CitizenClimate: Tracking SDG Indicators for a Sustainable Future
Why Track SDG Metrics with CitizenClimate?
The SDGs give us a global roadmap for a sustainable future, but real progress happens at community level. CitizenClimate connects the two by helping communities gather credible, transparent data that matches SDG indicators. Our app:
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Empowers communities – Transforms what locals know into SDG insights you can act on
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Keeps it credible – Uses verified data to generate metrics you can trust
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Makes everything transparent – Shows progress openly through dashboards, building trust and encouraging collaboration
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Enables proper comparison – Tracks SDG scores over time and between communities to spot trends and what actually works
Measure Progress, Compare Impact, Empower Communities
The CitizenClimate app transforms how we track progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by empowering communities to collect, analyze, and compare environmental data. From forests to rivers, our citizen science platform delivers transparent, credible, and comparable metrics that align with SDG targets. Through seamless API integration and intuitive dashboards, CitizenClimate enables year-by-year tracking and community-to-community comparisons, driving impactful conservation outcomes worldwide.
Digital Tools for SDG Monitoring and Reporting
Transforming How Organizations Track Sustainable Development Goals
Measuring progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals requires consistent, credible data collection across diverse communities and geographies. Traditional approaches—paper surveys, infrequent site visits, disconnected spreadsheets—create gaps in data quality and delay insights that project managers need for adaptive management.
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CitizenClimate provides comprehensive SDG monitoring software designed specifically for NGOs, conservation organizations, and development projects working at the community level. Our platform combines mobile data collection apps, automated verification processes, and real-time dashboards to streamline how you measure report and verify progress toward SDG targets.
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What makes our SDG data collection platform different:
Our system recognizes that effective SDG indicator tracking requires both technological capability and community participation. Project developers get digital tools for SDG reporting that actually work in challenging field conditions—offline functionality, multilingual interfaces, and intuitive design that communities can use without extensive technical training.
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The impact of carbon projects, biodiversity conservation efforts, water quality improvements, and urban sustainability initiatives becomes measurable through standardized questionnaires aligned with UN SDG reporting frameworks. This isn't just data collection—it's a complete environmental monitoring system that turns community observations into actionable insights for funders, policymakers, and project managers.
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Whether you're an NGO managing multiple conservation sites, a development organization tracking community health improvements, or a carbon project developer needing to demonstrate environmental impact, our platform provides the sustainability metrics software you need. Data flows from field collection through verification processes to stakeholder dashboards in real time, eliminating the delays that plague traditional monitoring approaches.
How CitizenClimate Tracks SDG Metrics
CitizenClimate works with the SDG indicators that matter most for ecosystem conservation—specifically SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Our app uses custom questionnaires, API-powered dashboards, and a solid scoring system to track and compare how things are progressing.
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Custom Questionnaires for SDG Indicators
We've built questionnaires from templates that match specific SDG indicators, so the data you collect is accurate and relevant. Each one focuses on measurable metrics like:
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SDG 13 (Climate Action) – Carbon capture from reforestation (tree survival rates, biomass growth, that sort of thing)
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SDG 15 (Life on Land) – Biodiversity measures (species counts, how habitat restoration's going)
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SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) – Water quality testing (pH levels, turbidity, pollutants)
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SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) – Urban green space or waste reduction tracking
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How Questionnaires Work:
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Structure – Questions are straightforward, using multiple-choice or number inputs (like "How many new trees survived this month? A) 0-10, B) 11-20, C) 21+")
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SDG alignment – Every question links to a specific SDG indicator (for instance, "Tree survival" connects to SDG 15.2.1 on sustainable forest management progress)
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Easy to use – Available in local languages with built-in guidance
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Example Questionnaire (SDG 15 - Life on Land):
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How many native tree species did you plant this month? (Score: 0-5 depending on the number)
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What's the survival rate of the planted trees? (Score: 0-10, weighted more heavily for impact)
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Have you spotted any new wildlife species around? (Score: 0-3, yes/no plus how many)
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Has illegal logging decreased? (Score: 0-5, based on how often it happens)
Community-Based Monitoring That Scales
Why Participatory Data Collection Delivers Better Results
The most accurate environmental monitoring happens when communities become active participants rather than passive subjects. Community-based monitoring leverages local knowledge, ensures cultural appropriateness, and builds long-term capacity that outlasts individual projects.
