SIMEP.....Colombians International Cooperation in Real Time

Author : Lina María Pinilla Angarita.
Date added : 2002-04-15

Brief Project Background

The need of an information system that would gather data of different projects being develop in the country, with cooperation funds, has been a task not only for the ACCI but also for the executing entities and the cooperation organizations. Designing a tool to solve different problems of communication, information administration, reporting, but mostly ensuring the basis for evaluation and monitoring of projects is a challenge acquired by the ACCI with the SIMEP (Information System for Monitoring and Evaluating Projects).

The Colombian International Cooperation Agency ACCI was founded in September of 1996, as a public establishment of the national order, in charge of the coordination and organization of the entire non reimbursable technical and financial cooperation that the country receives and gives to others of similar level of development. The main activity of the ACCI is oriented to transfer technologies and international capacities in order to foster development processes of the different regions and sectors of the country.

Since that time, the responsibility of monitoring and evaluating the international cooperation projects has been a activity developed that needed a systematisation and a information flow optimisation. That is way at the end of 1999, after years of developing the idea with national and international institutions, and with the endorsement of the Interamerican Development Bank, the ACCI starts designing an information system for monitoring and evaluating projects.

As a sum of the idea, in the mid 2000 the Colombian government stared a campaign to systematise all the governmental activities, processes and information in general, called Government in Line. Programme that reassured the importance of the project in the national level.

The SIMEP was designed following the parameters of projects formulation used worldwide by the international cooperation agencies, Logical Frame. This methodology and design will allow, any financial fund, to have updated, in real time, any information needed about the project and its implementation in a common format. All these parameters where design in order to fit all kind of users needs, taking into account the different actors involved in the sustainability of the project.

The SIMEP is a tool for monitoring and evaluating projects that will allow different consults coming from any part of the world about the international cooperation in Colombia. This system runs on the internet.

The SIMEP Goals are:

1. To provide the ACCI with a efficient tool for monitoring the execution and evaluating the results of the projects. This will allow the different institutions involved in the project to make decision in time, in order to solve any problem that the project can present.

2. Provide real time information to the executing entities of the projects, the funding agents and the ACCI, by the access, at any time, to the system in order fill out information or consult from the place of work. Improving this way the communication between the ACCI and the different institutions.

3. To provide the public in general with an International Cooperation consulting tool, in order to coordinate and guide the offer and demand of cooperation.


The systems establishment has been a 4 phases process: Designing, Pilot Testing, Evaluation and Adjusts, and Implementation.

Phase I: Diagramming and designing process. This phase was the result between the years of discussion about the processes involved and the technical designing of those ideas. The diagramming and designing had to take into account the processes of formulating, evaluating, monitoring and execution of different kind of projects. As well as the process of administrating the information.

Phase II: Ones the designing and diagramming ended, the pilot testing was established. This phase was design to in order to involve different executing and financing entities in the systems validation process. The task was to choose different projects, not only in its formulation but also in its execution to probe the system's efficiency and efficacy. For this process it was necessary to convoke the involved parts to a first approximation to the system and establish a training schedule. The training was focus on two subjects; Logical Frame, in order to reformulate the projects and adjusts them to the methodology of the system, and the technical functioning of the SIMEP, to enable the persons in charge in each institution to manage the system.

After the training and the pilot testing there were many meetings in order to discuss about the system development and utilization, these enabled us to evaluate the national entities connection, technical capacity and to establish recommendations for the implementation and starting phase.

As a phase conclusion, it was determinate not to include in the system projects in execution, the reformulation and agreement process between the executing parts was slow and many times fruitless. Experience that led the ACCI to decide to clean the database at the end of this phase, and to institutionalised a stage of reformulating for every project that will begin its execution, before entering into the SIMEP. Therefore, the projects that will be part of the system are only the ones that start activities after May of 2002. This decision extended the proposed time of information implementation established in the design of the assignment. The reformulating stage also enables the actors to actively involve themselves in the project planning, giving the ACCI a space in the process.

Phase III: This phase involves the systems evaluation as a tool for the management of international cooperation information, and the technical adjustments as a systematic tool, always taking in to account the SIMEP´s objectives fulfilment. The basic activities developed during this phase were: adjustments of the systems parameters, security and administrative designing. Adaptation of the different users guides. These phase is planned to be finished by the end of April.

Phase IV: Implementation. This stage is actually being planned, the idea is to establish the tool as a requirement for International Cooperation projects who are going to be executed in the country.

The management of the system as an information tool does not a mayor difficulty, the SIMEP is a friendly system. Nevertheless, it’s important to emphasize in the methodological training, which is the information trust determining factor.

Results

The results are more the lessons learned, because the project is in the beginning of the starting phase.

Lessons

In order to earn money and time, any information system development must start with a basic design using standard systematised office tools, and as a way of socialisation, the final users of the system must build up the central design.

The development of this project was a process characterized by the consensus between the international cooperation organizations, the executing entities and all the different users of the system.

Development Impacts

In a developing country like Colombia, International Cooperation is a very important activity of International Affairs, but an activity for ensuring development in some regions and sectors. That is way it is so important to systematize the experience and the evaluation of projects, not only in the national level but also in the international enclosure.

This information flow is useful and needed for the internal development and for the international cooperation flows and strategies. The system is a way of materialization the project cycle, the interaction of the parties, the pursuit of the results and the ex-post evaluation.

The management of the system as an information tool does not present a mayor difficulty, the SIMEP is a friendly system. Nevertheless its important to emphasize in the methodological training, which is the information trust determining factor.

Project Information

Organisation : Colombian International Cooperation Agency - ACCI
URL : http://www.acci.gov.co
Total budget in US$ : 80.000

Are there any partners involved : yes
What is partners role?: The project assumes as partners all the national parties who act as executing entities for the different projects, they are the ones in charge of providing information to the system. In the other hand, all the international cooperation establishments that will be able to reach the projects information in real time, factor that will facilitate the interaction between the different actors involved. At last, but not less important, the public, that can, at any time, consult the database about the cooperation that the country is receiving from the international cooperation.

Although these three partners are not all in the same level of security for the information they can consult, they are all part of the project, basically because the external use of the information is the aim of the SIMEP.

Contact Information

Lina María Pinilla Angarita.
lpinilla@dnp.gov.co

Disclaimer: No stories on this website shall be reproduced or stored in any other retrieval system without the written permission of the infoDev/IICD. Although every precaution will be taken in the preperation and maintenance of this collection of stories, neither infoDev, IICD or the submitting parties assume any responsibilities for errors or omissions. In addition, no liability is assumed fordamages resulting from the use of the information supplied in the stories.