USAID Guatemala

The situation

The USAID Guatemala Mission needed a reliable way to answer a deceptively simple question: “Where are we working?”

Answering it meant hunting through more than 60 separate Google Sheet trackers and stitching the results together by hand. Every request, whether for a VIP visit, partner coordination or technical planning, set off the same manual effort across several teams. The Mission needed central, dependable data without adding complex software that staff would not adopt.

What we built

Atlas, a data management approach and set of tools built on the interfaces the Mission already used.

• Data Hub. A central portal where the Mission shared data, tools and guidance with staff and nearly 100 implementing partner representatives.
• Automated pipelines. Activity data flowed from the field trackers people already maintained into one central database, so nobody was asked for the same data twice.
• Ready-made applications. A data catalog, a map viewer and a public activity location portal, all drawing on the central data.
• Roles and habits. A dedicated Data Steward role and a formal data program, so the system kept working after the project ended.

The result

The Mission moved from 60+ disconnected trackers to one geospatial approach. The time needed to answer operational questions dropped sharply, and support for the platform grew across the Mission as teams saw their requests answered quickly.

The takeaway

The best solution is often a disciplined approach built on the tools people already know, not new enterprise software. Familiar front ends connected to a sound central database gave the Mission high adoption without giving up data quality.

This work was delivered by Erik Anderson while leading the Data & Knowledge Management practice at Environmental Incentives.