Improved Monitoring with Smart Phones and McAID

As crises grow in complexity, the need for customized and tailored responses has increased. USAID has focused on tracking food commodities and targeting beneficiaries, requiring more than just human power and an easy-to-use technology. McAID was developed by USAID partner, Save the Children, in 2005 as a management information system to track commodity distributions in rural Bangladesh through a food assistance program. Initially, the program was a network registry for program beneficiaries, with information stored in a network accessible only at key reception points in offices in Bangladesh. As the technology improved, McAID became active in the field, using cell phones to send and store data about program distributions to the network hub at Save the Children. The McAID is now a completely web-based management information system, accessible through more than 500 smart phones distributed in program intervention areas. Staff and community workers can enter and track information about beneficiaries, as well as the movement of commodities from warehousing to distribution, using GIS-enhanced capabilities. This allows development professionals real-time access to monitoring and evaluation data, enabling implementing partners to provide tailored and customized support for over 500,000 beneficiaries. Real-time data and open access have significantly reduced the administrative burden on community workers, freeing up hours for more critical tasks. The system's portability and ease-of-use have made it a critical component of USAID's food assistance portfolio in Bangladesh. McAID has been so successful that other organizations, including USAID partner ACDI/VO, have adapted the technology as their primary field management information system. McAID has also been used to monitor the nutrition of child patients in Chalatora Village, with a nurse using the system to track patient data. The success of McAID has led to its adoption as a model for improved monitoring and evaluation in food assistance programs.