DEVELOPMENT OF MIS FOR WATERSHED PROJECT OF GRAM VIKAS:

1. INTRODUCTION:

The Orissa Watershed Development Mission has been created in order to streamline the efforts
being carried out by the different governmental agencies and to minimize the duplication of
developmental interventions by the different agencies in the same areas and villages. The
watershed developmental activities being carried out under the different schemes like drought
prone area programme (III & IV), additional central assistance (ACA), employment assurance
scheme (EAS), western Orissa rural livelihoods programme (WORLP) have been streamlined
and are being managed through the watershed development mission. The programme is being
funded by both the central and state governments. Also the capacity building of secondary
stakeholders is being facilitated through DFID, India.

The local NGOs having expertise and experience of working in the area and the local institutions
such as PRIs and line departments of the government are being selected as the project
implementation agencies in this project in order to facilitate capacity building of the local
institutions. Gram Vikas has been selected as the PIA for the Bongomunda block of Bolangir
district under this project. Currently there are 39 villages in 16 watersheds being managed under
this project in this block. The different operational programmes for which Gram Vikas is the PIA
in this block are:

DPAP- III: 4 watersheds and 8 villages

DPAP- IV: 4 watersheds and 8 villages
ACA : 2 watersheds
WORLP : 6 watersheds

The funding patterns and monitoring systems for all these schemes are basically the same except
those for the WORLP watersheds. The difference arises from the watershed plus component of

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WORLP in which the focus is on creating secure livelihood opportunities for the disadvantaged
sections of the society. The funding pattern is based on the treatable area of the watersheds and
the present cost norm is Rs. 6000 per hectare under the DPAP and ACA schemes. For the
WORLP villages an additional Rs. 3500 per hectare is intended for creating secure livelihood
opportunities in the region.

The watershed development activities are both technical and social in nature. The technical
component focuses on sustainable management of natural resources through various activities
such as land development, hill treatment, plantation, afforestation, creation of water harvesting
structures and soil conservation measures, transfer of technology for improved agriculture and
horticulture, aquaculture etc.

The social component aims at building peoples’ capabilities through mobilizing effective
peoples’ institutions. For instance the programme aims at effective management of the assets
created through peoples’ institutions such as watershed committees, watershed associations etc.
in order to bring out ownership and proper post implementation maintenance of the assets
created among the local communities. The programme builds upon the concept of users groups
and watershed development fund in the villages. The users group consists of homogeneous group
of people who are being most affected by a developmental work under the project. The group has
to contribute 10% of the total costs of that specific intervention which has to be deposited into
the WDF and maintained for the maintenance work. If the work is benefitting the whole
community the contribution is limited to 5% of the total cost. Also in case of SC/ ST or BPL
beneficiaries the contribution is limited to 5% of the total costs of the intervention. These
contributions can be in the form of cash, labour or material. In case of the contribution being in
form of labour or material an equivalent amount is to be deposited into WDF by the PIA. This
contribution is not a substitute for the contribution by government and is meant only for the
maintenance of the assets created. The user group is responsible for all the decisions regarding
the proper operation and maintenance of the assets created under the programme.

Also the interventions to be carried out in the watershed are determined in consultation with the
watershed association that is constituted of and by the villagers themselves. The operational and

2
financial aspects of the interventions are managed by the watershed committee, which is again
constituted of the villagers themselves. The watershed committee president and secretary are
selected from among the committee members and are entrusted with the responsibility of
maintaining the accounts and record keeping of the activities undertaken.

Another aspect of the project is mobilization of the villagers to form self- help groups and
facilitating uptake of income generation activities by the self help groups created. Linkage of the
groups to different financial institutions is being facilitated through the village level workers of
the PIA. There is the provision of revolving fund in which seed money to the amount not
exceeding 50000 is given to the groups as a loan for undertaking IGAs, which is to be repaid
within six months that is not exceeding 6 monthly installments. Amount to be given should not
exceed Rs.5000 per group. The formation of savings and credit groups and self help groups is
intended to help the villagers in coming out from the clutches of usurious moneylenders through
internal generation of funds and to help them escape the vicious cycle of poverty through the
initial provision of loans for generating income for the group.

The programme also aims at capacity building of the local communities through various training
programmes aiming at expanding the skill base of villagers and facilitating technology transfer to
them. The PIA is entrusted with the responsibility of identifying the training requirements of
both the local communities and the staff and liaisioning with the resource persons competent of
fulfilling these requirements. In this programme after the selection of a particular agency as the
PIA for a particular region the PIA has to constitute the watershed development team with
professionals of the requisite qualification at the earliest A watershed development team is
constituted/ appointed by the PIA and is meant for technical facilitation of the works carried out.
This team has to be constituted of minimum four members and should consist of specialists from
the field of plant/agricultural sciences, civil/agricultural engineering, sociology and at least one
of the team members should be a woman. The WDT should have a project leader selected from
among its members.

Selection of the watershed to be treated by the PIA is based on the village/ watershed wise
prioritization already developed. The prioritization is based on various criteria like the possibility

3
or willingness of peoples’ participation for operation, maintenance of assets created, acuteness of
drinking water scarcity in the villages, preponderance of non-forest waste lands and degraded
lands, proportion of SC/ST or BPL families in the villages, difference between actual and
minimum wages specified, contiguity to another watershed which has been treated earlier etc.

