1. FLSMS- USHAHIDI
PROJECT IN BENIN TO
FIGHT VIOLENCE AGAINST
CHILD: SHOWCASE
ICT4RD 2011
1-3 November in Johannesburg
presented by Henri Marcel da SILVA
Plan Benin ICTM

2. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Overview
 violence against children SMS reporting system engaging
Government and civil society organizations in rural
communities in Benin.
 provide youth with the opportunity to report violence against
children. These reports can in turn help Plan gather valuable
data about violence in a variety of communities, better
understand the nature of violence against children in
Benin, and serve as a useful tool for raising awareness
among a variety of stakeholders.
 Provide government actors with a steady stream of
actionable information related to violence against children.
While this is certainly a benefit of the system, in practice the
government has few resources and is in many cases ill-
equipped to investigate individual reports

3. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Brief Presentation
 The team is working on a project to end Violence Against
Children (VAC).
 The aim is to make the content and follow-up mechanisms of
the United Nation‟s VAC Study widely known among
children, youth and their caretakers in West Africa and
mobilize a wide representation of children and youth in the
country to prevent and respond to violence against children.
 In order to do that the team works with participating youth
and children‟s organizations to build their capacities through
producing comic books, cartoons, information booklets, and
radio and television programs that inform about the topic of
violence against children.

4. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Brief Presentation: Where we are
 Plan Benin has innovated by piloting SMS and „geo-
visualization‟ (mapping) for violence tracking and reporting.
Staff in Benin, with support from the WARO‟s ICT advisor
and the VAC project coordinator, worked with the Child
Protection System, relevant Ministries and local staff and
children to develop a system whereby child victims of
violence and community members who witness violence can
send in a report which is recorded, forwarded to relevant
local authorities, and mapped out so that violent incidents
can be tracked and responded to.
 The visualization of violence types and cases is a powerful
tool for advocating to local and national governments and
decision makers as well as funding agencies about the need
for violence prevention and treatment services and programs.

5. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Brief Presentation: Where we are
 Violence against children remains a serious problem in the
West African nation of Benin.
 Children live in danger of corporal punishment in school and
at home.
 Girls are vulnerable to sexual violence such as rape and
forced marriage.
 Trafficking of children across borders and economic
exploitation are also real dangers.
 The government of Benin has put in place actors to prevent
and respond to such incidents of violence against
children, which include Centers for Social Protection and
judicial resources such as judges and prosecutors who
specialize in child protection and children‟s rights.
 These resources, however, remain underused and
underfunded.

6. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Brief Presentation: Where we are
 Through its SMS helpline Plan Benin is encouraging higher
rates of reporting of violence against children by providing
citizens with a rapid and anonymous means of reporting.
 The mapping and management of reports in Ushahidi also
allows Plan Benin to have readily accessible data on the
extent of violence in the country that can be used in
advocacy efforts with central government actors.

7. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Brief Presentation: Where we are
 Plan Benin began receiving SMS reports of violence in July
2010.
 Messages are received by a FrontlineSMS system housed at
the national office in Cotonou.
 Messages are instantly forwarded to the project focal points
who are based in Plan‟s program offices in the departments
of Couffo and Atacora and now with BPM
 These focal points then help launch the investigation and
response by passing along the message to the relevant local
government actors.
 These focal points also publish each case to Plan Benin‟s
Ushahidi site: http://vacbenin.ushahidi.com .

8. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Brief Presentation: Where we are
 While resource realities currently demand a complex chain of
communication before cases actually reach the rural and
community-based government child protection actors the end
goal is to have this system taken over by Benin‟s Ministry of
the Family so that reports can go directly from victims to the
responders without Plan‟s facilitation and oversight.

9. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 How the system works
 Using a mobile phone, anyone witnessing or experiencing
violence against children sends an SMS report to a local,
easy to remember, number: 96008484
 The report is registered in the FrontlineSMS system
(www.frontlinesms.com) .
 The sender receives a “thank you for your message!” SMS to
acknowledge the report.
 The report is archived in FrontlineSMS (managed at CO
level by ICTM) and automatically sent to the back-end of the
Ushahidi system. An administrator at the PU level reviews
the report, geo-locating it on the map using the information
from the SMS message, and ticking off the type of violence
that was reported.

10. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 How the system works
 At the same time SMS alert goes out to local authorities and
frontline staff (ROC Team) who are responsible for child
protection in the community so that they can follow up to
research and verify the case and process it according to local
child protection laws.
 Local authorities can also use the incident map to plan
budgets, programs and support for victims of violence.
Children and youth are using Flip cameras and mobile
phones to gather and upload testimonies from children and
community members on the Ushahidi map also to generate
awareness and discussion about violence against children.


11. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 How the system works
 In summary, this project in Benin shows innovative and
integrated use of:
 new technology tools by youth, including Flip cameras and
mobile phones, to create media and conduct outreach with
their communities and the wider public
 mobile phones to crowd source reports of violence in the 2
pilot communities and now at country level
 geo-location and geo-visualization to support program
planning, management and advocacy
 mobile phones and the web to strengthen management of
cases of violence against children by local authorities
 social media tools for sharing the project process, sharing
learning, generating discussion and ideas, and promotion of
the project itself

12. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 How the system works

13. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 How the system works
 Live show: www.vacbenin.ushahidi.com &
 Technical & Admin Jobs:
 Message content: Name + Age + Sex + Locality + Type of
violence (all useful information to help ROC team and CPS
members to take action)
 Type of violence: categorize using UN study. We can add if
needed additional categories
 Location: map the incident on Benin map
 Evaluate the incident and approve on a dynamic manner:
status of each violence changes tacking into account reports
coming from field under ROC team supervision after
verification

15. Création d'un rapport public dans
Ushahidi

16. Ce que le public
peut voir
http://www.vacbenin.ushahidi.com

17. Ce que le public
peut voir

18. Ce que le public
peut voir

19. Ce que le public
peut voir
VAC Benin Ushahidi

20. Ce que le public
peut voir
VAC Benin Ushahidi

21. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
WORKFLOW

22. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
RESULTS
 About 128 alerts reporting violence against children approved and verified
 Support given to public authorities to give effective response on each case
 Institutional support given to CPS, BPM, Brigades to give response
 MoU signed with BPM
 Children trained and skilled to train their pairs, do campaign on local Radio and
TV and promote the system
 Mobile phones given to each children committee and media tool kit
 Local authorities trained to work using USHAHIDI project to do advocacy and
submit proposals for new projects at community level
 License agreement at final stage to get short code and finally green number
 geo-location and geo-visualization to support program planning, management
and advocacy and know the scope of VAC at country level

23. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Issues & Challenges
People calling instead of texting
Late Reporting back to update the system and take
action
Green number to be set up, government involvement
Easy known number
Weak Response given to abuse cases sometimes by
public authorities
Conflict to be avoided with existing response system
owned by the government
Work to improve the system in liaise with GSM
companies and catch widely violence against child
cases everywhere in the country
Voice Alert to incorporate voice reporting (convergence
of SMS and Voice)
Government buy-in
Spamming

24. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Project Next steps and way forward
 Get green number to facilitate message texting free of charge
 Transform current number and get easy knowm (no more
than 4 digits) number to facilitate usage by communities
 Get „‟Brigade de Protection des Mineurs‟‟ (BPM), cope child
protection system office, taking action effectively , according
to mémorandum of collaboration signed on the project.
 Work and get from all GSM operators a protocole to set SMS
for free or at a low cost on the project
 Work with each operator to implement the green number on
his system
 Continue advocacy with public authorities (ministry of
defense, interior, communications, social affairs, minors‟
judge, assembly, …) to get their buy-in, support and
involvment.
 Networking with other projects/NGOs

25. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 Project Next steps and way forward
 Monitor in liaise with WAR Social & Media Advisor all grants
funding to support the project
 Continue and re-enforce institutional support to child
protections system offices in order to give adequate response
to violence cases reported
 Train all structured children comitees (CVED, CEDA,
CEDEC) of our PUs Couffo & Atacora and give them support
to monitor all abuse cases reported and treated by ROC
team and public authorities at country level.
 Train all structured children comitees (CVED, CEDA,
CEDEC) of our PUs Couffo & Atacora to use medias tools
and techies to document violence against child cases.
 Work and advocate in order to get the project be
integrated into the Child Protection System in Benin and
managed fully by the government

26. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 ICT Responsibilities
 Manage all ICT technical's aspects (configurations,
implementation, reporting, …)
 Support, Train and Team capacity building
 Monitoring of the system (if needed)
 Point person on how achieve goals by using ICT (work with
program, communities, other NGOs, …)
 Technological eve
 Periodically upgrading the system when new versions of
FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi become available;
 Employing best practices with regard to the security of the
system;
 Providing periodic status reports on the functioning of
technical components; and Collaborating with other parties
on the implementation of new features and functionality as
the need arises.

27. USHAHIDI Project in Benin to
fight Violence Against Child
 CONCLUSION
 USHAHIDI project in Benin helps program to fight violence
against child
 It shows that rural community can use new technologies in
very simple manner to reduce violence against child and
sensitize authorities and communities on the scope of
violence against child
 This project shows that ICT can be used to achieve business
goals in various domain (Rights, Health, Food security,
Emergency, Education, …)
 The VAC Benin project is an exciting initiative that has the
potential to significantly raise the profile of violence against
children in Benin while contributing to the resolution of cases
where children have been abused, kidnapped, exploited, or
otherwise mistreated.

28. Thanks you for your attention.
I am happy to take questions.