CommCare Needs Assessment
The purpose of this survey is to understand the priorities of the organization and expected outcomes of
the mobile intervention. In this document, we use Frontline Worker (FLW) to refer to the intended user
of CommCare in your program, which might be a Community Health Worker, Agricultural Extension
Agent, or other extension worker.
PART ONE: Program Priorities and Expected Outcomes
1. What community program(s) is your organization currently focused on? For which program(s) will
you be piloting CommCare? It is possible for organizations to support different types of community
programs but focus on one sector for the CommCare pilot. (Enter an X for as many options that
apply).
Community Program
1. Mother and Child Health (MCH)
2. Nutrition
3. HIV/AIDS
4. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
5. Tuberculosis
6. Malaria
7. Reproductive Health & Gender
Development
8. Education
9. Agriculture
10. Financial Inclusion
11. Disaster Management
12. Access to Energy
13. Other: (Please specify)
14. Other: (Please specify)
15. Other: (Please specify)
Focus of:
Organization
CommCare Pilot
2. What are the most important areas that your program will benefit from deploying CommCare?
(Enter an X for as many options that apply).
Benefits for Program
1. Quality of service delivered by FLW (i.e. improved
counseling, adherence to protocols/checklists)
2. Productivity/performance of the FLWs (i.e. improved
home visit coverage and/or follow-up)
3. Supervision of FLWs (i.e. evidence based support for
supervisors of FLWs)
4. Efficiency and timeliness of reporting from the field
(i.e. reduced delays in reports received at central levels,
time and costs savings for data transfer and collection)
5. Monitoring and evaluation of program interventions
and data analysis (i.e. increased transparency and
accountability at program leadership and supervision
levels, improvements in ability to make real-time and
evidence based decision making for program interventions)
6. Other: (Please specify)
7. Other: (Please specify)
8. Other: (Please specify)
3.
How do you think your FLWs will benefit from deploying CommCare? (Enter an X for as many
options that apply).
Benefits for FLWs
1. Improved outreach and coverage of beneficiaries (i.e.
enrollment)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Improved knowledge about the program content?
Better triggering and tracking of referrals
Timeliness of beneficiary follow-up
Timeliness and ease of reporting
Improvement in data quality, accuracy, completeness
Better prioritization and planning of tasks (i.e. home visits,
counseling)
8. Ease of delivering counseling information (i.e. using media,
facilitated by branching logic)
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Improved Interpersonal Communication
Improved adherence to protocols
Other: (Please specify)
Other: (Please specify)
Other: (Please specify)
4. Please rank the following barriers you expect to encounter for new mobile phone intervention in
your program? (Enter X for the level that most applies for each barrier).
Barriers
1. Lack of on-the-ground
infrastructure
2. Government/health system
barriers
3. Lack of program staff capacity in
your organization
4. Lack of technology/computer
programmer staff capacity in
your organization
5. Lack of mhealth
budgeting/finance capacity in
your organization
6. Lack of
interest/understanding/commit
ment from organizational
leadership
7. Lack of donor interest/funding
8. Cost of deploying technology
9. Inability to scale after pilot
10. Others (please specify)
11. Others (please specify)
12. Others (please specify)
Not a barrier
Low Barrier
Barrier
High Barrier
5. Rank the importance of these factors that your organization will evaluate to determine if CommCare
should be scaled up in your program? (Enter X for the level that most applies for each factor).
Factors to assess if CommCare
should be scaled
Not
important
Somewhat
important
Important
Very
important
1. Improvement in expected
outcomes as identified in
question 2.
2. Usability of mobile application
and devices by FLWs
3. Effectiveness of web based
reporting functionality on
CommCareHQ
4. Ease of managing software
and technical issues by project
staff
5. Ease and effectiveness of
exporting data for analysis
6. Availability of funding to scale
to more FLWs
PART TWO: Program Resources
Human Resources:
7. Please describe the staffing structure for your community program, detailing the number of
FLWs and the beneficiaries they support as well as the number of field based supervisory staff
and number of FLWs they support.
Scale of Community Outreach Program
1. How many FLWs do you work with in India?
2. How many direct beneficiaries do you expect your
program to serve?