After the selection of watershed based on this prioritization the PIA carries out PRAs in the
villages to identify the needs and resource base from the peoples’ viewpoint. Also this exercise
helps to find out which are the most needy families in the village and which interventions will
benefit the poorest most. Since the programmes specifically aim at benefiting the poorest this is
very important for fulfilling the programme objectives.

After the PRA the watershed development team members carry out a survey, which is mostly
technical in nature. In this the team members study the topography and soil type, land
distribution patterns, nature of land degradation etc. so that they can identify interventions, which
will be technically feasible in nature. Then an action plan for the implementation of the project is
prepared in consultation with the villagers. This action plan specifies which interventions will be
taken up in the village, identifies the user groups for the various interventions based on who will
be the people most affected by the activity, specifies the detail estimates of the interventions.
Care is taken at this stage to ensure that the indigenous interventions which people have been
practicing since long is adapted and adopted so that people identify with the developmental work
and the project is not abandoned in the post implementation phase. Also the watershed
committees and various user groups are constituted in this phase and the watershed committee
president and secretary are selected from among the members by all the watershed association
members. In watersheds, which constitute of more than one village care is taken to ensure that
the committee represents the interests of all the villages. That is it is ensured that the watershed
committee president and secretary are selected from different villages. The action plan also
specifies the clear demarcation of watershed, ownership details and location of proposed
works/activities.

After the preparation of action plan the interventions are started in the village. The interventions
can be of various nature and usually range from activities like afforestation (plantation, agro-

4
forestry, horticultural development), land development, pond renovation and excavation,
development of small water conserving structures like farm ponds, check dams, percolation
tanks, construction of soil conservation measures, fisheries development in village ponds, pasture
development, crop demonstrations, repair, restoration and upgradation of the existing common
property resources( CPRs), provision of veterinary services etc. emphasis is on generating
peoples’ involvement in the developmental works being carried out and for this the concepts of
peoples’ contribution towards the WDF and formation of users groups for the various
interventions have been identified.

Funds are released to the PIA and the watershed committee by the funding agencies earlier
mentioned on a periodic installment basis. The funds are segregated into the PIA fund which is to
be utilized for the administrative, community organization and training activities and the
watershed committee funds which is to be exclusively spent on the works component of the
watershed activities. Subsequent installments are released only when the unspent balance of the
previous installment is less than 50% of the previous installment. Also both watershed committee
and the PIA have to submit periodic utilization certificates to the district monitoring agency
countersigned by the watershed committee president, secretary and the watershed development
team project leader.

1.1 ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE:

The organization structure consists of the executive director of Gram Vikas, the programme
manager (livelihoods), and the project coordinator at the project office or district level and the
watershed development team at the block or field level. Also there is a supervisor at the village
level. In addition to these other functions like the planning, monitoring, evaluation and
documentation department and accounts department of gram Vikas are also involved in the
project. Two accountants (one at the field office and one at the project office) level are
responsible for maintaining the accounts and keeping tab of the expenses and funding. Also the
internal audit section and finance section of gram Vikas are responsible for the accounts of this
project. The external stakeholders include the director, watersheds at the state level and the
project director, watersheds at the district level. The Orissa watershed development mission is

5
the principal monitoring agency involved. The DFID, India is also a major stakeholder including
the beneficiaries i.e. the local communities and them peoples’ institutions in the villages where
the project is being carried out.

6
 The organization structure of Gram Vikas for the project is illustrated below.

Executive director

Manager, finance Programme manager Manager, PMED

(BST & livelihoods)

Project coordinator

Watershed support unit/

WDT

Village level worker/

supervisor

Director, watersheds
(State level)

DFID, India
Beneficiaries/local
communities
Project director, watersheds
(district level)

(External Stakeholders)

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2. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM –
A system is an organized, interacting, interdependent, and integrated set of components or

variables. The environment is external to the system and encompasses everything outside the

outside the system’s control. It also determines to some extent the performance of a system, so

the system and its environment are interrelated and interdependent.

The management of a system consists of activities aimed at planning and control. Planning

encompasses setting goals, utilizing resources, and developing a program for undertaking

different activities and a strategy for developing a program for undertaking different activities

and a strategy for dealing with the environment. Control deals with executing plans. Associated

with control is the flow of information and feedback so that a system can evaluate its plans.

Information is some entity, tangible or intangible, which reduces uncertainty about a past event.

Information systems are thus asset of organized procedures that when executed provide, provide

information for decision-making, communications and control of an organization. The reporting

can be to meet three kinds of needs of organization hierarchy:

2.1 Transaction processing information in which day to day transactions need to be recorded and

reported.

2.2 Management reporting for middle management in which they use this information for

medium term planning say a fortnight or month

2.3 Decision Support System in which the organization uses the reported information for long

range planning.

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The MIS system needs to provide all these kind of information to the management to be an

appropriate system.

3. THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE:

For the development of MIS for this project the systems development life cycle (SDLC)
approach was adopted. The systems development life cycle is an integral part of the systems
approach adopted for the development and design of management information systems. This
approach comes in as very useful for the development as it considers all the phases from
studying the requirements to the physical design, implementation and post implementation
maintenance of a system developed for a project.

