The use of database systems for evidence-based planning can have a huge impact on the effeciency and effectiveness of sanitation work. Many of the proposed apps focus on mobile data collection. Mobile has an extremely important role to play, but we also need to appreciate that there are many fully functional human/institutional systems in developing countries for collecting data via paper/pen.  In some instances there’s no need to reinvent the “data collection” wheel just yet.

For instance, the District Government in Salima District, Malawi, routinely collects high-resolution information on sanitation activities and sanitation infrastructure for on over 2000 villages. This information has immense potential use for planning. A challenge, however, is that this data typically lives in Excel sheets – limiting the potential complexity of the data structure, making higher-level data aggregation difficult, reducing options for data validation, and making distributed data access unwieldy. This is by no means the fault of the database managers – appropriate database tools for developing country contexts simply don’t exist.