Business Analytics Toolkit

If you have a performance measurement system in place, you stand to benefit from informally keeping infoDev in the loop and accessing its expertise and feedback. While infoDev cannot and should not micromanage your mLab or mHub, it will be better able to support you if it is aware of your current progress and problems. Sharing reports and overviews pulled from your performance measurement system with infoDev, or even giving an infoDev colleague access to the system, is an easy way to facilitate a continuous knowledge exchange. The more you share, the easier it will be for your infoDev counterpart to give you advice and understand your local context. infoDev will use the insights that you share to give you feedback, introduce you to contacts from across its network, and give you additional support suited to your situation.

You should plan far ahead of deadlines for the agreed formal reporting rounds with infoDev. Similar to informal regular exchanges, the regular reporting that you will be expected to conduct should be seamless if your performance measurement system is set up in line with what you agreed with infoDev early on. Formal reporting will include both results reporting (implementation quality/output indicators and value proposition/outcome indicators) as well as other grant reporting requirements such as financial and fiduciary reporting. It takes time for infoDev as your interface to coordinate the World Bank-internal grant reporting process, and so it is good advice to start working towards your reporting deadlines early to accommodate potential follow-up requests and clarifications. infoDev will engage and collaborate with you in this process, and will help you to proactively seek guidance and clear out any uncertainties about the reporting. In other words, you can see the performance measurement system also as an investment to minimize the extra effort for your reporting duties and make it as seamless and smooth as possible. 

InfoDev will allocate additional resources and time to support the effort whenever performance measurement and evaluation is geared towards infoDev’s broader goals rather than the immediate goals specified in your business model. When a given indicator is immediately relevant for you to assess the value you provide for your clients (for instance, if you suggested the indicator), infoDev will expect you to budget for business analytics and take care of performance measurement and the evaluation process. This is based on infoDev's belief that in the long-run you need to take full responsibility for your mLab or mHub to make it sustainable. However, there will be instances where infoDev will have a broader evaluation interest, beyond your business model. For instance, infoDev might be interested in indirect effects of your activities on certain components of the local innovation ecosystem, or infoDev might have a separate reporting duty towards its donors relating to inclusive and social innovation goals. If this effect type is not instrumental to your business model and therefore not immediately relevant for you, it is understood that infoDev will support you with the data collection and evaluation. For instance, in these cases, infoDev could send its own evaluators, hire outside help, or make additional budget resources available to you.