Activities & Participants
Activities are the day-to-day work your team does to produce results — training sessions, community meetings, site visits, construction milestones. Participants are the people who attend or benefit from those activities.
Recording activities and participants in ImpactMEL keeps a permanent, auditable log of what was done, who was reached, and how it links to your results framework. Participant data can also be pushed directly into indicator values.
Activities
What is an Activity?
An activity is a single event or work item linked to a specific Output in your results framework. For example:
- Community WASH training session — Gasabo District — 15 March 2026
- Borehole installation — Nyarugenge sector — Week 8
- School sanitation inspection — Kicukiro Primary School
Activities are recorded per Project, and each one can have a list of Participants registered against it.
Viewing Activities
Open a project → click the Activities tab. Activities are displayed as a list sorted by date, grouped by the Output they are linked to.
📸 Figure 8.1 — Activities Tab
The Activities tab of a project showing a list of activities grouped under Output headings. Each activity row shows the activity title, date, location, facilitator name, participant count (with a small person icon), status badge (Planned/Completed/Cancelled), and action buttons (View, Edit). A "Log Activity" button appears in the top-right.
File: user-manual/images/08-01-activities-list.png
Logging an Activity
- Open the project → Activities tab
- Click + Log Activity
- Fill in the activity details:
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Activity Title | ✅ | Clear, descriptive title |
| Output | ✅ | Which result framework Output this activity contributes to |
| Start Date | ✅ | Date the activity started (or took place) |
| End Date | End date if the activity spans multiple days | |
| Location | Where the activity happened (village, district, facility) | |
| Facilitator | Name of the person who led the activity | |
| Description | Additional details — methodology, materials used, etc. | |
| Status | ✅ | Planned, In Progress, Completed, or Cancelled |
- Click Save Activity
📸 Figure 8.2 — Log Activity Form
The "Log Activity" slide-over panel showing all fields. The Output field is a dropdown showing the results framework tree with selectable Output nodes. The Status field shows a segmented control. Start Date and End Date fields are date pickers. A "Save Activity" button is at the bottom.
File: user-manual/images/08-02-log-activity.png
Activity Detail Page
Click any activity to open its detail page. This page shows:
- Full activity information (title, dates, location, facilitator)
- The linked Output in the results framework
- A list of registered participants
- Quick actions: Register Participants, Push to Indicator, Edit, Delete
📸 Figure 8.3 — Activity Detail Page
The activity detail page showing the activity name and metadata in a header section, a "Participants" section below with a table of registered participants (with columns for Name, Sex, Age, Location, and Attended checkbox), and a sidebar showing the linked Output node with its description. Quick action buttons appear at the top-right.
File: user-manual/images/08-03-activity-detail.png
Participants
Registering Participants
After an activity takes place, register the people who attended or participated.
- Open the activity detail page
- Click + Register Participants
- For each participant, enter:
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| First Name | ✅ | |
| Last Name | ✅ | |
| Sex | ✅ | Female, Male, or Non-binary |
| Date of Birth | For age disaggregation reporting | |
| Phone | Contact number (optional) | |
| Village / Cell | Geographic location | |
| District | Administrative district | |
| National ID | For identity verification (optional) |
- Click + Add Another to add more participants in the same session
- Click Save Participants when done
📸 Figure 8.4 — Register Participants Form
The participant registration form showing a repeating section with fields for each participant. Three participants have been partially filled in. An "Add Another Participant" link appears below the last entry. A count badge at the top shows "3 participants added". A "Save Participants" button is at the bottom.
File: user-manual/images/08-04-register-participants.png
Bulk import
If you have a participant list in Excel or CSV, you can import it instead of entering one by one. Click the Import button at the top of the registration form and upload your file. See the import template for the required column format.
Participant Register
The participant list for an activity shows all registered individuals with their details. You can:
- Mark attendance using the checkboxes (useful when some registered people did not attend)
- Search participants by name
- Export the register as an Excel file or PDF attendance sheet
- Remove a participant from the list if registered by mistake
📸 Figure 8.5 — Participant Register
The participant register table for an activity showing 12 participants. Columns include Name, Sex, Age, Location, and an "Attended" checkbox column. 10 out of 12 checkboxes are checked. At the bottom, a summary shows "10 attended / 12 registered — 83% attendance rate." Export buttons for Excel and PDF appear at the top-right.
File: user-manual/images/08-05-participant-register.png
Household Members
For household-level surveys and programs, each participant can have family members registered as household members. This allows you to track data at the household level rather than just the individual level.
- Click on a participant's name in the register
- Click Household Members tab
- Click + Add Member
- Enter: Name, Relationship to Participant, Sex, Age
- Click Save
Pushing Participant Data to Indicators
Once your participant register is complete, you can automatically populate an indicator with the participant count — eliminating manual counting.
- Open the activity detail page
- Click Push to Indicator
- Select the indicator you want to update (e.g., # of people trained)
- Select the reporting period
- Review the pre-filled values:
- Total value = count of attended participants
- Disaggregated values = automatically split by sex/age based on participant data
- Add a narrative (optional)
- Click Submit
📸 Figure 8.6 — Push to Indicator Dialog
The "Push to Indicator" dialog showing a preview of the values that will be submitted. The main value shows "10 people (10 attended participants)". Below, a disaggregation breakdown shows Female: 6 / Male: 4. A period selector and narrative text area appear below. "Submit" and "Cancel" buttons are at the bottom.
File: user-manual/images/08-06-push-to-indicator.png
This creates an IndicatorReport record in draft status, which the M&E Officer then reviews and approves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can one participant appear in multiple activities? Yes. Participants are linked to specific activities, not the project. The same person can be registered for multiple activities. The system tracks unique participants across a project for deduplication reporting.
What if I made a mistake in a participant's details? Click on the participant's name → click Edit → correct the information → Save.
Can I record activities for past dates? Yes. The date fields accept any date, past or future. Activities are sorted chronologically.
Can I export all participants across all activities for a project? Yes — in the project Activities tab, click Export All to download a full Excel file of all activities and participants for the project.