The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has extended membership of a digital data supervision system known as the Remote Appraisal Supervision, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RASME) project to Mozambique, making it the sixth African country to benefit from the tool which enhances project-related data collection in remote areas.

RASME is a partnership of the African Development Bank and the World Bank’s Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision and KoBoToolbox teams. The digital data gathering suite of tools being used for the RASME project is based on the KoBoToolbox platform, an open-source ICT solution developed by researchers affiliated with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. The initiative uses mobile devices and personal computers to enable Bank staff to remotely collect digital project data directly from the field in real-time. The onset of the Covid-19 crisis has sharpened the need for remote data collection tools.

Mozambique’s Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, Carla Alexandra Louveira, and the African Development Bank’s Country Manager. Cesar Mba Abogo officially launched the initiative on Monday, 7 March 2022.

According to Deputy Minister Louveira said, “the operationalization of RASME will strengthen the oversight and monitoring capacity of project implementation and support a more effective decision-making process.”

RASME, based on the open-source KoBoToolbox platform developed by researchers affiliated with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, is designed for both online or offline use in remote areas with limited telecommunications infrastructure. The project will strengthen data collection in often inaccessible or remote areas, including those with security and logistical challenges to bolster monitoring and evaluation of the Bank’s development projects. All data is stored on secured servers.

The deployment of RASME is driven by the African Development Bank’s Corporate IT department (CHIS) in partnership with the World Bank’s Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) Team - Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV), and KoBoToolbox foundation.

In his opening remarks, Abogo said: "The African Development Bank is determined to support Africa to build back boldly, but smartly, paying greater attention to quality growth. This forces the Bank to constantly reset itself and innovate to meet the challenges the continent faces. RASME is part of this resetting, of this spirit of innovation that characterises our institution and that in this case is backed by the effectiveness of this resource that we have seen in the experience of other institutions.”

Following the launch, project implementation staff in Mozambique received three days in-person training.

In November 2021, the African Development RASME was rolled out in five countries in the Central Africa region: Gabon, Cameroun, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic (CAR).