Making a difference in international development projects
The impact of development projects can be increased when they can build on results of other organisations. However, exact information with regard to the activities, objectives, outputs and outcomes of various parties in a given territory is often not readily available. As a result, information about established results and potential collaboration opportunities to increase impact is often lost or missed. In order to enhance the ability of development organisations to coordinate their efforts and create synergies, it is essential that actors have an overview of all relevant activities in an area.
Hence, Trimpact developed the Development Synergy & Alignment Tool (DevSAT®) taking full advantage of Graphileon and Neo4j. DevSAT® is a dynamic online tool that allows the user to take stock of humanitarian aid, development, research and commercial activities in one or more countries (‘who is doing what, where, when and how for whom’). Activities are described in detail, linked to the National Plans and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and geo-referenced at the lowest administrative unit of the specific country.
DevSAT® provides a multi-layered map of projects, within a given territory and shows linkages between those projects. It can also show the gap between what is needed in a given territory and what current projects are offering when an integrated development is aimed at in a given territory. It enables the user to gain insight in ongoing humanitarian aid, research and development projects, and how to move forward.
A key functionality of DevSAT® is finding similar projects. This is done by adding tags from a hierarchical catalogue of tags. A similarity score is calculated on the number and length of paths to corresponding tags, taking into account that projects may be tagged with different levels of precision.
Another “graphy” element in a separate module of DevSAT® are the so-called “Theories of Change” or ToC. A ToC is conceptual model of a project showing how the project’s impact is realized, how it can be measured, and which organisations are involved.
The complexity of international development with its multi-faceted issues in terms of coordination, project management and multitude of stakeholders, is extremely “graphy” by nature. Trimpact offers DevSAT® (separately or in combination with additional tools offered by Graphileon) in order to capture and expose solutions and opportunities in this challenging environment. By contributing to DevSAT®. Graphileon aspires to contribute to its objective to be a socially responsible company.
DevSAT® is an internationally registered trademark of Shifting Energy B.V., the holding company of Trimpact B.V., that provides licences for the use of DevSAT® in combination with tailor-made trainings.
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