Software to help NGOs assess performance
Tuesday, 11 February 2003, 20:30 IST   |    2 Comments
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BHUBANESWAR: An Indian voluntary groups says it has developed software that can help NGOs across South Asia gauge whether or not they are making a difference to society. The Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), which works among tribals in Orissa, said it had developed OSANGO (Organisational Self-Analysis for NGOs) with the help of professionals and experts in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. "NGOs with three or more years of experience, with 10 or more staff and having an annual budget of one million or more in local currencies will find OSANGO very useful," CYSD head Jagadananda told IANS here. Sylvia Borren, the executive director of the Netherlands Organisation for Development Cooperation (NOVIB), will launch the software at a function in New Delhi on Friday. Jagadananda, a member of the NGO advisory group of the Commonwealth Foundation in London, said voluntary groups often find it difficult to gauge their strengths and weaknesses. OSANGO is designed to help NGOs, particularly those working in South Asian countries, assess their performance. OSANGO, he said, is a user-friendly software package that enables NGOs to undertake survey-based self-analysis in an economical, autonomous manner while ensuring complete confidentiality. It can generate useful futuristic baseline data and benchmarking, provides analysis of performance and potential, he added. "NGOs need to gauge their strengths and weaknesses through internal self-reflection. In the market now there is no tool that can be used for this. This prompted us to make an attempt to fill the gap," he said. The package builds on views of internal as well as external stakeholders of an NGO, provide ability to access and analyse data from multiple locations, he said. The software helps analyse the perceptions of the stakeholders. CYSD has also produced a book entitled "Organisational Behaviour" written by three South Asian experts that would act as companion reference manual for the software's users. Colin Ball, director of the Commonwealth Foundation, London, would launch the book at a workshop.
Source: IANS
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