Problem identification Organization and systems

requirement specification
(Conceptual/ systems
Requirement, concepts approach)

Requirement analysis Systems

development
(Process approach)
Logical design
Physical design

Implementation
Feedback/control/
modifications
Post implementation
maintenance

(THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE)

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3.1 WHY SDLC?

by understanding the project and the nature of activities we see that here adoption of process
approach rather than systems approach seems more justified. This is because of the following
reasons.

 The project has funding from the Orissa Watershed Development mission. The
administrative costs of Gram Vikas for the implementation of this project are met by the
mission.
 There are specific inputs in the form of the five water, forest, land, livestock and humans
to the process.
 The range of interventions which can be carried out are also clearly defined.
 The expected outcomes or the output are also clearly specified in the logical framework
of the project.

 The beneficiaries are also specific and defined as the poorest and the most marginalized
sections of the society.

The information system to be developed is expected to facilitate the generation of data at the
village level in such a way that the field staff does not have to spend much of their time in
collection of data. This is to be done by avoiding redundancy in data to be collected and by
specifying the tasks at each level resulting in elimination of duplication of tasks. Presently the
field staffs have to report to multiple authorities (OWDM and Gram Vikas) and they often end up
preparing the same report in different formats at different points of time. Also the information
system is expected to meet the reporting requirements (both financial and programmatic aspects)
of all the stake holders in the project. It has to be simple and easy to understand to facilitate
comprehension by the villagers as capacity building of local institutions is the ultimate objective.
Also the information system is expected to perform as a toll of performance appraisal by
reporting of the achievements vis-à-vis the targets and to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation
of the ongoing project in both the process and impact outcomes.

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Thus though the project title specifies the development of MIS as the objective after
understanding the nature of the project and the requirements it is the development of a reporting
system which comes across as the desired output. Since the issues to be addressed are quite
focused and the responsibilities are well defined the SDLC mode has been adopted for the
development of the reporting system.

3.2. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION:

The problem identification phase of the development of MIS involves the specification of MIS
mission statement so that the MIS developed can be aimed at fulfilling the specific
organizational requirements. The MIS mission has to be derived from the organization vision and
mission in order to make it consistent with the organizational goals and objectives.

3.2.1. VISION AND MISSION OF GRAM VIKAS:

The vision of Gram Vikas is: an equitable and sustainable society where people live in peace
with dignity.

The mission of Gram Vikas is to promote a process which is sustainable, socially inclusive and
gender equitable, to enable critical masses of poor and marginalized rural people or communities
to achieve a dignified quality of life.

3.2.2. Deriving MIS mission from mission of the organization:

The MIS mission for the project is to facilitate the documentation and monitoring of the ongoing
project such as to capture the socio-economic progress of the poor and marginalized in the
project area as well as the physical and financial progress of the activities.

In addition the MIS for the organization should integrate the documentation of the project with
the documentation in other project areas of the organization and also should be able to fulfill the
information requirements of the external stakeholders.

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3.2.3. Problems in the current system:
1. Major emphasis on the physical and financial aspects only. Lack of generation of
information, which will help, in studying the socio-economic aspects of the programme.
2. Lack of generation of qualitative data.
3. Redundancy and unnecessary generation of huge volume of data without any consequent
analysis of the data generated.
4. Lack of timeliness in data generation.
5. Lack of generation of narrative information like case-lets and stories, which will help in
learning from the successes and failures in the project.

3.2.4. Learnings:
The problem identification stage involved examining the organization’s mission and studying
what objectives it can have in pursuing the programme. This also involved identifying which
parameters are the important factors in determining whether the programme achievements are
consistent with the organization objectives or not. Studying the existing system and interviews
with the people who are involved in the implementation helped find out the shortcomings in the
present system. Major difficulties encountered during this phase were the unclear or vague
understandings of the field level employees as to what is lacking in the present system. This
required proceeding in some structured way so as to facilitate the identification. Also the
presence of multiple stakeholders and their different expectations created difficulties in
understanding the situation.

3.3. REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS:

The next phase in the systems development life cycle approach is the requirement analysis or the
expectations, which the system is required to fulfill. For this first the project and its various
activities were studied in detail to gain a complete understanding of the project. This was done
by –

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  Interview with the field level staff to learn about the routines and activities. Also a stay in
the villages where the project is operational currently helped in understanding the various
aspects of the programme.
 Interview with the programme manager (BEST& livelihoods) and manager (PMED) to
understand their requirements and expectations from the project.
 Interview of representatives from various external stakeholders such as OWDM and
WORLP to get an understanding of their requirements from the system.
 Examination of the registers maintained by watershed committee and various reports
being generated at present such as the monthly progress report being submitted to the
district level monitoring agency, quarterly progress report, the SHG report being
submitted to the head office, Gram Vikas etc.

Gram Vikas requires that the reports being generated be compatible with the reports being
generated under some of its other programmes and also with the reporting requirements of all the
schemes in addition to capturing the socio economic details of the programme and being useful
for effective monitoring of the programme benefits and the programme fulfilling its objectives.

