Finding a home for Equality Now’s impact monitoring data

Client: Equality Now
Date: August 2024 — February 2025
Work: Research and analysis, training and capacity building, impact measurement

About the organisation

Equality Now’s international network of lawyers, activists and supporters use the power of the law to create enduring equality for all women and girls everywhere. They approached us for help finding a platform to host their newly developed impact framework.

What we did

We worked closely with the team at Equality Now to make sure we fully understood their context and needs. We carried out research to identify potentially suitable tools and progressed from a longlist, to a shortlist and final recommendation.

Following our research, we recommended a platform called ActivityInfo as the best fit for Equality Now's needs and they attended further demo/Q&A sessions with us before deciding to proceed.

We worked closely with ActivityInfo and Equality Now to build out their impact framework within the database platform. We travelled to Nairobi in December 2024 to pilot the database with 'Data Leads' – a range of staff from across the organisation who would champion the database among their colleagues. We provided guided learning about how the database worked, as well as opportunities to feed back on what had been produced so far and contribute towards further development. 

We then supported the team to make relevant improvements and additions to the database. We later adapted content from the Data Lead workshops to provide introductory database training to the wider organisation in February 2025.

As a result of the work, Equality Now report they have:

• An improved definition of the data they need

• Improved processes for data collection

• Better quality data

They also report improvements in their organisational data culture, including:

• An improved shared understanding about data in the organisation

• Better conversations about data among staff

• Data assets are better understood and valued

Anushka Gunes, Impact Information and Data Officer, said:

“Hannah understood our needs right from the start. Her depth of knowledge both on the technical side and the theory was impressive and neatly fit the skillset gap we had. She found and configured a database tool that was perfect for us in every sense. She was flexible in her approach and communicated well, responding to emails/queries/requests for meetings quickly. Hannah was excellent delivering the in-person training we held in Nairobi and, as a result, we asked to keep her on to prepare content for and deliver the database input training virtually to the whole of the programs team.”

Next steps

Equality Now have said they will use the outputs of this project to:

• Inform future planning and strategy

• Evidence impact

• Increase efficiency

Niki Kandirikirira, Global Director of Programmes said:

“We’re in the early days so people are inputting their first rounds of data, but already we can see that we are laying the foundation for powerful insights. We’ll soon be able to compare, analyse, and showcase the impact of our work like never before. This will not only strengthen our ability to evaluate the impact of our work, but also help us to share compelling, evidence-based results with our stakeholders - an area we’re now transforming into a real strength.”