The whole continent of Africa faces many difficult challenges connected with regional conflict, poverty, and major health issues. A key factor in overcoming some of these challenges will be the education and empowerment of the people of Africa, so they can build a stable and sustainable future for the continent. One of the UN's top development goals is to provide education for every child in Africa, so anything that can be done to help African children in this respect is a good thing.

One project, The Ambassadors Girls' Scholarship Program (AGSP), provides 30,000 scholarships per year to girls, in eleven countries in sub-Sahara West Africa. Girls account for 55% of the 40 million children in Africa who do not attend school because of economic hardship or other adverse circumstances. The scholarship program allows girls to attend school and includes mentoring programs for the children, which contribute to the social and educational development of the students and their communities.

International Education and Training Corporation (IETC) is a commercial consulting firm specializing in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) for domestic and international educational projects and contracts with private businesses, non-profit organizations and for the public sector. In partnership with World Education Inc. (WEI) and USAID, IETC is monitoring and evaluating the Ambassadors Girls' Scholarship Program. In order to collect and analyse data for the scholarship program, IETC has developed an application called FieldLink using Omnis Studio and employing the so-called "Ultra-thin Client" (HTML based) web development capabilities of Omnis.

"Using Omnis Studio means that revisions to FieldLink can be accomplished with a short turnaround time and submodules can be deployed when they become available, without waiting for a major version release," said Jim Pistrang, CIO for IETC, who has been creating solutions in Omnis Studio for many years. "The application is highly scalable in terms of the scope of the functionality, the volume of data, and the number of concurrent users. The same system is used by data entry clerks and high level government officials. Data entry windows accept a high level of detail, which in turn allows for a powerful and flexible reporting environment."

FieldLink's unique ultra-thin client access via a standard web browser allows for efficient access in the field, even with low bandwidth dial-up connections and old computers, typically found across Africa. Access to different functions in FieldLink is controlled by user ID and password. The application runs 24/7 on a high-speed server with a permanent internet connection, while database and system backups are accomplished without any down time. The Omnis Ultra-thin Client and application Server structure is well suited to deploying applications in such challenging environments such as Africa.

About IETC: International Education and Training Corporation (IETC) creates customized on-line interactive database solutions that allow clients to track, manage, and analyse quantitative and qualitative data for private and public sector research and educational programs. Access is customized allowing different stakeholders key information while protecting privileged information. Reporting is decentralized at the field level while data is automatically analysed and synthesized for policy level decision makers.