From the requirement analysis the major requirements from the system came out as:

• Development of a separate monthly progress report format for Gram Vikas, which will
help in capturing the socio- economic aspects of the programme as well.
• Generation of both qualitative and quantitative information. Qualitative aspects should
include case-lets and lessons from successes and failures, which will help in achieving a
demonstration effect in future, interventions.
• The Focus on specific analysis and consolidation of data generated rather than only
generation of data.
• Facilitating maintenance of records by the villagers themselves by making the reporting
requirements simple and easy to understand.
• Avoiding duplication of tasks at the field and project offices levels by specifying what
needs to be done at which level.

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 • Avoiding redundancy and unnecessary generation of huge volume of data, which are not
needed, for any meaningful analysis further.

3.3.1. Learnings:
Requirement analysis involved identification of the requirements and expectations from the
system being developed. This stage involved interviews with the field level staff, the project
office staff, the programme managers concerned and the external stakeholders, observation of the
activities, analysis of the existing system etc. as explained earlier. Major difficulties encountered
during this phase were regarding peoples’ expectations from the system. For instance the
capacity building team at the district watershed development mission expected generation of case
lets and narrative details from the successes/ failures in the project areas. However integrating
these requirements into a periodic reporting system was unrealistic as this would have led to
diversion of the staffs’ time away from the field level activities. Also Gram Vikas requirements
were to align the system with the existing system in RHEP villages. However this proved
difficult in some cases like the health and education details because the manpower availability in
the RHEP villages is sufficient for providing the detailed information as required in the existing
format whereas here it was not so.

3.4. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS:

3.4.1 Internal stakeholders:

The watershed development team, the project office staff and the authorities at the Gram Vikas
head office constitute the internal stakeholders. The watershed development team are concerned
with the actual implementation of the project at the village level. They are the technical and
managerial facilitators and also supervise the financial and physical progress. Their
responsibility in this system includes the collection and entry of data at the village level. They
have to ensure that the accounts are maintained properly at the watershed committee level.
The project coordinator and the PMED assistant at the project office constitute the middle
management. The project coordinator has the responsibility for the implementation of the project
and is to supervise the performance of the watershed development team. The PMED assistant
has to document the project and report to the authorities. From the project office reports are sent

14
to the DWDM office and also to the Gram Vikas head office. Primary processing and
consolidation of data is to be done at this level. The finances of the PIA are handled at this level.

The programme manager (livelihoods), programme manager (PMED), and the executive director
form the top management at the head office to whom the reporting is to be done. The reporting
system is expected to facilitate the decision making by them and also in monitoring whether the
programme achievements are consistent with Gram Vikas’ objectives or not.

3.4.2. External stakeholders:

The village beneficiaries and communities are one of the major external stakeholders. Since
capacity building of the local institutions is one major objective of the programme the formation
of village institutions which are self reliant in the operation and maintenance of the assets created
is an important component. As such the village institutions such as the watershed committee,
user groups and the self help groups are important stakeholders in the programme.
Orissa Watershed Development Mission is the central agency which is responsible for integrating
the approaches under different schemes and implementing the programme as explained earlier.
Funding and capacity building are facilitated through this mission and reporting is also done to
the mission by both the PIA and the watershed committee through the PIA. The reporting
authority is constituted by the director, watersheds at the state level and a project director,
watersheds at the district level. Various aspects such as finance, monitoring and evaluation,
systems are handled by a project support unit in the mission at the state level.
Since capacity building is one major objective in the programme there is a capacity building
team at the district level which is responsible for the identification of training needs of both the
beneficiary communities and the staff and arrangement of training programmes to meet these
needs. In addition this team is also responsible for monitoring the performance of the village
institutions created. This capacity building team is funded by DFID which is another external
stakeholder.

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3.5. LOGICAL ANALYSIS:

3.5.1. Understanding of the different systems:

The development of a MIS involves identification of the different systems involved in the
information processing. These are transaction processing systems, management reporting
systems and executive support systems. These various components in the present context are
explained below.

1. Transaction Processing System (TPS): extensively meets the operational aspects in an

organization. In this case the transaction processing system will facilitate and monitor

 technological interventions and transfer of technology details

 physical progress of work at site
 maintenance of funds received and expenses incurred at the watershed level.
 Purchase and supply of materials
 Formation, facilitation and monitoring of SHGs, savings and credit groups
 Facilitating the conduct of meetings and trainings for capacity building

2. Management Reporting System (MRS): looks after the structured/ semi- structured
reporting system at the middle level. In this case the MRS will cover

 facilitation of implementation of interventions

 monitoring both progress and impact and physical and financial targets and
achievements
 facilitating sanctioning/ allocation of funds or resource mobilization.
 Review of project
 Recruitment, selection, induction & training and performance appraisals

16
 3. Executive Support System (ESS): it meets special needs of the management which can be
produced out of the structured reporting system. In this case ESS will look at

 review of project (bi- annual and annual)

 identifying problems in implementation midway and suggesting corrections
 resource mobilization
 selection of new watersheds

3.5.2. Preparation of process matrix:

In the next step of the logical design phase a process matrix is prepared to get an
understanding about the workflow and corresponding data flow in the organization.
Preparation of a process matrix also helps in examining the different activities, routines and
functions in the organization so that all the report generation requirements can be fulfilled.

