Kobo Toolbox: Innovating Monitoring & Evaluation

Researchers at the Human Rights Center began working with several programmers to design and develop a Personal Digital Assistant collection process that would permit the collection of geo-coded data in challenging field-based settings. Drawing from a number of synchronous open source projects, they created “Kobo” in 2005, a mobile data collection system designed to collect, upload, and transfer data from the field in a centralized and secure manner. Kobo’s primary goal was to facilitate human rights investigations and transfer data from individuals experiencing violence to policy and decision-makers. “Kobo” comes from the Acholi word for “Transfer.” Acholi is a prominent language spoken throughout northern Uganda, where we first piloted the use of personal digital assistants to collect information on attitudes about peace, justice and social reconstruction. Upon successfully implementing the project, our team received a three year grant from the The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to further develop the portable, cost-effective, and time-saving technology. Kobo was officially launched in January 2009, and was used in our surveys in Northern Uganda, Liberia, and the Central African Republic.