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RealtimeAid and FrontlineAid
A Hybrid Organisation
RealtimeAid (German Charity) and FrontlineAid (tech for good) have been working on developing an innovative solution to remote working based on localisation and the “Grand Bargain” ethos. They are currently working with GIZ under a German Federal Foreign Office and BMZ contract, and their previous partners have included organisations such as Save and UN Habitat.
The suite of tools are designed to integrate with the process of working with sub-grantee/partners on the ground. These include:
Onboarding: A simple process of reaching out to grassroots organisations, collecting their information and together deciding on Project outcomes, ensuring they meet due diligence standards and working with them (through mentorship) to have the capacity to manage funding.
Risk, Due Diligence and Safeguarding: This is an online tool to systematically map the various aspects of compliance and understand the situation on the ground. It covers security, protection and geographical contexts, as well as other risks according to international standards.
Participatory Decision-Making: This process and tool ensures local people are at the centre of decision-making, mapped out in a transparent manner. A trial run has been completed in Al Raqqa with over 300 grassroots organisations with an outreach to 40,000 people having already participated.
Finance: An automated, mobile/tablet friendly system for charity budgeting and financial management.
Background
To support their charitable work (since 2007 in Syria and 2012 in Raqqa NE Syria), RealtimeAid established a social tech company, FrontlineAid, in 2018. FrontlineAid looks to support local initiatives and donor demands through the use of an integrated system that meets the needs of all stakeholders (e.g. donors, staff, local grassroots players, etc.). The goal is to take the pain out of paperwork and provide a model system that can be adopted, adapted and expanded.
FrontlineAid is developing an M&E tool that meets the needs from the traditional grant giving sector as well as philanthropic projects or other unrestricted funding opportunities. The tool piggybacks on the 8+3 template (a flexible reporting model for the humanitarian context developed by the AA) in an effort to provide comprehensive reports and evaluations from the ground to meet (and exceed) the requirements of the funders.
The M&E tool aims to be as simple as possible relying on voice data collection, videos, and a handy online dashboard. They have created the process flow, documented the various steps (compliance/data collection/donor reports), and are in the process of refining the online interface. Below are some screenshots of the tool in action:
The next major version of the software will be piloted in June as part of a new round of grant awards in Al Raqqa, Syria. The pilot accepted applications for new projects, and in just 4 days, more than 250 applications were submitted and processed. Currently, RealtimeAid and FrontlineAid work with 10 organisations with a budget of two million euros, however five new grassroots organisations will be added and supported using their infrastructure.
They are keen to work with the AA directly to see how these solutions could be of relevance to our work. In particular they would be happy to assist on remote project management solutions for your project portfolio in humanitarian crises contexts.