Table 1: process details

Sl.no. Process details
1 Identify watersheds,
villages
Beneficiaries
2 Conduct PRA
3 Prepare action plan
type Process rules Process logics
Core Select village as per the Area should not exceed
ground water, proportion of 10,000 Ha s in the
SC/STs, water scarcity, district
contiguity to treated
watershed etc.
Core Gather village map
Core Assess technology Peoples’ contribution
requirements for
Assess peoples’ contribution Individuals->= 10%
Assess post project Community and
maintenance activities SC/ST/BPL >= 5%

4 Identify/estimate Support Estimate should consider the Labour: material

projects labour-material ratio. components = 60: 40

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5 Form village Support Proper representation of all
institutions sections of the society
6 Maintain accounts at Support Maintenance by villagers
watershed committee themselves, only facilitation
level by the WDT. Proper
maintenance of accounts.
7 Prepare monthly Support The watershed development
village report team has to prepare.
8 Monitor progress of Core Consider the targets set
project at site in the monthly
meetings and
achievements during
that period.
9 Monitor accounts Support Proper tallying of the funds
received and expenses and
balance in hand
10 Monitor SHGs and Support Consider the income Matching the deposits
savings and credit generating initiatives and and withdrawls and the
groups benefit sharing mechanisms balance.
in the group.
11 Identify training Support Proper representation
requirements and
conduct training
12 Monitor the Support Accountability, transparency Emphasize capacity
performance of VI s building of local
institutions

Table 2: process matrix

Process Process Process Shared

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No. Description Owner by 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Proces
s
1 Identify Programme * * * * * * * *
watersheds, Manager,
villages WDT
Beneficiaries
2 Conduct PRA WDT * * * *
3 Prepare action WDT * * * * * * *
plan
4 Identify/estimat WDT * * * * * * * * *
e projects
5 Form village WDT, CO * * * * * * * *
institutions
6 Maintain Watershed * * * * * * *
accounts at Secretary,
watershed Vis, WC,
committee level WDT
7 Prepare monthly WDT, * * * * * * * * *
village report accountant
8 Monitor WDT, WC, * * * * *
progress of WA
project at site
9 Monitor accountant * * * * * * *
accounts
10 Monitor SHGs CO, WDT * * * * * *
and savings and
credit groups
11 Identify training HR, CO, * * * * *
requirements WDT
and conduct
training
12 Monitor the WDT, * * * * * * * * * * * *
performance of programme
VI s Coordinato

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 r and
manager

3.5.3. Preparation of data matrix:

The next step involves the preparation of a data matrix, which with the help of the process
matrix as the base identifies the data associated at each level of the project, and thus gives the
complete data requirements for the project.

DATA SOURCES

Table 3: Data Sources

SOURCE DATA ASSOCIATED REMARKS
NGO/PIA Name, date of establishment, area
Of operation, previous experience
Of work in the region, executive
Director, programme manager, related details
Office Office name, office type, locational
Details, number of employees,
Infrastructural facilities
Location Location name (village, block, district),
Infrastructure, resource base, issues
Needing intervention, related details.
PRAs Village name, date, status, issues identified,
Interventions proposed, participants (male &
Female), related details
Watershed Name, number and name of villages, operational
scheme, total treatable area, total project outlay,
watershed association, watershed committee, WC
president and secretary, members
Village survey Village name, demographic details, resource
Base, topography, drinking water sources,

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 Total treatable area, ground water table, forest cover,
average rainfall, waste and common lands, NTFP
base, migration details, land distribution pattern,
operational project/scheme, user groups and self help
groups
Action plan Interventions identified and their locations, user
groups, technology identification, watershed
demarcation, ownership details, cost estimates,
designs and execution procedures
Land Irrigated/ non-irrigated land holdings,
distribution upland/middle/low land, soil types, proportion of
pattern large, small and marginal land holdings, cropping
patterns
Interventions Estimated costs, outlay, targets (set and achieved),
area to benefit, households to benefit, employment
generated, contribution to WDF, nature of
contribution, and nature of intervention.
User groups Name, number and name of members, land holdings
(location and area), intervention, contributions, nature
and proportion of contribution
Savings/ credit Name, number and names of members, type of group,
groups date of formation, rules and bylaws, total funds
controlled, linkage with financial institutions, monthly
collection, loans outstanding (internal and external),
interest rate, frequency of savings, repayment rate,
mode of collection
Self help Name, number and names of members, type of group,
groups date of formation, rules and bylaws, total funds
controlled, linkage with financial institutions, monthly
collection, loans outstanding (internal and external),
interest rate, frequency of savings, repayment rate,
mode of collection, meetings held, additional
activities undertaken, benefit sharing mechanisms,

21
 revolving fund repayment.
Meetings Date of meeting, type of meeting, number of
participants (male & female), issues discussed,
decisions taken, follow up action (if any).
WDF Total funds, proportion of total cost of works,
contributions works wise, nature of activity
(Individual/community), nature of contribution, name
of bank account, interest rate.
Watershed Name and composition, registration details, president
committee and secretary, membership details.
WDT Project leader, composition, qualifications,
experiences and remuneration details, location (field
villages)
Employee Employee name, designation, location, experience,
qualification and remuneration details, years with the
organization.
Trainings Purpose, nature (staff/beneficiary), venue, duration,
number and composition of participants, resource
persons (internal/external), cost details.
Funding Name, location, agreement details, clauses and
agencies conditions of funding, monitoring and governance
mechanisms.
Activities Name, location, budget, expenditure, employees in-
charge, physical and financial details, technical
specifications and other related details
Technology Technology identification, description, unit costs
Tour diary Employee name, location, other details
Materials Suppliers, amount, cost, date of order and related
details
EPA Village, Nature, estimated cost, set targets, peoples’
contribution etc.
CPRs Nature, households benefitting, estimated amount of
benefit/ return, status, interventions needed,
anticipated increase in number of households
benefitting and amount of benefit.