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Our citizen science platform makes participatory data collection practical at scale. Communities use our mobile data collection app to document everything from tree survival rates to water quality measurements. The system guides them through standardized protocols whilst allowing flexibility for local conditions and traditional ecological knowledge.
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How field data collection works in practice:
Project managers design custom questionnaires through our SDG monitoring software interface, selecting from templates aligned with specific UN SDG indicators. Communities receive these surveys on their smartphones, complete them during regular monitoring activities, and submit results that flow through automated verification. Within hours, verified data appears on dashboards accessible to all stakeholders.
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This approach to community engagement platforms does more than gather information—it builds capacity. Community members learn environmental monitoring techniques, develop digital literacy, and gain skills valued in the growing green economy. They're not just data collectors; they're citizen scientists contributing to global sustainability efforts whilst improving their own environments.
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For NGOs working across multiple sites, this model solves persistent challenges in impact measurement tools. Rather than hiring large field teams or conducting expensive periodic assessments, organizations empower communities to perform continuous monitoring. The result is better data, lower costs, and stronger community ownership of conservation outcomes.
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The platform handles complexity—managing data from hundreds of communities, standardizing diverse observations, identifying trends across geographies. Communities focus on what they do best—observing their ecosystems with the intimate knowledge that comes from living within them daily.
Scoring and Weighting System
CitizenClimate gives SDG scores that measure how much communities are contributing to sustainability goals. Here's the breakdown:
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Scoring
Each question gets a point range (like 0-5 or 0-10) based on how much impact it measures. For instance:
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Lower impact questions (say, awareness of conservation practices): 0-3 points
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Higher impact questions (like tree survival rates): 0-10 points
Weighting
Questions are weighted according to how important they are for the SDG indicator. Examples:
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Tree survival (SDG 15.2.1) might carry 40% of the total score because it directly affects the environment
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Wildlife sightings (SDG 15.5.1) might be 20% since they provide supporting data
Working Out the Score
Once someone finishes a questionnaire, the app calculates a weighted average score (0-100) for each SDG goal.
Quick example: A community gets 8/10 on tree survival (weighted 40%), 3/5 on species diversity (weighted 20%), and 4/5 on reduced logging (weighted 40%).
Their total SDG 15 score works out as: (8×0.4) + (3×0.2) + (4×0.4) = 3.2 + 0.6 + 1.6 = 5.4/10, which is 54%
Community Averages
Individual scores get combined to create a community-level SDG score, with personal data kept anonymous for privacy.
What You Get
A standardised SDG score for each goal, so you can compare progress over time and between different communities.
From Data Collection to Impact Reporting
Complete SDG Progress Tracking Throughout the Project Lifecycle
Collecting data is just the beginning. Organizations need complete environmental impact assessment capabilities—from initial baseline surveys through final impact reports for funders and certification bodies.
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Our impact reporting software automates much of this workflow. As communities submit observations through our mobile app for SDG data collection, the system calculates weighted scores, identifies trends, and generates visualizations that tell your project's story. Project managers access real-time SDG tracking dashboards showing current status across all indicators, historical trends, and comparisons between project sites.
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The complete monitoring and evaluation workflow:
Baseline Assessment: Deploy standardized questionnaires to establish starting conditions across all SDG indicators relevant to your project. Communities document current ecosystem status, creating the benchmark against which future progress is measured.
Continuous Monitoring: Rather than annual assessments, communities perform regular observations throughout the project period. This approach to how to measure SDG progress captures seasonal variations, responds to unexpected events, and provides early warning of challenges requiring intervention.
