ID for Street Children - ID4SC

75,000 children live on the streets in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). They are "the children of nobody", homeless, helpless and often hopeless. They are always in a survival mode, and ignored in there identify. Street children are marginalized urban people, stigmatized and discriminated, living in extreme poverty with no physical address. The vulnerability of their social environment include abuse, drugs, thefts, crime, insecurity, prostitution etc.. The physical and emotional distress of the street children call for a sustainable solution that should start by the acquisition of proper identification. We are implementing an ID program with the street children, and not only for them, using a peer-to-peer identification, mapping, education and enrollment. The beneficiaries will assist in engaging their peers in discussions about legal and social issues that create trust, demand for formal ID, and ultimately facilitate access to health care, education and social services. 

In Burkina Faso, the number of children in need for protection and assistance increased from 35,000 in 2019 to 68,000 in 2019, due to growing violence and insecurity in the Central Sahel region (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger). As the Corona virus pandemic spreads across the region, violence against children continues to rise. Insecurity has led to the displacement of more than 838,000 people; 61 percent of whom are children. Most of the children on the streets in the main cities across the country are runaways, abandoned, orphaned, or sent to beg in urban areas. An estimated 75,000 are on the street of Ouagadougou, the capital city with a population of 2.1 million. The street children are composed of young children and adolescents and young persons between the age of 5 and 18. They are forgotten and unknown to the national and local administrations. They do not have perceived need for identification and do not use the health or administration services. A formal ID is indispensable to receive regular support and benefits; It facilitates access to health care, social services, and most importantly the reintegration of the children in their families of origin, and into the society. 

Street children are groups of people that are the most marginalized populations in urban settings. They are often discriminated, rejected, stigmatized and living in extreme poverty. Their growing number is staggering especially in metropolitan areas in Africa and Asia. They are very often victim of abuse and neglect and lack basic decent clothing, hygiene and health care. In Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, a city of about 2.1 million inhabitants, there are about 75,000 street children, most of them hanging out in the downtown area. The majority has lost family ties and a few still have a living family member. It is important to design a program with these children - not only for them - and get them involved as peer recruiters, counselors and facilitators of the identification process. Our  program will empower these young people in distress, in need of care and protection, to prepare for a favorable environment for their reinsertion in society. The provision of an ID is an indispensable step to assisting with the legal needs, the well-being that will then allow to address issues related to the lack of health care, education, social assistance and housing.

Street children are marginalized people with no identification and no physical address, and most may have lost family ties, which complicates their insertion in society. We will first identify a few through key informants, and systematically map out and get assistance from each beneficiary to enroll their peers into the program through a peer-to-peer education and sensitization approach. We will use recorded-transcribed personal information including names, known previous address and location, name and address of guardian, or close family member (if any) to issue barcoded printed card with a voucher to facilitate their ID processing at the local ID office.

To our knowledge it is the first time that the provision of ID to a group of people includes a peer-to-peer education, sensitization about legal issues to generate demand for official identification. It is a demand-generation with a participatory ID procurement process that boost self-esteem, autonomy and formal recognition. A peer-to-peer sensitization and enrollment approach has a snowball effect that creates a climate of trust among the beneficiaries, and builds confidence for the long term. Further, the issuance of a temporary card with ID photo and a barcode is an incentive that stimulates and encourages others to come forward.

Our program is designed with the beneficiaries not only for them. They are actively included in each step of the process and contribute to the discussions about social and legal issues surrounding homelessness, lack of identification, reintegration into society, human rights. We want to hear from the street children, work with them, and give them a voice and a recognition before given them and ID. Our comprehensive approach to identification of vulnerable people, de-stigmatizes, builds self-confidence, and contributes to the sustainability of the outcomes in terms of ID possession and social reintegration. Very few or none of the associations, institutions or organizations working and assisting street children are involved in self-involvement, participatory enrollment or open discussions focused on legal and social issues with the beneficiaries; as a result, they end up with a lot of failures in terms of family reunification, or social reintegration. 

