Social Biometric Cards (SBC)

1. What problem are you committed to solving?

How to ensure the inclusion of identification systems for vulnerable people to facilitate access to services and benefits? in a way that protects people's health and the integrity of the ID system?

2. What kind of solution are you proposing?

Social Biometric Card (SBC) is a solution for the assistance to the most vulnerable people. Once these people have been identified and registered in a biometric file set up in collaboration with the Cameroonian government, they will be able to benefit from socioeconomic advantages (discounts or free services) in different sectors of activity (health, education, transport, housing, transport, etc. ).

3. How could your solution positively change lives if it was scaled globally?

SBC can help to reduce poverty in the world through international solidarity for a just and equitable world.

In Cameroon, the number of elderly people continues to increase from year to year; even if their demographic weight, around 5% (Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat, RGPH (2005)), is still quite low. According to the latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS, 2011), 5.4% of the population in Cameroon suffer from at least one disability (visual (2.2%), hearing (1.6%) and motor deficiencies. 1.2%)). It is also noted that 5.7% of the elderly people have at least one disability. According to the fourth Cameroonian Household Survey carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) in 2014 for a Cameroonian population estimated at 21,657,488 people in 2014, 37.5% are poor or 8,088,876 of people living below the poverty line which is 339,715 FCFA per adult equivalent and per year. These groups present economic and social vulnerabilities. To assist them, they must be identified and through the SBC they will benefit from the mechanisms of access to social protection.

The elderly people are a vulnerable group of people who must fight for themselves in order to have a decent living. They are often called to play a new role of parent by taking care of their grandchildren although they do not have enough means or conversely constitute a burden for their children who must take care of them. They are often subject to abandonment, abuse, violence and accusations of witchcraft affecting their physical and moral integrity. To understand the socio-economic situation of elderly people, it is necessary to understand the factors (environmental, political, legal, institutional, socio-economic and cultural) that influence the conditions of their life. We can distinguish the elderly people who exercise an economic activity, those who benefit from a pension income or a retirement pension, obviously have a source of potential income. Conversely, the elderly people who are unemployed, those who are inactive who have no source of income to ensure their daily subsistence. For the latter category, we particularly wish to offer them, through support structures, shelter, material and moral assistance and educational support, etc. It is therefore important to list them so that they could have advantages provided by the Social Biometric Card.

The importance of the social biometric card is to help the elderly people who don’t have decent living. This solution meets the objective of the Mission Billion Challenge Global Prize which aims to ensure the inclusion of identification systems for vulnerable people to facilitate access to services and benefits. 

Social Biometric Card is a innovative solution since it aims to help all categories of vulnerable people previously identified and registered. Since the Cameroonian government through the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education (MINJEC) in partnership with the Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale (CNPS) have set up the youth card and voluntary insurance to contribute to the social protection of young people and all volunteers, the social biometric card will boost the efforts of the Cameroonian government by focusing on the elderly people. In the end, since there is no social policy without financial means from the State, this card will be able to harmonize the tools so that there is only one more effective. created sufficient social worker posts to monitor and identify vulnerable people. This identification is based on spontaneous reports and also sometimes reports from doctors who are aware of the distress of certain families or schools. Identification is supported by a precise survey on the individual and family situation of the applicants in terms of income and behavior in daily life. The aid is based on income supplements that allow the legal minimum income to be reached. This aid is more and more conditional on the follow-up of training courses financed by the State. These training courses are the surest way to find or refind a job, the number 1 factor for getting out of poverty

The social biometic card is inspired by the biometric cards usually used in electoral, academic, professional or administrative identification systems. It has the particularity of focusing on the elderly as a pilot project, so it will consist in identifying them, enrolling them and raising awareness and then subsequently giving them the opportunity to benefit from the socioeconomic advantages. A preliminary sensitization will make it possible to interest them in the project and they themselves will come to the places indicated to register or they will be asked after a preliminary investigation. Being vulnerable people fragile by their age, teams will be able to go to them or their children could provide evidence to enroll their parents. A mobile application can be set up for them to fill online forms of identification and at home. In banks, hospitals and public administrations, forms will be made available to them so that they can subscribe to the biometric card free of charge.

The purpose of the social biometric card is to help the elderly. It aims to contribute to their social protection. The NGOs protecting and defending the rights of the elderly will be key players in this paradigm shift and will work in synergy with the Cameroonian government. In addition to the old age, invalidity and death pension insurance scheme for elderly people admitted to claiming their right to retirement, elderly people without income will be taken into account. With the help of the Cameroonian government, it will be a question of seeing to what they can also benefit from social assistance and to be considered as a priority in all services. This card will also promote the traditional values of family solidarity by involving all family members caring for their elderly parents by making commissions for the latter. As activities, it will take a preliminary study to identify all the elderly people first in the city of Yaoundé, then in all the regional capitals so as to cover all the national triangle. This identification will be done in two ways as explained previously, either the targeted people come directly to the previously identified places, register or can register through a mobile application. After registration, depending on the services required, they will have to present their card for reductions or free access to services. By proxy, those in charge of their elderly parent will be able to use this card because the aim is to help the elderly as much as possible to preserve their strength, the long queues and risks associated with travel as currently the Covid 19.

The social biometric card can be incorporated into the identification systems by creating a sub-folder in the government files which contain all the personal data of Cameroonian citizens. As much as individuals have passport identity cards, the biometric card would be a tool for identifying people in need of social assistance and in the particular case of the elderly it can be referred to as the old people card.

The social biometric card is "user-friendly" to integrate into a digital identification system because it concerns personal data for some already identifiable and for others to be identified through surveys of morality on the income of target populations.

The social biometric card is interoperable with existing technologies and open standards as it is an extension of these functionalities. This solution is inspired by the existing and therefore global to restrict the applicability to the most vulnerable elderly people in a security or health crisis.

The social biometric card takes into account environments with low connectivity and users with a low level of literacy and numeracy by the fact that teams can go to target populations or wait for them to register them in places usually frequented by elderly ie hospitals or banks. Training will be considered to build the capacity of the elderly to use the social card or they can get help from a third party.

The current number of people you’re serving:0

The number you’ll be serving in one year: 500

The number you’ll be serving in five years:2500

Our objectives over the next year and the next five years are to make the populations aware of the existence of the social biometric card and to invite the elderly to subscribe to benefit from the advantages of this card. For a start; it will be a question of implementing this pilot project but by replicating, millions of elderly people throughout Cameroon could be of benefit.

The obstacles that currently prevent us from achieving our goals over the next year and the next five years are the lack of cooperation with state services. The youth and voluntary insurance cards have been put in place by the Cameroonian government so if the project idea of the social biometric card would come to be accepted by the World Bank as part of this challenge, the impetus will be positive to boost the implementation of this idea.

To overcome these obstacles, the result of this competition will be the positive trigger. With the support of the World Bank, the social biometric card project can only be validated by the Cameroonian government and the rest of the steps will be put in place through national collaborations.

Full-time staff:10

Part-time staff: 20

Contractors : 0

Other workers: 0

The Green Mains collective is a group of about thirty participants who work to promote respect for the environment and public health . As part of our brainstorming sessions on current issues among others we have formulas the idea of assistance to the elderly, especially for medical care. The team is made up of environemtalits and doctors and in terms of background we have organized health and sanitation campaigns and we wish to work in partnership with the National Youth Center, the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education, and National Social Security Fund to set up the social biometric card.

Our partners:

Association Nkongsamba Connexion, Association for the promotion of innovative research applied to agriculture, tourism and the environment (APRIAATE) and Association Action Life Cameroon. 

We act with our partners in the exchange of skills and synergies of action for the achievement of common objectives.

Social Business :

Source of income: membership fees, donations, aid from the Cameroonian government.
Actors: Green Hands collectives and partners and all volunteers.
external collaborators: Ministry of Youth and Civic Education, National Youth Center and the National Social Security Fund.
Activities in line with the establishment of the social biometric card for ELDERY people.

OUR path to financial sustainability:

subvention from the Cameroonian government, donations in kind or in cash.

Membership fees

Cash donations

Donations in kind: sound system, conference room, tents, medicines etc.

Fundraising will be considered for the launch of the social biometric card project:

Expected funding amount: variable

Type of funding: Cameroonian government subvention and donations

Fundraising date: December 2020

Estimated expenditure for the annual health campaign organized in the city of Nkongsama for the year 2020 amounts to 2000 US dollars.

Expenses to budget to make the social biometric card idea operational. No financial study has been undertaken for this project idea.