Data Quality Policy

Our commitment to data quality

WEDGE Africa is committed to publishing evidence that is accurate, timely, and honestly reflects what is happening in our programmes — including when results fall short of targets. We believe that credible evidence, even when unflattering, is more valuable than selectively presented success stories.

This policy describes the standards we apply to data collected through the GROW Programme (2026 Pilot) and how that data flows from the field to this portal.

Data collection

Who collects data

All field data is collected by trained WEDGE Africa field officers (facilitators). Field officers do not have direct access to this portal. They submit data to the designated Data Officer or Programme Administrator through approved offline channels.

Collection methods

Data is collected using a combination of the following methods:

• Structured paper forms completed during farm visits and training sessions
• KoboToolbox digital forms for baseline and endline assessments
• Excel-based tracking sheets for attendance and market records
• WhatsApp-based submission for time-sensitive field updates

What data is collected

The GROW Programme collects data across the following areas: participant registration and baseline profiles, farm visit observations, training attendance, record book adoption, digital tool usage, climate-smart practice adoption, post-harvest loss estimates, market transactions, and buyer relationships. Endline data is collected at programme close to measure change over time.

Validation process

Step 1 — Field officer review

Field officers are responsible for completing data collection forms accurately and in full at the time of each interaction. Incomplete forms are returned for completion before submission.

Step 2 — Admin review

The WEDGE Africa Data Officer reviews all submitted data before entry into the system. This review checks for completeness, internal consistency, and plausibility of values. Queries are raised with field officers where data appears inconsistent.

Step 3 — Entry and cross-checking

Validated data is entered into the portal's admin system. The system flags missing fields and supports cross-checking of participant records against the registered cohort.

Step 4 — Publication approval

KPI figures are only published to dashboards when explicitly approved by the Programme Administrator or authorised staff. This is a deliberate manual step — there is no automatic publishing of raw data to any stakeholder view.

Publishing to dashboards

All stakeholder dashboards — including donor, board, and executive views — read exclusively from a published data layer. This means:

• Raw data entered by administrators is never directly visible to external stakeholders
• All published figures represent validated, approved snapshots
• Dashboards show the date of the most recent publication so stakeholders know how current the data is
• Historical data is retained internally but only the current published snapshot is shown on dashboards

Data quality scores

WEDGE Africa maintains an internal data quality score that measures two dimensions:

• Completeness — the proportion of expected data fields that have been filled across all participant records
• Timeliness — whether data is being submitted and entered within expected programme windows

The combined quality score is visible to internal staff (exec level and above) on the Evidence Quality dashboard. WEDGE Africa's target is to maintain a data quality score of 85% or above throughout the programme.

Known limitations

We are transparent about the limitations of our data:

• Self-reported data (e.g. income, sales) relies on participant recall and may be subject to recall bias
• Market transaction data is voluntarily shared by participants and may under-represent total sales activity
• The 2026 cohort is a pilot of 40 women in one community — findings are not statistically representative of all women farmers in the Ashanti Region
• Baseline data collection took place at programme start and may not fully capture pre-programme conditions

These limitations are acknowledged in all formal reports issued by WEDGE Africa and should be considered when interpreting dashboard data.

Questions about data quality

If you have questions about how specific data on this portal was collected or validated, please contact WEDGE Africa at wedgeafrica.org. Formal data requests should be submitted through the Report Requests section of the dashboard.