Introduction Many education organizations struggle to establish an information processing system environment to monitor and evaluate their programs. However, particularly in developing countries, human resource, social, environmental, and economic challenges hinder nonprofits in the education sector from adopting available data analysis technologies and digital strategies that could improve their efficiency and effectiveness. An Asian Development Bank (ADB) project shows how a nonprofit can apply data governance for organizing unstructured data sources with limited resources. The Knowledge Immersion Program is helping Teach for the Philippines, a non-profit organization, develop a strategy for building more robust information systems that lead to critical data analysis. Financed by the ADB-managed Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund, the program supports developing countries in strengthening their information and communications technology (ICT) knowledge and skills. Overview of Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Teach for the Philippines envisions equal access to inclusive, excellent, and relevant education for all Filipino children. For this purpose, it implements teacher and leadership development programs (Fellowship Program, Public School Teacher Pathways Program, and Ambassadorship Program) and students’ functional literacy and life skills programs. Over the past years, Teach for the Philippines has been seeking to collect and use accurate data to evaluate its programs and their impact on the participants and partner communities. Since 2016, its Data and Impact Assessment team has facilitated activities to achieve this goal. This includes identifying the organization's research and evaluation agenda and establishing data systems or online information networks. The team has also introduced technologies and best practices in monitoring and evaluating programs, such as setting up frameworks, developing and deploying data collection tools, creating visual data representations, and producing research outputs. Teach for the Philippines was on track to establish stronger logic links across its programs' data systems, but the disruption brought by the COVID-19 pandemic impeded plans to push for more robust data systems. Data needed for monitoring and evaluation activities and processes is collected using free data collection platforms, like Google sheets and forms, and processed through semi-automated and semi-digitized information system technologies. As the size of data and repositories increases and diversifies, there is an increasing need for an organization-wide information system that can efficiently integrate business data while ensuring consistency, integrity, timeliness, and security. Challenges Teach for the Philippines has internal and external environmental challenges that are common among other educational non-profit organizations in developing countries that seek to build a seamless information system. The first concern is the slow internet speed and low accessibility because of regional differences in the level of ICT infrastructure in the Philippines. More than 60% of the poor live in remote areas, and 53% live in remote areas with limited internet access and speed.[1] Also, according to the Department of Education's Learner Enrollment and Survey, 2.8 million students do not have internet access, and 20% of students use public facilities to access the internet.[2] The national ICT environment affects the digital strategies of education nonprofits, including Teach for the Philippines. In areas where there is unstable connection or no internet access, users prefer offline data collection methods and manual validation processes over automated real-time systems. Data and systems architecture and digital literacy pose another challenge. Due to budget constraints, most education nonprofits choose not to hire IT professionals with expertise. Data may not be reliable and consistent in the absence of accurate data integration processes that can be set up by the experts. In this system, data is stored separately by each department and not shared within the organization. The siloed data hampers insight into data points and flows and degenerates into dark and ROT (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) data that cannot be used for analysis. These challenges show the importance of properly designing data and systems architectures to ensure integrity and consistency to avoid duplicate data collection requests and enhance data quality. Data Integration and Standardization To address these concerns and maximize the reliable data within the system, Teach for the Philippines launched a project with Knowledge Immersion Program consultants to adopt an enterprise resource planning solution. This project aims to centralize and simplify data repositories and trackers that are currently independently processed by individual repositories into an integrated system. The set of tools in the system will integrate, manage, and support administrative and operational processes. Linking available information across the organization can improve efficiency by managing data and its flows in real-time. A new information system will ensure data consistency and quality integration by following the standards of data governance[3] through these actions: Integrity — Structure data through data modeling based on business architecture and share it with key stakeholders by drawing data flow; Usability — Automate and digitalize the data analysis process, including data transmission, integration/manipulation, and visualization, for the new enterprise resource planning system and the heterogeneous data sources; Availability — Improve data quality for monitoring and evaluation by limiting incorrect values indiscriminately generated within the data processing system; and Security — Strengthen information protection by defining internal data management policies and access rights based on the user's role in the organization. Implications of Improved Data Reliability ICT in education has traditionally focused on improving education systems for knowledge dissemination, information access, quality and hands-on learning, and more efficient service delivery.[4] However, with the rise of digital technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and cloud computing, there are also efforts to use ICT for data analytics in this sector. Data provide evidence to support sound policy making in the education sector and for evaluating policy implementation.[5] It is needed to gain insight into such issues as barriers to learning and marginalization due to socioeconomic segregation. Finally, it also improves qualitative research by addressing data fragmentation.[6] High-quality information systems can bring more value and impact to education in developing countries. A desirable information system enables data analysis and aggregation modules, where data is stored, categorized, and summarized. It allows real-time automated data processing and analysis of planning, input, processing, output, and results collection.[7] To overcome limitations (e.g., low internet speed and access), education nonprofits must find ways to maximize the availability of data for analysis and to achieve similar results as high-performance computing in effectively handling big data. The data systems improvement project of Teach for the Philippines aims to show how data governance can help education nonprofits achieve this. [1] S. Pouezevara. 2020. Philippines EdTech Ecosystem Profile. Prepared for USAID under the All Children Reading-Philippines Project, AID-OAA-TO-16-00017. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI. [2] J. Bernardo. 2020. Modular Learning Most Preferred by Parents: DepEd. ABS-CBN News. 30 July. [3] M. Mosley et al. 2009. The DAMA Guide to The Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK Guide). New Jersey: Technics Publications LLC. [4] UNESCO. 2016. Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action Towards Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Lifelong Learning for All. Paris. [5] UNESCO. 2015. Leveraging Information and Communication Technologies to Achieve the Post-2015 Education Goal: Report of the International Conference on ICT and Post-2015 Education. [6] UNESCO. 2020. Global Education Monitoring Report: Inclusion and Education: All Means All. Paris: UNESCO. [7] C. H. Kim. 2018. A Study on Education Indicator Development and Statistical Capacity Building Focused on Asian Countries (Ⅲ). Korean Educational Development Institute. Resources Asian Development Bank (ADB). Philippines and ADB. ADB. Regional: Strengthening Human Resources and Leadership for Education. ADB. Teach for the Philippines. Video. 4:04. 8 September 2020. C. H. Kim. 2018. A Study on Education Indicator Development and Statistical Capacity Building Focused on Asian Countries (Ⅲ). Korean Educational Development Institute. J. Bernardo. 2020. Modular Learning Most Preferred by Parents: DepEd. ABS-CBN News. 30 July. M. Janssen et al. 2020. Data Governance: Organizing Data for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. ScienceDirect. Elsevier Inc. M. Mosley et al. 2009. The DAMA Guide to The Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK Guide). New Jersey: Technics Publications LLC. S. Pouezevara. 2020. Philippines EdTech Ecosystem Profile. Prepared for USAID under the All Children Reading-Philippines Project, AID-OAA-TO-16-00017. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI. UNESCO. 2016. Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action Towards Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Lifelong Learning for All. Paris. UNESCO. 2020. Global Education Monitoring Report: Inclusion and Education: All Means All. Paris. UNESCO. 2015. Leveraging Information and Communication Technologies to Achieve the Post-2015 Education Goal: Report of the International Conference on ICT and Post-2015 Education. Paris. Ask the Experts Juyeon Son Consultant (Systems and Data Analyst), Asian Development Bank Juyeon Son is an ADB consultant to Teach for Philippines (TFP) under the Knowledge Immersion Program, financed by the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund and administered by the Asian Development Bank. Through virtual deployment, she provides ICT support despite COVID-19 restrictions. Asian Development Bank (ADB) The Asian Development Bank is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 69 members—49 from the region. Its main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance. Follow Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Leave your question or comment in the section below: View the discussion thread.