We will collect and analyze information about key informants, associations, nongovernmental organizations, and institutions providing assistance to children and adolescents in need. We will use the information to map out the physical location of the street children within the city. We will conduct field introductions with a few potential beneficiaries. We will do interviews then initiate discussions around the social issues and needs for identification. Once we establish a climate of trust and confidence, we will enroll the first beneficiaries into the program, collate personal information including names of the enrollee, date of birth (or approximate age) name and addresses of known relatives, and location of temporary housing. The information will be recorded using a Dictaphone and then transferred to a computer for transcription and barcoding. Also, we will take a photo of the beneficiary to be included in a temporary card that will be printed with a voucher. The voucher will allow later to process, free of charge, the official ID card from the local ID administration.

The temporary card with photo and voucher will be an incentive that we will use to bring in new beneficiaries in a snowball approach. Each participant in the program will be requested to assist in detecting and enrolling their peers. It is a peer to peer snowball enrollment through education, discussion and sensitization about homelessness, social and legal issues with the goal of securing commitment and adherence to the ID program.   

Our solution to accelerating ID provision for vulnerable children and adolescents is based on the following: 

1) baseline information underlying the need and the magnitude of the problem, which is the growing number of street children with no formal identification

2) the recognition of the challenges for ID acquisition for people with no physical address and almost non existent family ties, and inexistence of birth certificate or legal documents that could allow proper identification  

3) The absence of demand or perceived need for formal ID documents from the people who are discriminated and stigmatized. The key factors that are addressing the issue of absence of formal identification, include the creation of an enabling environment with trust and confidence, that will assist beneficiaries  in learning, discussing legal and social matters. The critical element and the driving vehicle of the whole process is the peer-to-peer enrollment using education, sensitization approaches.

The objective is to assist in collating key information indispensable to proceed with individual ID dossier and to successfully get an ID issued by official services. Our Theory supports the fact that the ID process should be participatory and involve from the beginning, the beneficiaries who are part of the process and the key actors of the ID program. The peer-to-peer education and the participatory approach are key toe the durability of the program and it is a path to maintaining the ultimate goals of social reinsertion.  

Our solution provides an opportunity to enroll a significant number of individuals in need of identification. We are actually channeling the ID seekers to the identification services using a psychological and anthropological approach to secure attendance for individuals, who at the starting point, are not demanding for ID services. The provision of formal ID to street children is very challenging to official ID services, because the ID seekers have no physical address, no birth certificate, and more often no recent ties or linkages with relatives or family members. We are acting as a broker and a facilitator for ID acquisition for homeless children and adolescents. We are trying to collate the data indispensable for ID processing. Our assistance in terms of screening, gathering information and ensuring a successful reinsertion of the street children into society, is therefore highly valuable. Our solution could easily be integrated into the routine identification process at the national and local level. The voucher will include the exact cost of the ID processing, official stamps costs, and other fees that are required by the national ID offices. It will take off the need for payment from the ID seeker. 

From voice-recording to transcription and barcode printing, our solution is easy to take and roll everywhere. It is field friendly, easy and almost entirely mobile. We use voucher that is printed with a photo and readily handed over to the beneficiary. The barcode is readable by any barcode apps. We use basic tools in the process: a laptop computer, a Dictaphone with recording and transcription capacity, and a camera.

We will use transcription from voice recorder and barcodes that can be read by any smartphone apps. Our solution is fully interoperable with existing and usual equipment and systems on the market. The data is portable and can be transferred, downloaded or inputted into a regular database. We use free and available technologies, and open source applications without any proprietary software.

Our solution does not need internet. We do not use sophisticated high-hand systems or devices. We will use basic devices and equipment in the program, which include a camera, a recorder - Dictaphone and a laptop computer. All recording, data transfers, transcription, data processing, printing are done offline using Bluetooth. The participants do not need to use any phone, and they do not need internet connection. Our solution does not require any numeracy or literacy skills from the beneficiaries.

We have not launched our solution yet and therefore do not serve any of our targets. In the first year, we expect to enroll 17,000 beneficiaries. We envisage the program will rapidly gain traction and momentum to help quadruple the number of participants. By year 5 we would be able to enroll about 67,000 street children and young homeless people in the city of Ouagadougou.

We are hoping to reach 80% of the children in the city of Ouagadougou by the end of the five years of the program. We are targeting 17,000 persons to start with, and progressively we will reach 67,000 persons in five years in one city. We will explore the feasibility of reach out to other cities in the country: Bobo Dioualasso, Koudougou, Kaya etc.

We are deploying a new solution that may face some challenges and barriers:

1/ the lack of understanding about the approach and how the solution works; and therefore the need to educate participants and public officials about the problem and the proposed solution

2 / The lack of demand and the need to always explain why an official identification is necessary for marginalized groups of people

3 / The need to secure a buy-in, support and collaboration with the local administration

4 / The need to have trained assistants who speak various local languages to be able to communicate with the beneficiaries and overcome language barriers

5 / Absence of funding 

We plan to work with local NGOs who are already in contact with homeless children. We have already identified three organizations including Association Teega Wenda, Keeongo, AMPO and SOS village des enfants. These organizations will be assisting us to smooth the process at the start up. We anticipe that the first beneficiaries will be reached using key informants from these organizations. We will rely on our networks and relationships within the local administrations to build strong a collaborative space, especially with the ID services. 

We have three full time staff members and a contractor who will carry out the day-to-day activities:

1. Achille Kabore, MD, MPH, Ph.D. a public health expert in charge of planning and partnership building

2. Thierry Sarr, MSC. an engineer will be in charge of programming to make sure all the barcoding, photos, recording, transcription and individual vouchers are bundled in a single package 

3. Madeleine Konkobo, Ph.D. is a socio-anthropologist who will help design the framework and the discussion modules and roll these in the field.

4. Barry Cheick MD, MPH. is a contractor and a community specialist in charge of field monitoring and supervision.

We have a strong and experienced team of professionals who have lived and worked in the city where the program will be implemented.  

Achille Kabore MD, MPH, PhD is a public health expert and a medical doctor who has worked as chief medical officer in a health district in Ouagadougou. He has extensive experience in civil society engagement, has published numerous articles in peer review journals and has experience in social mobilization and communication. he has worked as contractor for SOS Children Villages - a local nongovernmental organization assisting street children in Burkina Faso. he has conducted studies in urban settings for immunization programs. In 2019, Dr. Achille was nominated by UN-Habitat for his innovation related to the creation of income generating activities for vulnerable young persons living in urban settings.

Madeleine Konkobo, PhD is a socio-anthropology professor with over 20 years of practice with significant experience working with vulnerable populations including children. She is teaching socio-anthropology at the university of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. She is well versed in psychosocial approaches related to education of vulnerable children.

Thierry Sarr MSC, is an engineer with more than 10 years of experience. He is a information technology expert who won an innovation prize in 2018. Mr. Sarr has several other patented tools and other novel projects underdevelopment.    

Barry Cheick MD, MPH is a community development expert with over 10 years of experience. Doctor Barry has expertise working will vulnerable people including refugees, women and children suffering or exposed to violence. 

We expect to collaborate with SOS village des enfants a local nongovernmental organization. We have contact with Association CASE in Burkina Faso - a group working in income generation activities for vulnerable populations in urban settings. Also, we are currently targeting nongovernmental organizations in the city of Ouagadougou. These organizations will be assisting us to reach our targets - the street children and young homeless persons. Some of these organizations have temporary shelters hosting street children. We expected to build a strong cooperation and strong support from the managers and the staff members of their organizations. We anticipate they will facilitate the contacts with the street children, but also assist in locating the whereabouts of most of them. Our mapping process will rely on the information that we would collate from these NGOs. 

Our business model is around brokering for ID services and assisting vulnerable people to get official ID documents using a peer-to-peer education, sensitization, along with a participatory approach all the way long. Our client base is the street children. Our model is essentially focused on working with the children and not just for them to built trust and assist them to generate demand for ID and take them through the process that will lead to the acquisition of a formal ID card. Our model is an ID demand generation, self confidence building for clients, a pre-screening, mapping and data collection to facilitate ID procurement. Our automated procedures that provides funds for ID services -using a voucher that pays for the charges - the personal data is a critical accelerator and a problem solver for both the ID administration and our clients.  

We are targeting ID agencies, and will work to get local administration buy in into the program. We will advocate and do donor engagement by showcasing the very practical comprehensive approach that we have developed. In the long run we expect that the national ID services will be provide resources including regular grants to allow the solution to scale up. We hope we can become a contractor that allow the national ID service to reach its goals of providing ID to all the citizen of country. 

We have not raised any funds yet. But, our initiative is getting traction from local authorities and partners. We plan to do intensive advocacy and do fundraising to secure the necessary funding to launch the program 

We are looking to secure about $161,400 to launch the activities. We are hoping to get sponsorship from organizations working with children. At the moment our staff members are dedicating their time to developing strategies, and to volunteering to lay out the groundwork that including planning, advocating, donor engagement framework, and tools development for the program.

The budget for the first year is composed of startup fees, transportation, equipment, and charges including program staff time. In total the budget is $161,400 with the details below:

-  ($16,000) for laptop computers including a server, printers 

- ($12,000) for cameras and Dictaphones

- ($4,500) Initial vouchers  

- ($3,500) training costs 

-  ($9,000) for four assistants salaries 

- ($2,000) for barcodes, folders, printing supplies and stationary 

- ($12,400) Program management staff per-diems 

- ($21,000) for office rental 

- We will use $68,000 for transportation, 

- ($8,000) fuel for 12 months 

- ($40,000) rental of 4 vehicles and 4 motorcycles for 12 months

- ($10,000) transport reimbursement for assistants 

- ($10,000) for social media, website development 

- ($13,000) for social and community mobilization 

 Our ID program needs to overcome challenges including the lack of sustainable funding stream to anchor the initiative in the landscape of social service providers. The Global Prize provides a worldwide exposure and an opportunity to fast-track the development of solutions in response to critical issues. A global price will take our ID program initiative to the next level by providing more traction and more visibility. It is expected that if we win, the news will be aired to local mass media, to the social media and newspapers. We will then use this exposure to build more partnership, and ultimately help recruit more ID seekers. 

As a startup initiative, we aim to build more capacity and quickly reach out to our target. in this regard, we will will collaborate with organizations working with street children, to help us share some costs as we aims towards the same goals and target the same populations. We expect to build a coalition with these civil society organizations to better market our solution widely. The partnership is also critical to build a long term cross-fertilization strategy that is beneficial to all parties and fruitful. Our goal is to gain credibility and recognition and rapidly scale up of solution through strong and durable partnership.  

We aim to build partnership with UNICEF and Save-The-Children. These two organizations are well-known and they have child protection programs. In addition, they are international organizations with local representations in Burkina Faso. A partnership with these two organizations will yield possibilities in terms of potential sponsoring for our work with street children. We expect to benefit from their vast channels and networks to reach more children in needs. A partnership with the two organization will give more credibility and visibility to our ID program. It is likely that experts from these institutions will bring their expertise and experience to help improve our approaches. Further, we will be taking the initiative to other cities where the need is, using the partnership and the networks of  nongovernmental organizations that are already partnering with the two organizations.

A key element of the partnership is the social marketing that we will build will local small organizations - including youth associations, women association etc. - these groups will be instrumental to reaching the objective of social reinsertion and family reunification that we would like to undertake through our ID programming for the street children. 

Also, we would like to partners with local administration in charge of ID provision. We will be assisting these services to fast-track the procurement of IDs for street children and homeless adolescents.