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Automated Analysis: Our conservation project monitoring system calculates SDG scores automatically as data arrives. Machine learning algorithms identify patterns, flag anomalies, and highlight areas of exceptional progress or concern. Project managers receive alerts about significant changes rather than discovering issues months later during scheduled reviews.
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Comparative Insights: The platform enables comparing SDG scores between communities within your project, benchmarking against similar initiatives elsewhere, and tracking year-over-year improvements. These comparisons foster healthy competition, facilitate knowledge sharing, and help identify best practices worth replicating.
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Stakeholder Reporting: Generate automated reports compliant with donor requirements, certification standards, and UN SDG reporting formats. Dashboards provide real-time access for funders, government partners, and other stakeholders who need visibility into project progress without waiting for quarterly reports.
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This end-to-end capability means NGO data collection tools integrate seamlessly into existing project management workflows rather than creating additional administrative burden. Communities collect, the system processes and verifies, managers analyze and act, stakeholders monitor progress—all within one integrated platform.
Year-by-Year and Community Comparisons
CitizenClimate's API and dashboards make tracking and comparing SDG progress straightforward:
Tracking Year by Year
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The app keeps all historical data, so communities can watch their progress unfold over time (like an SDG 15 score climbing from 50% in 2024 to 65% in 2025)
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Dashboards show trends through line graphs or heatmaps, pointing out what's improved and what still needs work
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Example: A reforestation project posts a 10% yearly improvement in SDG 15.2.1 (forest management) thanks to smarter planting methods
Comparing Communities
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SDG scores get rolled up and compared between communities in the same project or region
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Dashboards rank them (something like "Village A: 70% for SDG 15 vs Village B: 55%"), which encourages friendly competition and sharing what works
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Example: Coastal Community X does brilliantly on SDG 6 (water quality) through solid pollution monitoring, which gets Community Y interested in doing the same
Project-Wide Picture
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The API pulls together data from every community to work out an overall project SDG score—handy when you're reporting to funders or policymakers
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Example: A regional conservation effort hits an average SDG 13 score of 68%, showing they're making proper headway on climate action
API and Dashboard Integration
CitizenClimate's API links questionnaire data straight to dashboards, making SDG tracking more effective:
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Real-time updates – Questionnaire responses flow through the API to cloud-based dashboards where you can analyse them instantly
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Visuals you can customise – See SDG scores as bar charts, trend lines, or maps—whatever suits your project best
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Works with existing systems – Connects to global SDG reporting platforms (like the UN SDG database) and conservation tools such as GIS
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Secure and open – Data gets encrypted, timestamped, and can be shared publicly (anonymised) so it's both credible and transparent
Technical Capabilities for Modern Conservation
Enterprise-Grade Environmental Monitoring Software
Organizations managing complex conservation portfolios need technical capabilities that match their ambitions. Our platform provides enterprise-level functionality whilst remaining accessible to communities with basic smartphones and limited connectivity.
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Core technical features of our SDG data collection platform:
Offline-First Architecture: Field data collection happens in remote locations with unreliable connectivity. Our mobile data collection app stores data locally, syncs automatically when connection is available, and never loses information due to network issues. Communities work continuously regardless of infrastructure limitations.
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Multi-Site Management: Project managers oversee data collection across dozens or hundreds of communities through centralized dashboards. Set different questionnaires for different sites, manage user permissions, monitor data quality, and aggregate results—all from one interface.
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Flexible Questionnaire Design: Our SDG monitoring software includes templates for common indicators whilst allowing complete customization. Add conditional logic (questions appearing based on previous answers), incorporate photo verification requirements, set validation rules, and design workflows matching your specific monitoring protocols.
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Advanced Analytics Engine: Beyond basic score calculation, the system performs trend analysis, predictive modeling, and pattern recognition. Machine learning identifies correlations between interventions and outcomes, helping project managers understand what's working and why.
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API Integration: Connect our platform to your existing systems—financial management software, GIS platforms, donor reporting portals, or global databases. Our API enables bidirectional data flow, ensuring the sustainability metrics software fits into your broader organizational technology ecosystem.