22
Soil and water Nature, estimated and actual cost, completion within
conservation time frame, number of beneficiary households and
measures area benefited, user charges (if any), contribution by
the beneficiaries to WDF, success criteria for the
structure.

TABLE 4: DATA MATRIX

Sl. No. Data Owner Shared by
description Finance Technical HR
1 NGO/PIA Organization * * *
2 Office Organization * * *
3 Location Organization * * *
4 PRAs Organization * *
5 Watershed Technical * *
6 Village Organization *
survey
7 Action plan Technical * * *
8 Land Technical *
distribution
pattern
9 Interventions Technical * *
10 User groups Technical *
11 Savings/ Technical * *
credit groups
12 Self help Technical * *
groups
13 Meetings Organization * * *
14 WDF Technical * *
15 Watershed Technical *
committee
16 WDT Technical * *
17 Employee HR * *
18 Trainings HR * * *
19 Funding Organization *
agencies
20 Activities Technical * *
21 Technology Technical *
22 Tour diary HR * *

23
 23 Materials Technical * *
24 EPA Technical * *
25 CPRs Technical *
26 Soil and Technical *
water
conservation
measures

The data matrix helps identify the complete data requirements for the project as well as
determine how the data generated is to be shared so as to get some meaningful information from
that. This facilitates development of internal data sharing mechanisms.

The next step in the process is the preparation of an information matrix. The information matrix
identifies how the data generated at the field level is to be processed further and reported so as to
facilitate decision making in various levels of the organization.

3.5.4. Preparation of information matrix:

FUNCTIONS: technical, finance, village, village organizations, funding agencies, HR

A. INTERNAL AND REPORTED B. INTERNAL AND PROCESSED

1. village
a. issues- problems, resource base
irrigation, ground water
forest cover, land pattern
b. demographic details
c. employment generated
d. households benefitted
2. technology
a.technology available
b. technology transfer
1. village
a. no. of villages watershed wise
b. issues identified- village wise
c. issues intervened-village wise
d. status-village wise
2. technology
a. physical progress(variance)
b. financial progress(variance)
c. activities village wise
d. technology transfer status

24
 c. physical progress of
interventions
d. land area treated
e. structures created
3. finance
a. funding watershed wise
b. expenses watershed wise
c. expenses on various overheads
4. village organizations
a. PRA
b. WDF contribution
c. SHGs and user groups
d. Training and meetings
5. HR
a. performance appraisal
employee
wise
b. qualification and experience
details
C. EXTERNAL AND REPORTED
1. finance
a. budget- physical and financial
b. watershed wise budget and
village organizations status
c. expenditures- employee and
watershed wise
d. funding- watershed wise
e. WDF contributions-user group
activities wise
25
3. finance
a. total funds received as on date
b. cumulative expenditure as on
date
c. trial balance
d. UC submitted as on date
4. village organizations
a. SHG and savings/credit status
b. User groups and WDF status
5. HR
a. employee performance variance
b. trainings and meetings
D. EXTERNAL AND PROCESSED
1. finance
a. total funds received- watershed
wise
b. budgeting and forecasting
c. activities wise costing and
financing
d. WDF contribution as a
proportion of total works
expense
 watershed wise e. Total expenses on training and
2. technical: capacity building
a. data from finance- expenditure
funding 2. technical;
b. total recruitment a. total expenditures in watersheds
c. total trainings as on date
3. HR : b. total recruitment as on date
a. expenses field office wise 3. HR
b. expenses on employees , a. total expenses employee wise
trainings b. total overhead expenses in the
c. man power requirement organization
watershed wise c. total no. of trainings being
d. training requirement projected
e. cost watershed wise d. total persons trained

The information matrix looks at the various information requirements of the project and how the
data generated is to be processed so as to provide meaningful information. The consequent step
is the identification of various reports to be generated with the help of the data and information
matrices. The reports to e generated at all three i.e. field office, project office and head office
levels are shown below along with the frequencies at which the reports should be generated.

26
3.5.5. Identification of various reports to be generated

Place/ source Report description Category

Field villages/ WDT & VLW: Reported
Field office 1. problem village wise
2. resources village wise
3. PRAs village wise
4. action plans village wise
5. VI s village wise
6. expenditure monthly
a. village wise
b. activities wise
c. watershed wise
With the
7.own expenses identification of
8.peoples contribution
Accountant: Processed the various
1. daily accounts reports to be
2. trial balance at field office
3. total contribution of people generated at all
the levels in the
Project office Finance: Reported
1. monthly budgeting and expenditures organization the
watershed wise logical analysis
2. trial balance watershed and
field offices wise phase of the
technical: Reported MIS
1. technology requirement at watershed level
2. monthly expenses activities wise development is
3. man power planning activities wise complete. The
4. materials planning activities wise
5. budgets watershed wise physical design
phase excludes
HR: Reported
1. performance of employees at field level suggesting the
2. recruitment and training for employees at
branch level
Head office Executive director:
1. MPR
27 Reported

2. QPR
3. bi- annual and annual reviews
MIS and IT architecture (systems architecture) relevant for an organization as the organization
does not require a computerized information system keeping in view the cost – benefit factors.
Also the organization lacks the infrastructure and resources required to make its information
system computerized. the implementation and post implementation maintenance components are
left to the organization and this MIS developed basically looks at the various information
requirements and how those are to be fulfilled.

