2017 ICT4D Conference

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs hold significant power in shaping the discussion around policies at an operational and M&E level. They've become the lingua franca between various stakeholders.

Questions pertaining to what needs to be captured in a MIS and how, in what granularity and how will it be eventually displayed are important questions which aren't necessarily in the purview of engineering but often end up in.

The speaker will attempt to theorize and contemplate on the importance of KPIs and the interaction between KPIs and bureaucracy at different levels of hierarchy. As one moves higher up in the management, the number of KPIs which can be reviewed reduce drastically while the extent of the program needing to be covered is maximized. But at the same time, as the extent of a KPI increases, the nature of the information and the objectivity which can be represented changes.

The talk will provide insights into the development of MIS systems in a government setting and highlight certain features which are important but are often overlooked in the design of MIS systems.

With increasing complexity of government schemes, push for data-driven feedback mechanisms and accountability, MIS systems have become an important member of government bureaucracy. In some cases, they are assumed prerequisites in the design of policies and operational procedures. Hence it is important to critically look at their design and politics.