CRS ICT4D Conference

Demonstrating impact has become an important focus in international development. Yet how to accurately measure this impact is a challenge a lot of organizations are grappling with. In practice, many still rely on outdated data collection approaches that are prone to measurement errors, reporting bias, and are costly to implement. 

New remote sensing technologies, from micro-satellite imagery to environmental sensors, hold great promises for collecting data at much larger scale than currently feasible, improving the accuracy, rapidity, and cost of M&E. At the same time, integrating new rich data sources into existing organizational workflows creates internal challenges in terms of data use, learning, and decision-making. 

The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at UC Berkeley has pioneered new strategies to measure the effects of development interventions using remote sensing tools across the Global South.  Examples include the use of temperature sensors to monitor the uptake of fuel-efficient cookstoves in Darfur, micro-satellite imagery to estimate smallholder farmers' yields in Western Kenya, and camera-equipped phones to monitor food staples prizes throughout the Ebola crisis in Liberia. 

This session will introduce the audience to new remote sensing technologies that are appropriate for M&E, best practices in integrating these tools into organizational workflows, and prospects for better understanding user demand, reporting to donors, and improving internal decision-making.