About the Project
Kenya
Grant Management, Monitoring and Evaluation
AGRA Management Information System (AMIS)
AGRA’s Management Information System (AMIS) serves as the enterprise solution that enables the African grantmaking organization to manage its extensive portfolio of grants, monitor results, and evaluate the execution of its corporate strategy.
AGRA is an authentically African grantmaking organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty on the continent by developing sustainable, resilient food systems and supporting smallholder farmers. With a growing portfolio of grants, AGRA faced significant challenges in monitoring the performance of its grantees and the implementation of its corporate strategy. Committed to a culture of results-based management, AGRA embarked on an innovative digital journey.
In 2015, AGRA engaged Synergy to develop AMIS. Powered by Synergy Indicata, the system helps AGRA better monitor the performance of its programs and grants, communicate results to partners and stakeholders, and conduct data analysis, modeling, and reporting. AMIS later evolved into a Grants Management System (GMS), facilitating the end-to-end process of how AGRA’s manages grants, from evaluating grant applications and monitoring grantee performance to project close-out.
Launched in October 2021, AMIS has enabled AGRA to transform how it manages its daily operations. In the future, it can also expand with AGRA’s evolving portfolio of programs to capture new types of grant applications and business processes.
Through AMIS, AGRA’s grantmaking has become more transparent, efficient, and results driven. The key to the successful AGRA-Synergy partnership is the commitment of both organizations to Africa’s agricultural transformation and sustainable development.
The Challenge
- AGRA faced significant challenges with monitoring the performance of its growing portfolio of grants and ensuring the implementation of its corporate strategy.
- Every quarter, grantees submitted data in different spreadsheets, and AGRA had to manage and organize that data and check its quality.
- Aggregating and analyzing vast amounts of performance data from different program areas was a complex task.
- Reviewing and monitoring grantees’ progress reports was time-consuming and inefficient.
- Addressing ad hoc requests for specific data reports drained resources.
The Solution
- AMIS allows AGRA to manage the entire cycle of its grants management process.
- Grants applications are evaluated anonymously and objectively using the appraisal component of the system.
- AGRA can analyze and use data on grants performance and results through the system’s visualization and reporting tools.
- The system auto-populates relevant fields with previously submitted information, streamlining the application process for grantees.
- Grantees can monitor project progress and submit periodic reports, including financial and technical reports.
- AMIS seamlessly exchanges data with AGRA’s other enterprise systems through Indicata’s advanced interoperability capabilities.
The Results
- With AMIS, AGRA manages a portfolio of around 100 grants per year in a results-oriented way.
- AGRA has streamlined its operations and makes data-driven executive decisions thanks to AMIS.
- As of May 2023, 80% of grantee reports are submitted on time due to the systematic submission and review process enabled by AMIS.
- Users can now prepare complex consolidated reports in under one day, a significant improvement over the situation before AMIS, where it would take 30 days to complete that task.
“… I would recommend this vendor to any organization – they are extremely professional and deliver high quality outputs.”