Five reasons why you should be using data-driven insights
The proper data is integral to project success. Not only does data give you clear information, but the insights gleaned from that information to help you guide your project in the most effective way. Read on to find out five ways data-driven insights can bring you success in your work.
1. More informed decision making
When you make decisions about the future of your project, you want to be sure that those decisions are founded on solid, data-driven reasoning. The data you use might include demographics, financial information, and sectoral insights. This can give you insights into the capacity of your agribusinesses. If you have general data about the sector or region, you can also use that as a point of comparison to benchmark your own agribusinesses. All of this information can help you decide on your next steps. Thorough, reliable data leads to your confident, informed decisions.
2. Third-party proof of impact
For any project, it’s important to know that your efforts have made an impact. If you have third-party assessment results, you can show unbiased data documenting improvement over the course of a project. By comparing baseline figures to midterm and endline results, you can see exactly how much your agribusinesses grew over the lifetime of the project. This data can also be used to prove growth in specific areas, such as sustainability. This can help you report on your projects to your stakeholders. Data-driven insights help you easily prove the impact of your project.
3. Greater access to finance
Anyone who works with small- to medium-sized agribusinesses knows the difficulties of helping them access the finance they require to grow. These agribusinesses are too large for microfinance loans, but often unable to prove themselves to traditional lenders. Data can help you make your agribusinesses bankable and prove it to lenders. Research has determined four essential aspects of business operations for getting a loan: financial management, marketing strategy, governance, and record keeping. Assessment data can help you determine which aspects your agribusinesses need to work on. After the training, you can use the same data as a common language to prove your agribusinesses’ viability to lenders. This data helps bridge the gap between agribusinesses and the funding they need to grow.
4. Increased access to markets
For an agribusiness to make a profit, they must have access to markets where they can sell their products. Linkages with larger, preferably international markets tend to be more profitable, but they also tend to be more challenging to establish. Data can help facilitate these connections by showing a standardized measure of an agribusiness’s performance. This not only helps the agribusinesses but also the markets, since linkages with professional agribusinesses can have both upstream and downstream benefits. This includes greater levels of reliability and higher quality products for the markets. Using data to link strong agribusinesses to markets helps increase resilience along the entire value chain.
5. More effective training
Efficient, effective training is a must for any project looking to strengthen agribusinesses. However, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly which aspects of the agribusiness require the most training. Using data from standardized assessments can help in this process. The assessment data will show which aspects are strongest and weakest, and thus which require the most support. A second assessment after the training can also be useful to determine its effectiveness. This allows capacity builders to see what worked and what didn’t. This sort of assessment data allows you to help your agribusinesses in the way that is most effective for them.
Are you interested in increasing your programmatic impact through data-driven insights? Contact us today to see how our tools can help you reach project success and support your agribusinesses.
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