Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS)

World Bank

Creating a Global Public Good by building capacity in digital data collection and analysis

Context 

A lack of physical field access and awareness of specific needs and dynamics in situations of Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV), as well as in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, impedes operational engagement precisely in the areas where development interventions are critically needed. Given these constraints, governments and development actors are requesting solutions that provide real-time insights into field activities. The Geo-Enabling Initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) initiative responds to this challenge by helping to ‘bring eyes on the ground, where we cannot always have feet on the ground’.

With support from the Korea Trust Fund for Economic and Peacebuilding Transitions (KTF), the World Bank launched GEMS to systematically enhance Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of development activities, as well as real-time risk management in FCV settings. Since 2021, GEMS has also received support from the World Bank Group Partnership Fund for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help achieve these in fragile situations facing the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.

Strategy

GEMS aims to build capacity among government agencies and partners on the ground to leverage low-cost open-source technology, such as KoBoToolbox, and simple methods for digital data collection and analysis to gain real-time insights on local dynamics that can inform decision making.

Using GEMS systematically allows development actors to enhance the accuracy and accountability of M&E and create customized platforms for remote supervision, real-time risk management and coordination across projects and partners.

The rest is here: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/fragilityconflictviolence/brief/geo-enabling-initiative-for-monitoring-and-supervision-gems