Kobo Toolbox training for ISAC partners

On 03 November 2022, Open Development Cambodia (ODC) team joined a Kobo Toolbox training facilitated by Internews for the Innovations for Social Accountability in Cambodia (ISAC) program. The training aimed to address technical training skills identified by local civil society program partners.

In late 2021 and early 2022, Internews conducted a needs assessment of local organizations participating in ISAC, as well as a small number of adjacent CSOs working on social accountability issues. The assessment found that ISAC partners were receptive to remedial training to strengthen their IT skills, particularly in data entry and reporting results.

Ten ISAC CSO partner staff were invited to the November workshop to strengthen their knowledge and ability to use this data collection tool and receive additional training from ODC. Participating organizations were Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC), Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA), Star Kampuchea, Phnom Srey Organization for Development (PSOD), and Cambodian Civil Society Partnership (CCSP).

A detailed presentation on Kobo Toolbox was shared in the morning by Sereywath Peang, MEL specialist from ISAC program partner FHI360. Mr. Sereywath guided participants through key uses of Kobo for the ISAC project as well as broader capabilities for future use, such as mobile data collection.

For the afternoon session, CSO members also were trained by Mr. Vong Pisith, Senior Data Research & GIS Officer /Capacity Building Coordinator from ISAC partner Open Development Cambodia. He presented on ‘Understanding Data,’ specifically ‘What is Data,’ data analysis, and data visualization. Mr. Pisith fielded diverse queries from the interested participants.

After the training, the ten participants demonstrated an improved understanding of the Kobo Toolbox and data usage, as measured via a post-test. They are expected to use their new knowledge for data entry and also more refined explanations of project information in their regular reporting. Additional skills-building training will be undertaken for civil society members in the coming months.