicker surveys with skip logic
  • With only 6 months to run and analyze their survey, SCOPE had little time for training. Features like local language capability and an intuitive UI/UX made learning Collect a breeze.

  • Network connectivity is a challenge in Gadag. With Collect's offline sync, collected data was continuously saved to phones' local storage, then synced when internet was available.

  • By building in multiple levels of skip logic, SCOPE ensured that only the necessary questions were answered for each survey. This helped YPs be sure about the quality of their data.

Learn more about Collect

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