FLW Outreach
3. How many beneficiaries are assigned to each FLW?
4. How many beneficiary visits is each FLW expected to
make per week and/or per month?
Supervisor Follow-up
5. Who supervises each FLW?
6. What is the ratio of supervisors to FLWs?
7. How many FLWs is each supervisory expected to followup/support per week and/or per month?
Per Week:
Per Month:
Per Week:
Per Month:
8. Please describe the language preference and literacy level of the following staff at your
organization. (Enter the approximate number of FLWs in your program that fall under each
grade).
Staff
FLW
Supervisors of
the FLW
Project
Manager(s)
(Field Based)
Language
1
Basic
Intermediate
Proficient
No more than the most
simple and concrete
literacy skills
Can perform simple
and everyday literacy
activities
Can perform
moderately
challenging literacy
activities
Can perform complex
and challenging literacy
activities
Below Basic
Enter
Language
1
Enter
Language
2
Enter
Language
3
Enter
Language
1
Enter
Language
2
Enter
Language
3
Enter
Language
1
Enter
Language
2
Enter
Language
3
Enter number
of FLWs. E.g.
10
Enter number
of FLWs. E.g.
10
Enter number
of FLWs. E.g.
10
Physical Resources: Network and Electricity
9. In order for the FLWs to send the data they have collected in their CommCare application, their
phones must be connected to mobile internet (or GPRS). FLWs will also need to charge their
phones to continue using them in the field. SIM cards will need to be purchased for each FLW to
run the CommCare project.
1
http://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp
In order for the project staff to see the data by the FLWs, they must login to a web-based
project space on CommCareHQ. The appropriate project staff will require access to the internet.
Instructions: Please assess network and electricity in the project area where you intend to pilot
test CommCare. Enter an X in the appropriate box, describing the availability and reliability of
network and strength.
Physical
Resource
Only available
in certain areas
(i.e. charging
stations)
Access to
electricity for
FLW (i.e. for
charging mobile
phones)
Network
coverage for
FLWs in villages
(i.e. to send
data from
phones)
Access to
electricity for
program staff in
office
Access to
network
coverage for
program staff in
office (i.e. to
view data in
real-time)
Please assess
the strength of
the mobile
network
providers in
your project
area.
Available in
some homes
some of the
time
E.g. Tata
Docomo
Available in
some homes
all of the
time
Available
most homes
some of the
time
Available in
most homes
most of the
time
Widely
available and
reliable
E.g.
Vodafone
E.g. Airtel,
Idea
10. Based on the assessment above, which network provider have you selected? _______________
Program Planning:
11. Each SIM provided to the FLW must have a data package/plan in order for the phone to send
data to your project space on CommCareHQ.
Instructions: Research the available data packages/plans for the network provider(s) you will
use for this project. List the costs in this table. Your project may choose prepaid options for
internet recharge or postpaid plans. The choice depends on your organization and how you
want to manage the monthly recharges to each FLW.
Item
SIM card (one time cost)
Internet package/plan (recurring monthly cost)
Cost (INR)
Prepaid:
Postpaid:
12. In one year of your program, how many training days does your organization host for one FLW?
13. In one year of your program, what is the average training cost for one FLW?
14. What do the training costs include?
15. What is the total cost of running your program for one year?
16. What do the program costs include?
17. How do you expect CommCare to change your overall program costs, if at all?
18. What are the key milestones and timelines for your program that we should be aware of?
(Examples provided in italics below).
Date
Milestone
(Month Year)
Jan 2014
Mar 2014
August 2014
Refresher Trainings for FLWs
Project Mid-term Evaluation
Program Completion/Dissemination
Partnerships:
19. Please give a brief description of the discussions you have had, if any, with government officials,
other development partners or potential donors about the CommCare pilot. Have you received
official permission, informal permission, guidance, etc.?
Partnership
1. District Government
2. State Government
3. NGO Partners
4. Donor agencies
5. CSR or other Private
partners
6. Other: (Please
Description of Engagement
specify)
7. Other: (Please
specify)
8. Other: (Please
specify)
20. Please share any other information that would be important for us to successfully implement
CommCare for your program.