Improved protection of children through the use of mobile technologies

Uganda case

Presentation structure

• The rationale for using the ICT for Child Protection in Uganda

• Overview of the Child Protection programming in which ICT is being used.

• Lessons learned challenges and opportunities• Next steps

Some of the challenges in Child Protection

• Identification. Identity is central to protection system and to addressing vulnerability.

• Information and data for decision making process. Existing systems don’t function effectively because the information and data do not move to, and are not available in actionable format, to people who can take action, quickly enough.

• Young population voice. Over 50% of the population in most countries is young. And they, specially the adolescent girls are most vulnerable, but their voice is rarely heard at the policy level

What the mobile technologies can do to strengthen the Child protection system?

• Many systems are based on large databases that require internet connectivity and large bandwidth.

• With more than 900 m cellphones in Africa and a penetration rate of over 80%, mobile technology provides a good alternative to move fast actionable data in almost real time, in an actionable format, to people who matter

• It reduces the transaction cost significantly;

Areas in which mobile technologies are being used in Uganda

• Birth and Death Registration & cash transfer• Identification and registration of OVC• U-Report – SMS social monitoring tool• Rapid Family Tracing and Reunification• Child Help line

Birth Registration

• Currently only 30% of children under the age of 5 are registered to birth;

• Issues with the current system:– Time – Months to move information from

communities to National Level, if it even happens at all

– Cost – No cost analysis done but the current system is inefficient. Parents have to pay about USD 3 to get the birth certificate in addition to the opportunity cost (travel, time, etc.)

New Mobile VRS System- How it worksLevel Who Roles and Process

Community Individuals mandate to notify birth and death ( VHT, LC1, etc.)

BDR information data sent through mobile phone via USDD directly to the MVRs data base. In addition the information is recorded into birth registration forms. One copy sent to Sub-county and URSB

Sub-county /Town Sub-county chiefs/town Council Clerks

Validate the BD information( checking on their computers) , and if OK print , sign and issue birth certificates

District Hospital Staff from Records office and Hospital administrator

Enter data directly into the MVRs data base. HA prints, signs and issues birth certificates

National URSB MVRs data base administrator

Administrates the data base. Uses the information for statistics reporting, monitoring, etc.

New Mobile VRS System

• Time – Near real-time tracking, instant at Hospitals, days to weeks from Sub-Counties

• Cost– Data – Less than $0.03 per Birth Certificate– Hardware (Initial Investment, bulk of cost )

– 1. Laptops & Printers at all Sub-counties and district hospitals and district HQs

– 2. internet connectivity and solar power source where needed

– Training and capacity building at all levels– Initial investment for hardware and software: USD 7M

for all 112 districts of Uganda

Linkage with Social Protection

• BR is linked with the GoU cash transfer scheme (SAGE with two types of grants Vulnerability Family Support Grant and Old Age Grant). Age, sex and disability status are the targeting criteria, thus the need to have a reliable and efficient Birth and death registration system.

• UNICEF supports the household registration in all 14 SAGE districts and MVRs is being implemented in 3 districts and will be rolled out in the additional 11 districts by the end of this year

Innovative Solutions

Sustainable, Replicable, Cost-effective Open Source

• Usable on ANY mobile phone – no software installation necessary

• Structured forms and preset parameters greatly decrease error rates

• Data transfer costs negligible

Mobile VRS – progress up to date

• MVRs is functional in six sub-counties in three districts and in four hospitals;

• 146,688 people registered in the MVRs until 03/05/2012 and the number is going up daily

• The BR information is now used for providing cash transfer to more than 20,000 children and women in those districts;

• BR information data collected from the additional 44 sub-counties in 8 districts are being entered into the MVRS and will be used for providing birth certificates as well as for targeting additional very poor children and women

• It is a free SMS social monitoring tool. • Designed to address issues that the children and youth of Uganda

care about & then AMPLIFY their voice.• Ureporters join by texting “join” to 8500• SMS questions are sent out to Ureporters and real-time response information is collected.• Results and ideas are shared back.• Issues polled include gender violence, early marriage, FGM and many more• A mass reach tool: 118,000 Ureporters registered today and about 500 new reporters register every day

What is U-report?

• In support of the International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation UNICEF endeavored to understand the views of young people on this issue.• Over the following communication period of a week UNICEF sent and received over 300,000 SMSs on the issue.

This is what we found…

FGM: Legality & Health versus Culture

FGM Illegality awareness

• Step 1: Question asked to instigate dialogue

Hi U-reporter,6th February is International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation.

Do u know female circumcision is illegal? Reply with YES or NO

• Over 32,000 responses in 12 hours• Qualitative data analyzed instantly

FGM Health alert

• Step 2: Share results

76% know female circumcision is illegal.Sjoyo,24 says "Yes its very illegal because it can cause death due too excessive bleeding".

This is true.• Over 4,000 responses even though this was not a

question

Addressing the Cultural Issue

• Step 3: Cultural aspect investigated

6th Feb is day of zero tolerance to female circumcision. We know its illegal but is still

practiced so is the culture more important than the law? YES or NO

• 20,000 responses

We advocate in the national press…

…and in the corridors of power

• U-reporters know they should have birth and death registered…

Birth & Death Registration

• but they don’t know where to do it…

Birth & Death Registration

• U-report is open source, meaning anyone can download our software for free. UNICEF will help where possible.• Partner with government from the beginning to make set-up easier• Always share responses and acknowledge receipt of SMSs with U-reporters. Priorities the experience of the U-reporter above all else.• Yes/No questions will get the highest response rates.• Be prepared for the unexpected. Understand how will your program deal with the really tough messages from the start.• Tailor U-report to your country needs. Be creative.• Requirements: 1 short code, 1 server, at least one phone network, 1 project manager, 1 developer (= low cost set up)

Lessons learned: Advice to set up in other countries

Rapid FTR

• Identification and registration of separated children during emergency is a slow process and it might takes months before family is traced and the family reunification done;

• A Rapid FTR software for mobile phones developed with HQs support and tested in Uganda. It allows the registration of core information of each child and the transmission of data in real time to child protection agencies who could start the family tracing process immediately

Lessons learned, challenges and opportunities

• Challenges• Internet and phone connectivity and power source• Lengthy process for giving names to new born children• Making it part of the system• Notifies are volunteers• Opportunities• Private government partnership and UTL CSR• Lesson learned: significant investment ( time, human

resources, money) should be allocated by UNICEF• Working closely with the Gov. for ownership and sustainability,

which includes the legal provision

What next?

• Improve the current innovations.– For BR the reporting from MVRs, link it to Health MIS, and

national ID, follow up mechanisms through SMS and phone calls

• Create a “universal” registration software that could be used as a platform by all programme based on the Rapid FTR.

• Use the data collected through the use of mobile technology to feed into the government data bases

• Innovations developed in Uganda are open to all users within and beyond Uganda