Presented at session 'Dashboards: A force for Good, Great or Greater Confusion, MERL Tech Conference, Washington DC, October 2015

1. Understanding &
Managing Beneficiary
Pathways
Using dashboards within
M&E management
systems for youth
programs
John Skelton
Results, Learning and Research Manager,
Youth Programs
Mercy Corps Liberia

2. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
Prospects program and our info needs
Apprenticeships
Business Skills
training
NetworksCash grant
support to
entrepreneurs
Soft Skills
training
Career guidance
Job application
training
Info on job
vacancies
Info needs:
Beneficiary-centered output indicators
• User behavior and engagement – how does this vary by age and sex?
• User satisfaction – what do people like, not like?
Timely outcome indicators:
• Both immediate and longer-term outcomes

3. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
Information management at scale: Prospects’
case management system
DATA USAGE &
PROGRAM
ADAPTATION

4. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
Prospects dashboard and beneficiary-centered output indicators (1)
332
289
309
297
337
247
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5 Session 6
Soft Skills attendance by session

5. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
10%
38%
8%
4%
10%
30%
12% 13%
27%
20% 19%
9%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
1 Session
Attended
2 Sessions
Attendend
3 Sessions
Attended
4 Sessions
Attended
5 Sessions
Attended
6 Sessions
Attended
Soft Skills by number of sessions attended by
individuals
Grand Bassa
Montserrado
Prospects dashboard and beneficiary-centered output indicators (2)
51%
25%
16%
7%
0%
0%
20%
40%
60%
1 Service
Accessed
2 Services
Accessed
3 Services
Accessed
4 Services
Accessed
5 Services
Accessed
Returning Customer Rate: No. Different
Services Accessed by Youth
0
5
10
15
20
25
Effective Job
Applications
Business Skills Soft Skills Career Planning
No.ofrespondents
How did you rate the usefulness of your training?
(by training)
Very useful
Partially useful
Not useful
 Measurement not
just of ‘reach’ but
depth of
beneficiary
engagement
 Measurement of
quality of
beneficiary
engagement

6. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
Prospects dashboard and timely outcome indicators (1)
-1000
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Apprenticeship Cash Grant Business Skills
Training
Apprenticeship +
Soft Skills Training
RCT Results: Net income change (LD/week)
X
• RCTs: Gold
standard but too
late for program
management.
 ..Immediate
outcomes may be
more identifiable
earlier/more useful
for management.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Batch 1 Batch 2 Batch 3 Batch 4 Subtotal
% of apprentices being offered jobs
Male Female

7. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
How is the information used?
DATA USAGE &
PROGRAM
ADAPTATION

8. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
32
29
5
50
1
9 7
30
0
20
40
60
Batch 1 Batch 2 Batch 3 Batch 4
Apprenticeship
Drop-Outs (by
batch)
Apprenticeship
Completed
Dropped Out
Data-driven decision types in Prospects
Decision type 1:
Intervention-level
feedback loops
Decision type 2:
Individual-level feedback
loops

9. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
?
Enabling factors for decision-making
Devolved
responsibilities
Building analysis
capacity &
culture
Intuitive
presentation of
data
Incentives for data
completeness

10. Prospects is implemented by Mercy Corps, and funded by generous support from the
Swedish Embassy in Liberia and Chevron
Learning points
• Consider what information is truly actionable: may require changing an
M&E hat for a management hat and /or conceptualising different sizes of
feedback loops.
• Develop dashboards within broader human centered design information
systems: consider incentives, sanctions and opportunities for staff for
collecting, analysing and acting on data.
• Consider merits of in-house development/using easily adaptable
technology over outsourcing.

11. Thank you
Contact:
John Skelton
jskelton@lr.mercycorps.org
More information:
www.prospectsliberia.com