The questionnaires were filled in by IICD’s project partners, end users (farmers, doctors etc.), members of National ICT Networks, participants of workshops and many more. Questionnaires are usually distributed to the end users by project partners, either by handing them a printed survey or sending them a link to the online survey tool. After this, the questionnaires are sent to a local Management and Evaluation expert who analyses the results.

"The number of 25,000 questionnaires doesn’t say much on its own," says Anne Marijke Podt, Officer Monitoring and Evaluation at IICD. "But what you do see is that the amount of questionnaires that is filled in, increases more rapidly every year. That is not only due to the fact that IICD is getting more and more project partners, but also because project partners are getting more and more familiar with the system and see the added value. This also has a lot to do with the enthusiasm of partners spreading the questionnaires."

The questionnaires are a combination of both open and closed questions. Podt:

"It’s good to see that people answer very thoroughly. Usually their answer to open answers is very long and they come up with suggestions to improve a project. This shows that they are very involved."

What the Officer Monitoring and Evaluation also finds positive is that people are not afraid to criticise. "In many countries it is not very common to also tell about the negative aspects of a project. Because of the questionnaires and the Focus Groups we have based on the data coming out of them, you now see that more people talk about this. If there is a project where for instance there are some problems with the connectivity to the internet and it is confirmed by the data that other project users say so, than it is easier to talk about this."

These remarks and data are analysed by the local Monitoring and Evaluation expert and the suggestions and remarks will be taken into consideration in a focus group meeting that follows after the results are known. A good example of how this improved a project is the ECAMIC project in Ghana, which shares (amongst others) crop information with farmers. After a questionnaire among farmers, it showed that male farmers were far more satisfied with the project than female farmers. At a meeting that was held after these results were known, it turned out that the project mostly gave information about crops that male farmers produce rather than the products female farmers produce. This was addressed, resulting in a higher satisfaction rate among female farmers.

And what’s the next challenge, 100,000 more questionnaires? Officer Monitoring and Evaluation Anne Marijke Podt: "No, we are not striving towards a certain number. What we do want however is to ensure that the questionnaires are filled in by people that are a good representation of a project. This means that we have to ensure that for instance if there is a project with five hospitals, not one hospital would fill in thirty surveys, but that’s it’s equally divided and that individual results can be compared. This is a continuous process, but it’s getting better and better."