Cockpit

WFP is the largest humanitarian organization implementing school feeding programmes worldwide. It provides a lifeline to health and nutrition for over 500,000 children in South Sudan, where Cockpit is being implemented under WFP’s COVID-19 Fast Track innovation challenge.

Data collection and analysis is critical to assessing the results of school feeding activities and planning further interventions. The school feeding programme produces a massive amount of data stored in multiple digital and paper-based systems; accessing, gathering and analyzing such fragmented information can be time-consuming. In addition, data collection was hampered by COVID-19 movement restrictions, low or no connectivity, and low literacy levels in rural areas of South Sudan. All these factors hinder informed and timely decision-making, critical during emergencies and crises like COVID-19.

Innovative solutions are needed to automate this process so that WFP staff can adapt and design school feeding activities faster and more efficiently while maximizing impact.

The Cockpit team is developing a digital output and outcome monitoring system for WFP school feeding programming. The system aims to facilitate advanced analytics through data automation, integration and visualization by leveraging existing WFP analytics platforms such as Tableau, School Connect and COMET. It will optimize data storage and analytics and enable the visualization of available school feeding data. Besides, the project seeks to digitize and enhance data collection at the school level, leading to improved data quality over time.

As a result, this solution will help WFP field staff to manage resources more strategically and make data-driven decisions for school feeding programming more effectively and efficiently than before. Staff can study trends, identify red flags, plan, and ultimately increase the impact of the programme. The digitization of data sources may also help WFP Country Offices identify and address fraud or misconduct in a more timely, efficient, and accurate manner. 

This project is supported under the COVID-19 Fast Track, an innovation challenge that aimed to accelerate the sourcing, adoption, and roll-out of high-impact innovations to serve communities affected by the pandemic.

Cockpit aims to aggregate data from all 1,081 schools participating in WFP's school feeding programme in South Sudan. This implementation stage will also test new data handling methods, replacing manual data collection techniques with digital, automated systems. Thirty schools will start using School Connect, WFP's digital data entry solution. 

Key to the success of these efforts is continuous training. Cockpit will train school teachers, cooperation partners, and WFP staff in South Sudan on using the new integrated system. The field staff's enhanced capacity to translate data into programmatic insights will increase transparency and demonstrate the results and value of the school feeding programme. The project also seeks to strengthen the government's capacity by integrating WFP's monitoring and data management system into the government system.

In the medium to longer-term period, Cockpit plans to scale to all 10 states in South Sudan, reaching over 500,000 school children, in collaboration with the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI).