Etana

Etana is a cost-efficient device that enables women in developing countries to create a unique identity without having access to the internet or electricity.

Etana, a cost efficient device that enables women in developing countries to create a unique biometric identity without having access to the internet or electricity. Storing these women’s unique and private data on an immutable and decentralized ledger, the blockchain creates an online ID which entails less bureaucratic costs and prevents data manipulation. Etana uses advanced AI/ML to generate math-based signatures that are fully anonymous, and which cannot be hacked, faked, cloned or stolen. More importantly, because the signatures are not linked to Real ID or any personal info or stored secret, there is nothing to track, leak or steal.

In order to create a unique ID, a 2G phone is used to text the device with help of the SMS chip included in its design. This activates the registration process and then prompts the user to input their fingerprint through the scanner provided. Etana then encrypts the fingerprint into a cryptographic hash using, and sends the hash of the fingerprint to the blockchain through SMS to a public blockchain identifiable only by the fingerprint, and associated with all of the data that is input. 

1.2 billion people do not really exist. Alive but invisible, they have no drivers license or national ID card, and without one, they can't own property, or vote. They can't receive government services, and perhaps most importantly, collect any money to their name. Of the people without identification 63% of them live in lower-middle income economies while 28% live in low income economies. Additionally, 45% of women lack a foundational ID compared to 30% of men in low income countries. This reinforces that lack of identification is a critical concern for the global poor, and more specifically women in poverty. As the access gaps are continuously growing larger, women in poverty are at the greatest risk for being left behind. Full economic parity was 257 years away before the pandemic, and now this has been pushed 4 decades behind.

Major global identification services all work to provide identification for the hundreds of millions without, but are leaving out a very important group of people. These technology startups utilize smartphones and the internet to prove and verify identification. They build SDKs and mobile wrappers designed for Android and iOS devices, failing to realize that the biggest barrier between those with identification and without, is SES (socioeconomic status), gender, and accessibility. To reach the vulnerable women in remote areas that are at the greatest risk of being left behind, startups should keep the majority in mind, and work to create gender responsive devices, softwares, and solutions.

Etana was designed for populations marginalized in society and whose vulnerabilities could be exacerbated by being without an ID. Of the 1.2 billion people worldwide unable to prove their identity, a disproportionate number are women and girls. As a consequence, women in poverty are more likely to be socially, politically, digitally and financially excluded from accessing key services and systems.

Equal access to identification is key for women to fully participate in the economy. This is true now more than ever, as countries around the world are looking for solutions to mitigate the disruptive effects of the coronavirus/COVID-19. Countries with trusted and fully inclusive identification systems will be better equipped to disburse relief payments quickly and securely. Ensuring that women have a recognized form of identification can help address some of the root causes of this imbalance. Identification opens access to education, employment, health care, and government services, such as social protection.

Having a legal identity allows for women to open accounts in their own name, maintain confidentiality of her savings, and exert greater control over how her funds are spent.  As the ID4D report indicates, when women control their own finances, they exert more decision-making power in their households, feel more confident, and are more active politically and socially. Universal identification benefits businesses as well. Financial institutions that begin to serve more women clients will see gains as the women utilize multiple products from these institutions and refer others to them.

When I started working with the United Nations over the summer, the women in my family were my inspiration. All strong and intelligent, they were met with cultural barriers constantly trying to reduce them to nothing. I spent the summer looking at the devastating impact that COVID-19 pandemic had on women and girls, while evaluating how deeply gender inequality remains embedded in the world’s political, social and economic systems. Gender is a different concept in developing countries, especially ones in East Africa. As the access gap is continuously growing larger and larger, women in poverty are at the greatest risk of being left behind. Perhaps what fueled my interest and passion, the women often being left behind take the form of me, my cousins, my sisters and the women generations years before me. 

My experience with my research and the background of my family bred the idea of Etana. Since then, I have been able to work with Caribou Digital on identifying some of the biggest barriers between women and identification, paired with exactly what it means for them. I also started computational epidemiology research at Northwestern University, looking at the economic access gap through gender globally. 

Gender bias leads to missed market opportunities. In engineering, for example, considering short people “out-of-position” drivers leads to greater injury in automobile accidents. In computer vision, facial recognition trained on biased datasets may not recognize women as well as men or darker skinned persons as well as those with lighter skin, meaning that darker women may not be recognized at all.  We can't afford to get the research wrong.

Special attention must be paid to understanding women’s unique experiences, and the situation of populations who are already marginalized in society and whose vulnerabilities could be exacerbated by being without an ID. Identification startups need to account for the barriers that women face across a variety of contexts, and look at past methods of interference and their success.  Despite programs targeted at bringing women into the financial system, they continue to face barriers to accessing the financial products and services that they need. This can include things like mobility constraints, lack of collateral, and an access gap leaving them with no internet or electricity. One of the persistent and lasting barriers is that financial products are not designed with the needs and constraints of low-income women in mind.

Etana doesn't require a large amount of initial funding to begin developing the product, as all of the materials are easily attainable, and the computational side of Etana is complete. Aside, Etana requires $4,000 in initial funding to being selling the product, and $10,000 for a patent.  

In the process of using computer-aided design to map out prototypes, we have been able to create a full visual working model, and come up with a unit price of $48.6USD. 

We have successfully developed a social enterprise business plan, and have been obtaining money for out pilot through individual investors, and grants provided through separate organizations, especially the united nations. 

Etana utilizes multiple different types of technology. This includes biometric identification technology, blockchain, distributed hash servers, linux distributors, and AI/machine learning. 

In order to create a unique ID, a 2G phone is used to text the device with help of the SMS chip. This activates the registration process and prompts the user to input their fingerprint. Etana then encrypts the fingerprint into a cryptographic hash, and sends the hash of the fingerprint to the blockchain through SMS to a public blockchain.  Fingerprint hashing is merging fingerprint recognition and cryptographic methods. The aim is to perform a recognition using fingerprint while, at the same time, hiding the private information related to the fingerprint, thus enabling public fingerprint templates.

Storing these women’s unique and private data on an immutable and decentralized ledger, the blockchain creates an online ID which entails less bureaucratic costs and prevents data manipulation. Etana uses advanced AI/ML to generate math-based signatures that are fully anonymous. 

One-way hash function is a kind of file fingerprint technology, its generated hash value is equivalent to the message ‘fingerprint’. One-way hash function can calculate the hash value according to the content of the message. For any message, the one-way hash function treats it as a pure bit sequence. Just as everyone has a different fingerprint, each message has a different hash value that can be used to check the consistency or integrity of the message.

Etana does not currently serve any customers at the moment. 

In regards to our projected outcome in one year: 

Etana is meant to be hosted in a range of centralized areas like schools, churches, markets and shops. A service designed for only women, it is catered to fit the experience women face while obtaining and using identity credentials.

Upon reaching our target funding, and gradually gaining investors/receiving grants, we will be able to reach 400,000 women in the very first year. All of these women will be able to have unique biometric ideas, allowing for them to participate fully in their economy. 

In the next year, we hope to have piloted the device in multiple target areas, with a high success and impact rate. Hopefully these individual economies will slowly start to see a gradual and positive change, and the women granted identification will be provided with the full bodily autonomy they didn't have prior. 

This entire design process, we constantly looked for innovative ways and ideas to both help women, and introduce a new but helpful device to biometric technology. By focusing on women, we are looking to empower half of the world's population, and provide freedom, safety, and insurance to the people that need it most. 

As its use does not call for electricity or internet, it makes it suitable for women in remote areas, or ones in humanitarian emergencies such as refugee camps, victims in transitional justice processes, or women in environmental disasters. It works to reduce the social exclusion gap through a digital ID that will allow the access of legal and social welfare systems, and the financial inclusion of unbanked women which ultimately pursues the realization of their economic prosperity and empowers them to reach their full potential, and bridges the gap economically between them and the rest of the world. 

We hope that with a little more time and work, Etana will start helping build a gender inclusive digital economy.

Full economic parity was 257 years away before the pandemic started. COVID-19 has pushed this 4 decades behind. We plan to measure progress in its accordance to how COVID-19 has furthered the access gap for women.

As women in remote areas saw the biggest change, we put the focus on them and are looking to see an increase in identification, leading to an increase in voting, bank accounts, ownership of land, etc. 

The biggest barrier in the successful pilot and development of Etana regards its work as a social enterprise. Almost all of the money used for Etana calls for grants, crowdsource funding, and individual investments. 

Funding seems to be the biggest future barrier for Etana. Literature identified that most social enterprises failed to secure start-up capital. Given that most of the social entrepreneurs are individual entities, it is therefore difficult to accumulate enough funds at the beginning. Over time some ventures flourish but a vast majority of the ventures struggle to maintain its existence and sustainability due to capital or ongoing sources of income. The traditional support mechanisms, such as – bank or financial institutions that foster the development of social enterprises is quite scarce as compared to commercial enterprises.