With the help of the process, data and information matrices the data and the reporting
requirements have already been identified. The next step involved the identification of a database
containing the complete data requirements of the organization. This considered the present data
requirements as well as the future requirements keeping in view the monitoring requirements of
the OWDM. All the data requirements have been classified into three categories –

1. those that will remain constant

2. those that will change periodically and thus will need to be updated and
3. those that will essentially serve as a monitoring mechanism for identifying whether the
programme objectives are being met or not.

The data requirements thus categorized are shown below.

28
DATA SOURCE DATA TYPE DATA DESCRIPTION

29
Watershed Constant 1. Name of MWS, code no. Of
MWS, project name
2. Total geographical area, total
treatable area (arable and non-
arable)
3. Total project outlay, project
period, date of sanction
4. no.of villages, name of villages
5. watershed association and
committee compositions, name of
watershed committee president
and secretary and watershed
secretary
6. % of women in WC
7. WDT composition
Changing 1. total area treated till date,funds
received till date, total
expenses incurred, unutilized
balance
2. no. of user groups, members
enrolled, no. of SHGs
3. WDF status
4. meetings and trainings details
Checks and balances 1. funds received, cumulative
expenditure and UC submitted
2. WDF status and its proportion as
Total expenses incurred
3. cost break up of PIA funds and
WC funds expenditure, trial
balance
4. % households with involvement in
CIGs
5. increase in funds controlled by
30
village constant 1. area of the village (arable and non-
arable)
2. demographic details
3. land distribution pattern
proportion of marginal, small and
large farmers and the landless
proportion of upland, middle and
low lands
4. land utilization pattern
5. rainfall pattern, ground water level
6. drinking water sources and
sources of irrigation
7. livestock details
8. return from crops and livestock
9. cropping pattern in the village
10. vegetative resources and NTFP
base

changing 1. activities carried out and expenses

incurred till date
2. no. of user groups and SHGs
3. members enrolled in CIGs
4. physical and financial progress
of the works being carried out
Checks and balances 1. balance of costs incurred and
funds received
2. WDF as a proportion of total
Works expenses
3. participation index and MoL
4. increase in GWL and gross and
net cropping areas
5. % change in BPL and poorest
households
31
SHGs constant 1. name of group, name of village
and date of formation
2. type of group
3. rules and bylaws
4. benefit sharing mechanisms and
interest rates fixed by the group
5. linkage with financial institutions
1. no. of members
changing 2. monthly transactions i.e deposits
and withdrawls from the group
account
3. opening and closing balance with
the SHG each month
4. income generating activity , nature
and income generated
5. meetings details
6. mode of collection, mode of
information sharing and record
maintenance

1. internal and external loan

Checks and balances repayments
2. increase in funds controlled (own)
3. increase in loan consumption
capacity
4. income from additional activities
5. benefits retained within the group
6. resource mobilization from within
7. loan amount utilized for what
purpose
8. proper maintenance of accounts

32
Watershed development
fund changing 1. contributions to WDF, status of
WDF month wise
2. contribution to WDF activity
wise, nature of contribution

Checks and balances 1. amount of WDF contribution as a

proportion of total works
expenses
2. Amount of contribution vis-à-vis
the minimum contribution
required w.r.t the nature of work

Activities/ interventions constant 1. initial cost estimates, targets, area

to be covered, households to be
benefited, user groups defined

changing 1. physical progress, area covered

and structures created, saplings
planted etc.
2. costs incurred, contributions
activity wise, employment
generated, households benefited,
other benefits and details

Checks and balances 1. achievement Vs targets set

2. progress of work within time and
cost estimates
3. benefit accruing to the poorest

33
3.5.6. Learnings:
The logical design phase involved identification of the data and information requirements
through the help of process matrix, data matrix and information matrix. The process matrix and
data matrix helped bring in accountability and ownership to the system as they identified how
data is to be shared among the different functions. Also this stage involved identification of what
is to be done at which level thus resulting in less duplication of tasks. The preparation of the
different matrices helped in systematic study of the information requirements which was very
important as the technical orientation of the project made it difficult at first to understand what
could be the salient information requirements. This was also important from the control point of
view as it helped identify all the relevant requirements and not missing some requirement which
could be important for monitoring. Major difficulties during this phase were the difficulty in
getting familiarized with the technical nature of the project within the time constraints as
explained earlier and aligning the requirements to the requirements of the logical framework
developed by the OWDM.

3.6. PHYSICAL DESIGN:

3.6.1 DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPORTING FORMATS

The physical design phase included development of reporting formats using MS-EXCEL.The
present reporting system in the project comprises of a monthly progress report and a quarterly
progress report developed by the watershed development mission. However, as explained earlier
these reports are insufficient to meet reporting requirements of Gram Vikas due to their exclusive
focus on the financial progress and to some extent on the physical progress aspects. The reports
fail to give an account of what is the actual benefit and to whom it is accruing, what is the
progress in activities as compared to the targets set, what are the achievements in capacity
building and skill enabling measures of the local institutions etc. To overcome these limitations
in the system a new reporting system was developed under the project.

