Case Study - Data management system and dashboard for land restoration projects

Client

The UNCCD Global Mechanism helps countries mobilize finance to combat desertification and land degradation. It supports a growing portfolio of land restoration projects aimed at achieving Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030.

Opportunity

The Global Mechanism manages a portfolio of land restoration projects across multiple countries. Project data was scattered, inconsistently structured, and difficult to report on. There was no standard way to enter new project information, no central view of the portfolio, and no easy way to surface patterns or progress across projects. The team needed a data management solution that could bring structure to what they had and make the portfolio visible and queryable.

Approach

We started with discovery. We facilitated stakeholder consultations to understand how the team currently works with project data, what they need from it, and where the gaps are. From those conversations we developed user personas and a product requirements document with process maps showing how data flows from field to reporting.

We then evaluated open-source tools and proposed a technology stack, backed by a total cost of ownership analysis so the team could make an informed decision on long-term sustainability.

With the architecture agreed, we built a standardized data entry system with validation rules, restructured the existing project data into a relational database, and connected everything to an interactive dashboard with charts, maps, and geographic visualizations. An automated integration keeps the dashboard current as new data is entered, removing the need for manual exports.

Outcomes

The engagement delivered:

• A product requirements document with user personas and process maps
• A technology assessment with total cost of ownership analysis
• A structured relational database built from cleaned and normalized project data
• A standardized data entry system with validation for reliable input
• An automated integration syncing data entry updates to the dashboard in real time
• An interactive dashboard with charts, maps, and geographic visualizations

The team now has a single, structured view of their land restoration portfolio and a system they can maintain and extend as new projects come online. We applied a similar approach at larger scale in the enterprise data warehouse we built for LWF World Service, connecting headquarters and country programs through automated pipelines and real-time dashboards.

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At Hikaya, we help NGOs and nonprofits worldwide turn scattered project data into structured, visible portfolios, from requirements through to dashboards your team can own.

If your project data lives in spreadsheets and shared drives with no easy way to see the full picture, start a conversation with us, or explore how we work from discovery through deployment.