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Multi-Language Support: Communities collect data in their preferred languages whilst project managers view results in theirs. The system handles translations automatically, ensuring language barriers don't compromise data quality or community participation.
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Security and Compliance: Data encryption, role-based access controls, audit trails, and compliance with international data protection standards. Communities trust the system protects their information whilst organizations meet donor and regulatory requirements.
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These technical capabilities make CitizenClimate suitable for everything from single-community pilots to multi-country programmes requiring coordination across hundreds of sites and thousands of participants.
Real-World SDG Impact
SDG 15 (Life on Land)
A forest community tracked tree survival using CitizenClimate and boosted their SDG 15 score from 60% in 2024 to 75% in 2025—which secured them more funding for reforestation.
SDG 6 (Clean Water)
Urban volunteers kept tabs on river pollutants and lifted their SDG 6 score by 20% over two years—which kicked off a cleanup initiative across the whole city.
SDG 13 (Climate Action)
Coastal communities monitored mangrove restoration using API-powered dashboards that showed a 15% boost in carbon sequestration. They shared these results with global climate platforms.
Get Started with SDG Tracking
Join the CitizenClimate movement to track and push forward SDG progress in your community:
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Download the app – Get started collecting data using questionnaires built for your needs
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Access the dashboards – Use our API to visualise and compare SDG scores
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Share your impact – Show everyone what your community's doing for sustainability
Frequently Asked Questions About SDG Tracking
What is SDG monitoring software and why do NGOs need it?
SDG monitoring software provides digital tools for tracking progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. NGOs need these systems because traditional paper-based monitoring is time-consuming, error-prone, and provides delayed insights. Our SDG data collection platform enables real-time tracking of environmental indicators, automated verification processes, and instant reporting to funders and stakeholders. This improves project management whilst reducing administrative burden on field teams.
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How does community-based monitoring improve data quality?
Community-based monitoring leverages local knowledge that external assessors miss. People living within ecosystems notice subtle changes—seasonal patterns, species behaviors, early warning signs of problems. Our citizen science platform provides communities with standardized protocols and verification processes that capture this knowledge credibly. When communities own the monitoring process, they're invested in data accuracy and provide continuous observations rather than snapshot assessments from periodic site visits.
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Can your platform track multiple SDG indicators simultaneously?
Absolutely. Most conservation and development projects address multiple SDG targets simultaneously—a reforestation initiative might track SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 15 (life on land), SDG 6 (clean water), and SDG 8 (decent work). Our SDG indicator tracking system handles unlimited indicators across all 17 goals. Design questionnaires capturing data relevant to each target, and the platform calculates separate scores whilst showing how interventions create co-benefits across multiple SDGs.
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What makes this different from other mobile data collection apps?
Generic survey tools collect data but don't provide the verification processes, scoring algorithms, or SDG-specific frameworks that conservation and development projects require. Our environmental monitoring software is purpose-built for SDG progress tracking. Questionnaires align with UN indicator frameworks, scoring reflects the relative importance of different metrics, verification ensures data credibility, and reporting formats match what donors and certification bodies expect. It's a complete solution rather than a generic tool requiring extensive customization.
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How do you ensure data quality in participatory data collection?
We use multiple verification layers working together. AI-powered photo verification checks that submitted images match claimed activities. Peer review systems let community members validate each other's observations. Conservation experts conduct periodic audits. Remote sensing data provides independent verification—if communities report reforestation, satellite imagery confirms vegetation increases. This multi-layered approach to digital measurement reporting and verification ensures the data quality required for carbon markets, donor reporting, and certification processes.
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Can the platform work offline in remote field locations?
Yes—offline functionality is essential for field data collection in conservation settings. Communities gather data using our mobile app without requiring internet connectivity. The app stores everything locally and syncs automatically once connection is available. This ensures continuous monitoring regardless of infrastructure limitations. Many projects operate in remote locations with minimal connectivity, so offline-first design isn't optional—it's fundamental to effective environmental monitoring systems.