The new reporting system comprises of a monthly progress report (village wise), a consolidated
monthly progress report (watershed wise) and a quarterly progress report. While developing

34
these report formats care has been taken to ensure that all the reporting requirements of the
various external stakeholders are fulfilled through these. Also since the village wise monthly
progress report is primarily intended for entry by the field staff simplicity in the data entry has
been considered in these. The watershed wise MPR is to be consolidated at the project office
level. The quarterly progress report is primarily intended at performance appraisal and review in
terms of targets set versus achievements.

Each report has basically three components those look at the physical progress, financial
progress and benefits. The physical progress component looks at the number of saplings planted,
land area covered, number of soil conservation measures created etc. The financial progress
component looks at the expenses incurred, the contribution to WDF (both in terms of rupees and
as a proportion of total works expenses) etc. Whereas the benefits component looks at the
number of households benefited, employment generated, land area benefited, irrigation potential
created etc. In addition to these aspects others like the progress of self help groups, meetings and
trainings details, health and education details in the villages are also integrated into the reporting
system developed. Progress of self help groups are in terms of their monthly transactions,
opening balance and closing balance each month, number of meetings held and issues discussed
each month etc. the quarterly progress report looks at the performance of self help groups in
terms of loan repayment rate, increase in funds held and controlled by the groups and the
frequency of savings. In addition other issues which provide an understanding about whether the
self help groups are performing as intended like the mode of collection, frequency of savings,
and record maintenance by the group members themselves are also included in the reporting
formats. The reporting formats developed are provided in the annexure.

3.6.2. Monthly Progress Report (village wise)

The MPR (village) has the following components.
1. Basic information: village name, micro-watershed name, scheme
2. Physical progress details:
a. tree- plantation: species, land area covered, no. of saplings planted
b. area treatment: SC measures created, land area treated, land area benefited
c. drainage line treatment: structures created, land area covered

35
 d. irrigation infrastructure: numbers, conservation capacity, individual/community
e. livestock interventions: activity undertaken
f. agriculture: activity undertaken, area to be covered
3. Financial progress details: for each of the activity
a. costs incurred
b. contribution to WDF in amount and as proportion of total expense
4. Benefits: in terms of
a. area benefited
b. irrigation potential created
c. employment generated
d. households benefited
5. watershed development fund and user groups details:
a. WDF opening balance
b. Contribution during the month (amount and proportion), nature of contribution
c. Closing balance
d. User groups – no. of groups, no. of members (initial and final)
6. Meetings and trainings details:
a. Date, venue, duration
b. Participants- male and female
c. Issues discussed, decisions taken, follow-up actions
d. Resource persons
7. Self help group details:
a. Opening balance, transactions during the month, closing balance
b. Income generating activity undertaken, number of members involved
c. Meetings held, mode of collection, linkage with financial institutions
8. Education and health details

3.6.3. Monthly Progress Report (watershed wise)

The MPR (watershed) has to be consolidated at the project office. A watershed generally consists
of 2/3 villages and the unit of intervention in this programme is the watershed. Hence reporting
is to be done watershed wise. The MPR (village) is only intended for facilitation of data entry by

36
the field staff at the village level and also to portray a more detailed and realistic picture. The
MPR (watershed) in addition to the MPR (village) features contains the following features.
1. Basic information: total project outlay, sanction and unutilized balance, total land area and
total treatable area, demographic details, user group and self help group details
2. Physical progress
3. Financial progress
4. Benefits
5. WDF and user groups’ details
6. Self help groups details
7. Meetings and trainings details
8. Watershed financials: since the funding of the project is done watershed wise hence the
finacials have to be treated so and can not be processed at village level. this has the following
components.
a. Current year position
- opening balance with PIA, WC
- Funds received by PIA, WC
- Expenditures by PIA, WC
- closing balance with PIA, WC
b. funds received by PIA
Expenses by PIA – training, community organization, administration
Cumulative expenditure by PIA
c. funds received by WC
Expenses by WC
Cumulative expenditure by WC
d. total funds received
Total cumulative expenditure
UC submitted and unutilized balance
UC pending
9. Education and health details

37
3.6.4. Quarterly Progress Report (watershed wise)
The QPR in addition to serving for an overall review of the project progress, has been designed
to serve as a performance appraisal tool for the employees. Hence it looks at the project in terms
of the targets set, achievements and reasons for difference. Thus for each of the activity the
performance of employees are compared vis-à-vis the targets set. This brings accountability on
the part of the employees.

Thus we see that the information requirements as identified in the information matrix have been
met through these reports.

4. CONCLUSION

Development of management information system in this context basically focused on identifying

the complete data requirements corresponding to the objectives of Gram Vikas and developing a
reporting system so as to fulfill these requirements and facilitate decision making in the
organization. However with the expansion of activities in the project area in near future
timeliness and manageability of the information system will acquire much importance and
computerization to some extent should be seriously considered in the organization. In the present
context the MIS developed considers both the process and impact level monitoring and will
facilitate in ensuring that the programme is in alignment with the organization’s objectives.

38