Representatives from the different sections and divisions of the Ministry of Human Settlements and Development, the Housing Arm of the BARMM, improved their knowledge and skills on the basics of data management through a training led by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) held at the Em Manor Hotel and Convention Center, Cotabato City on March 19-20, 2024.
“The basics are very crucial and necessary in monitoring and evaluation because this data will, in turn, become information once processed,” said Suharto S. Wahab, EnP, REA, REB, Director II for Technical and Regulatory Services during his opening remarks.
Meanwhile, Yasser S. Mama, Chief of the Monitoring and Evaluation Division (MED) expressed his delight as the MHSD’s partnership with the CRS grows, highlighting the learnings on the steps of the Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system.
“We really need to appreciate the fundamentals and, at the same time, we also need to acknowledge that we still need to explore and take courses to further improve our skills being part of the MHSD that is a new Ministry with its newly created MED,” Mama added.
Aiko Jane De Rosas, CRS MEAL Officer who has been working with the MED in the creation of the MHSD’s MEAL System since last year, was one of the facilitators of the activity, leading the presentations on MEAL Phases which discussed types of data sources and collection, ethics on data gathering and minimum requirements and standardization.
Pearl Blanco was also one of the CRS facilitators who led the presentations on Data and Information, and Data Security.
The workshops concluded with participants performing a data analysis by group, and output of which was collected by the CRS for documentation to be used in future activities.
Facilitated by the MED, the activity had participants from the different divisions and sections of the Ministry including those from the provincial offices.
Also assisting as facilitator from the CRS with Rosas and Blanco was Bai Maroudz Ibrahim, CRS Senior Program Manager.
