Emerging technologies and approaches in MERL for international development programs

Author(s)
Bruce, K., Gandhi, V. J. and Vandelanotte, J.
Pages
20pp
Date published
01 Jan 2020
Publisher
MERL Tech
Type
Research, reports and studies
Keywords
Evaluation-related, Monitoring

Emerging technology is making monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) more precise and enriching data. However, this evolution is so rapid that it can be difficult to stay informed about the field overall. This paper presents examples of emerging technology that are most often used in MERL for development programs, describes the pros and cons of their use, and discusses technology and ethics concerns that practitioners should keep in mind. The paper covers new types of data sources (application data, sensor data, and drones), new ways to store data (distributed ledger technology and the cloud), and new ways to analyze data (text analytics and supervised and unsupervised learning).