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How long does it take to set up SDG tracking for a new project?
Initial setup typically takes 1-2 weeks. Project managers select relevant SDG indicators from our template library or design custom questionnaires matching specific needs. We provide training materials for community onboarding (most users become proficient within hours). Once questionnaires are deployed, communities begin data collection immediately, with verified results appearing on dashboards within days. This rapid deployment makes our SDG monitoring software practical even for projects with urgent reporting deadlines.
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What SDG reporting formats does the platform support?
Our impact reporting software generates documentation compliant with multiple frameworks: UN SDG indicator specifications, REDD+ requirements, Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Gold Standard, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and various bilateral donor formats. The API also connects to global databases including the UN SDG database, enabling direct submission of verified progress data. This flexibility means one data collection effort satisfies multiple reporting obligations.
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How does comparing SDG scores between communities work?
The platform aggregates individual responses into community-level SDG scores (with personal data anonymized). Dashboards then compare these scores—showing rankings, identifying high performers, and highlighting areas where specific communities excel. This comparison serves multiple purposes: fostering healthy competition that motivates improvement, facilitating knowledge sharing as successful communities mentor others, and helping project managers allocate resources where they're most needed. Comparisons work within projects, across regions, or against historical baselines for year-over-year tracking.
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Can the system integrate with our existing project management software?
Yes. Our API enables integration with most common platforms—Microsoft Project, Salesforce, custom databases, GIS systems like ArcGIS, financial management software, and donor portals. The API provides bidirectional data flow: pull SDG scores into your existing dashboards, push project metadata into our system, or create automated workflows triggered by monitoring results. This interoperability means our environmental monitoring system complements rather than replaces your existing technology infrastructure.
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What costs are involved in implementing CitizenClimate?
We offer flexible pricing models suited to different organization sizes and project scopes. Contact us for detailed pricing, but generally costs scale with the number of active community monitors and data collection frequency. Most organizations find our SDG data collection platform significantly more cost-effective than traditional monitoring approaches requiring large field teams and periodic consultant assessments. The platform also reduces indirect costs through automated reporting, faster data processing, and improved project management efficiency.
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How do you ensure communities benefit from participating?
Communities receive direct financial compensation for data collection work, either through mobile money transfers or phone credit. Beyond immediate payment, participation builds valuable skills—environmental monitoring techniques, digital literacy, data interpretation. Many community monitors use these skills to secure employment with conservation organizations or environmental agencies. The platform also ensures communities see how their data influences project decisions, creating genuine agency rather than extractive data collection relationships.
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Can small NGOs with limited technical capacity use this platform?
Absolutely. While the platform offers advanced capabilities for large organizations, it's designed for ease of use by NGOs with minimal technical staff. The interface uses plain language rather than technical jargon, templates eliminate the need to build questionnaires from scratch, and our support team provides onboarding assistance. Many small grassroots organizations use the platform successfully, benefiting from enterprise-grade capabilities without needing enterprise-level technical expertise.
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How does this support UN SDG reporting requirements?
The platform structures data collection around official UN SDG indicator frameworks. Each questionnaire question maps to specific indicators (e.g., SDG 15.2.1 for sustainable forest management, SDG 6.3.2 for water quality). As communities submit data, the system calculates progress using UN-specified methodologies. Generated reports include the metadata, quality assurance documentation, and formatting required for submission to national SDG reporting systems or direct upload to global databases. This alignment eliminates the translation work typically required between field data and official reporting formats.
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What happens to the data if our project ends?
You retain complete ownership of all data collected through the platform. Export datasets in standard formats (CSV, JSON, GeoJSON) at any time. Historical data remains accessible even if active data collection pauses. Many organizations maintain read-only access to dashboards after project completion, preserving the ability to demonstrate impact to future funders or compare new initiatives against past baselines. We also provide data archiving services ensuring long-term preservation for projects requiring multi-decade historical records.