When I started working with the United Nations over the summer, the women in my family were my inspiration. I researched the devastating impact that COVID-19 had on women and girls, and evaluated how deeply gender inequality remains embedded in the world’s political, social and economic systems. With the access gap growing larger, women in poverty are at the greatest risk of being left behind. As a first generation low income student, my interest and passion for gender equitable tech came from direct experience. With no traditional access to the appropriate technology, software, and resources to learn computer programming, I started learning computer science from youtube and code.org just from pure curiosity. I'd often find open source code, taking guesses and dissecting the parts to understand how it fully ran.

With an eventual base knowledge of computer science, and a passion for creating gender equitable tech, I worked for months on developing a project they called Etana, a Swahili girls name meaning dedication, peace, and prosperity. I spent months working to learn the basics of python through C/C++, later matching that with blockchain specialization and machine learning. My goal: a device that would run with no electricity or internet. 

This proved to be the most challenging part in the design of Etana. I as developers realized that women are very limited in both where they live and their resources. We were forced to approach this idea very creative and unconventional, making sure that it was safe, private, efficient, and constantly kept these women’s best interests in heart.  

Northwestern University - Computational Epidemiology Research at the Socio-emotional and Health Lab to work on the development of Etana in regards to need, specific areas, and specific women.

United Nations/UN Women - Partnered as a startup company and social nonprofit enterprise with their help on product delivery. Assisting in sector-specific knowledge, and working to help UN improve efficiency and scale up solutions to global development challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating pandemic on women and girls, and the fallout has shown how deeply gender inequality remains embedded in the world political, social, and economic systems. As the access gap is continuously growing larger, girls in poverty are at the greatest risk of being left behind. Identification for these women will allow them to access services such as health care, education, as well as secure fair employment, open bank accounts, and enable them to participate politically and socially. It grants them power over their decisions, full bodily autonomy verified under the law.

I started building Etana with little to no prior base of computer science, but my goal: create a device that would run with no electricity or internet. 

This proved to be the most challenging part in the design of Etana. I realized that girls are very limited in both where they live and their resources. We were forced to approach this idea very creative and unconventional, making sure that it was safe, private, efficient, and constantly kept these women and girl's best interests in heart.  

I was 14 years old when I first fell in love with coding, and I'm just 15 now. I designed Etana for women and girls who remind me of myself. I would call them dreamers met with cultural barriers constantly trying to reduce them to nothing. 

The HP Girls Save the World Prize would make sure that this is a device and product that is entirely gender responsive, with their best interest in heart. It will give me the flexibility to manufacture a cost efficient and reliable device that works the best for women and girls across a variety of contexts.

For most people in the developed world, the right to an identity is so fundamental we hardly realize we have it. Each time we flash a card or input a number, we’re essentially saying, “I exist. I belong.” With a legally recorded identity, we become citizens of society. We are able to enjoy essential social services like health care and judicial protection.

These women and girls don’t have that privilege. Without an identity, they will never flourish. Without proper ID documents, terminology that that they are not people before the law. They are thrown into a systematically oppressive world on the basis of gender and expected to survive with the little they are given.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating pandemic on women and girls, and the fallout has shown how deeply gender inequality remains embedded in the world political, social, and economic systems. As the access gap is continuously growing larger, girls in poverty are at the greatest risk of being left behind. Identification for these women will allow them to access services such as health care, education, as well as secure fair employment, open bank accounts, and enable them to participate politically and socially. It grants them power over their decisions, full bodily autonomy verified under the law.

I started building Etana with little to no prior base of computer science, but my goal: create a device that would run with no electricity or internet. This proved to be the most challenging part in the design of Etana. I realized that girls are very limited in both where they live and their resources. We were forced to approach this idea very creative and unconventional, making sure that it was safe, private, efficient, and constantly kept these women and girl's best interests in heart.  

Etana has the ability to provide identification and remittance to some of the most vulnerable populations, it works to address the risks of technical, social and data complications, as well as misuse and abuse with an emphasis on cases in large-scale centralized ID systems. With hopes of becoming a secure identity service that revolutionizes the way women in developing countries participate in a range of activities. 

Identification does improve quality of life for women. As its use does not call for electricity or internet, it makes it suitable for women in remote areas, or ones in humanitarian emergencies such as refugee camps, victims in transitional justice processes, or women in environmental disasters. It works to reduce the social exclusion gap through a digital ID that will allow the access of legal and social welfare systems, and the financial inclusion of unbanked women which ultimately pursues the realization of their economic prosperity and empowers them to reach their full potential, and bridges the gap economically between them and the rest of the world. 

This entire design process, we constantly looked for innovative ways and ideas to both help women, and introduce a new but helpful device to biometric technology. By focusing on women, we are looking to empower half of the world's population, and provide freedom, safety, and insurance to the people that need it most. We hope that with a little more time and work, Etana will start helping build a gender inclusive digital economy