AsiaDHRRA Online » Development Tools

A portable SMS Gateway

Jet Hermida — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:15:19 +0000

TechTuesday showcases this very interesting SMS application from the inventive guys over at Development Seed. Apparently, with this software, all you need is a USB drive, a computer with internet, and a GSM modem or cell phone…. and “you can have a gateway up and running that is totally decentralized and pushing information up to a site or a series of sites. The decentralization is key” explains Development Seed’s Tm McWright. This is perfect for NGOs who are trying to maximize resources in communications and project management and monitoring among others. This is also perfect for citizen incident reporting systems. So what is SlingshotSMS exactly? head on over here for the deets.

A facilitator’s guide on participatory approaches

Jet Hermida — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:37:42 +0000

ToolkitSunday shares this guide on “how to facilitate participatory processes with multiple stakeholders” by D. Bradley and H. Schneider of the Voluntary Service Overseas.

The benefits of participatory approaches can only be felt if all those involved have a common understanding and set of expectations. This guide, designed for volunteers, partner organisations and staff, is based on VSO’s experience on promoting participation. The authors hope that it will also prove useful to the wider development community. The guide is divided into three parts, which are available as three separate PDF files.

Download the facilitator’s guide here…

Monitoring NGOs Commitment to Rural Poverty Reduction- PhilDHRRA-Luzon’s Experience

Jet Hermida — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:02:16 +0000

This is an old research undertaken by PhilDHRRA Luzon to develop a monitoring system that will track the performance of each member NGO based on their set commitment to rural poverty reduction. The monitoring system is part of the operational framework on rural poverty reduction that rationalizes the role of each NGO member and the network secretariat.

download the paper here….

Template for product inventory

Jet Hermida — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:22:45 +0000

here’s a template that LSFM is currently using in their research activities.

download the template here…

FrontlineSMS: sms power for NGOs

Jet Hermida — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:31:05 +0000

For today’s TechTuesday, I present you the impressive application called FrontlineSMS developed by the techies at kiwanja.net. Btw, did i tell that its FREE! i’m downloading it now and gonna test it soon.

FrontlineSMS is the first text messaging system to be conceived, designed and written firmly with the needs of the non-profit sector in mind. Until now, the majority of systems have not taken into account the nature of non-profit work, and the specific conditions (financial and physical) which many work under.

FrontlineSMS has been successfully deployed in over forty countries in many areas by grassroots NGOs including the Nigerian and Philippine elections, in the sending of security alerts to fieldworkers in Afghanistan, market prices to smallholder farmers in Aceh, and to circumvent government restrictions in countries including Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

What can FrontlineSMS do for you?

Are you a locally- or internationally-based NGO looking at the potential to use mobile phone text messages to reach specific groups of individuals within a target community? Or to run an awareness raising campaign? Or to run a competition, or carry out a text-based survey? Or to simply keep in touch with your fieldworkers?

Do you want to provide text-based information services such as bus times, prices, goods availability etc?

If you have already identified applications for text messaging within your non-profit organisation and are looking for a simple, comprehensive, affordable and complete entry-level system then you’re in the right place. If you think text messaging could work for you but don’t know where to start, and are looking to try a service without having to dig too deep into your pockets, then you’re also in the right place.

The FrontlineSMS software is provided free to charities and other non-profit organisations. The software can be downloaded here but requires activation before messages can be sent or received. Details on how to obtain activation codes are provided.

read the complete info about it here….