VoiceIT

Gender-based violence impacts negatively on the health, rights, psyche and, economic status of the survivors with those in fragile and conflict settings more susceptible to abuse. WHO declared Gender-based violence as a global pandemic that affects 1 in 3 women in their lifetime. According to UNODC (2022), more than 5 women are killed every hour by someone in their own family. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are victims of sexual assault before the age of 18 (CDC). UNFPA also reported that about 31 million additional cases of gender-based violence was projected to occur due to COVID-19 prolonged lockdown. In Nigeria alone, 31% of women aged 15-49 years will have experienced sexual abuse (NDHS, 2018). These are further exacerbated by poverty, harmful gender norms practices or stereotyping, patriarchy, war and conflict as seen in most northern part of Nigeria and some African countries. Sadly, behind this gruesome statistics are faces of human beings- vulnerable children, young and adult women, people with disability, adolescent girls and boys. Despite increasing technology penetration and use, many survivors still don’t know where to go to seek help or report to. So many GBV cases go unreported and even when they do, victims face stigma and discrimination, don’t get justice or needed healthcare services that will enable them heal. Additionally, due to weak health systems, reported cases of violence/abuse are still been manually documented at health facilities. This process is cumbersome, prone to errors and grossly inefficient. Lack of effective technology driven data reporting and collection processes leads to inaccurate data that will aid evidence informed decision making, programs design and interventions most especially in underserved communities and fragile contexts like Nigeria.

VoiceIT (www.voiceit.africa) provides a sefe, easy-to-use and confidential digital health platform that helps survivors/users to timely report cases of violence/abuse and connect with verified healthcare providers, organizations, expert mental health counsellors via web and mobile phone. Besides, young people can access verified and preventive focused resources (text, short videos) on gender norms, consent and Sexual and reproductive health to build their capacity, chat or connect with a verified experts- Doctors, psychologists or trained mental health counselors, share their stories and engage with a role model/survivor. Furthermore, VoiceIT is giving power and voice to young people especially young and adult women, adolescent girls and boys in a way that is confidential, non-judgmental and non-discriminatory. VoiceIT also aggregates and provides real-time AI-driven gender disaggregated data and analytics to help improve reporting, health service uptake and evidence generation for policy and program planning.

VoiceIT has 5 major features:

• Report Case- where users can report anonymously cases of violence/abuse and attach any evidence (audio, video)
• Organizations- a directory of various trained service providers where users can easily search and connect with providers nearest to them
• Consultants/Experts- users can book sessions with trained experts such as Doctors, Lawyers, Psychologist, Counsellors, Law Enforcement Agents etc
• Knowledge Hub- users can access verified resources/information on gender norms, sexual and reproductive health, consent etc both in text and short animated videos
• Web data dashboard where reported cases can be visualized in a gender and location disaggregated format, infographics, charts for actionable insights and decision making.

VoiceIT serves vulnerable adolescent girls and boys, young women and adult women including those in underserved communities, fragile contexts such as conflict, IDP camps etc. individuals and corporates who require digital mental health and safeguarding services for their staff can leverage also VoiceIT technology. VoiceIT will help increase reporting of GBV cases which naturally would have gone unreported especially among vulnerable individuals and communities. VoiceIT aim is to reduce the incidence of violence through its prevention focused information while improving health outcomes and productivity of survivors of violence. In addition, VoiceIT will help improve efficiency within the health system by providing digital platform for health workers to effectively document reported cases of violence as against the current paper-based form which is cumbersome, prone to errors and grossly inefficient. Paucity of reliable data also exist to enable decision makers plan, design policies, guidelines and programs that will impact positively on the health and wellbeing of survivors.

 

Many cases of violence go unreported across communities due to lack of effective digital reporting platform like VoiceIT. This could have an untold impact on the survivor as most survivors will not access needed healthcare services in a timely manner in a way that is confidential, non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing. This could further predispose many to more violence, preventable conditions like HIV and STIs, early pregnancy, mental health problems, injuries and sometimes death.

 

The impact of VoiceIT is enormous as it has the potential to transform the healthcare system at scale. VoiceIT will give power and voice to adolescent girls and boys, young and adult women in a way that protects their right and ensures unrestricted access to healthcare services via technology. With increasing technology penetration, users will be able to safely report cases of violence and get connected to needed services and experts at the click of a button. Healthcare workers will be more efficient by jettisoning the paper-based reporting system to a more efficient, easy-to-use, data and technology driven platform that allows for easy collection, verification and quality data for effective planning and decision making.

VoiceIT has a diverse team of competent, experienced, motivated and qualified individuals. Our team expertise cuts across product design, R&D, business development, content and marketing professionals who understand the community we serve. We didn’t just design VoiceIT for our users, but we designed it with them. That means we understood the pain point of our target users and worked with them using human-centred design approach to provide a solution that meets their needs. We have used several engagement strategies and dialogue with target users and community members to ensure buy-in, product market fit and ownership of our solution. As the co-founder of VoiceIT, I have worked in several vulnerable communities in Nigeria and provided access to a range of healthcare and social services especially for adolescent girls and boys, young and adult women, survivors of GBV. This placed me and my team in a better position to better understand the problem, needs and solution for our target beneficiaries.

I also belong to the State and National Gender Technical Working Group and community protection committees that champions the right and health of the vulnerable populations.

I have engaged our target population through various fora such as the adolescent boys and girls club, caregivers forum, stakeholders forum, town hall meetings, indepth interviews etc and feedbacks gotten from this robust engagements have been incorporated into the design of VoiceIT. Part of my team members have also conducted a study (in press) on Gender Based Violence with the aim of providing relevant data, policy recommendations and solutions to tackle the problem which affects the vulnerable population.

Previously, I have worked for over 5 years as the Program Manager and Gender Lead for local Community Based Organization on a project supported by USAID. Through the project, I led and designed gender inclusive programs that provided access of more than ten GBV survivors to critical health and social services across violent hot spots in Agege LGA, Lagos State. Additionally, I ensured access of over 500 adolescent boys and girls including young women to verified preventive GBV, mental health and sexual and reproductive health information in a way that is age appropriate, engaging and educative. These beneficiaries have gone on to further educate their peers and community members.

VoiceIT is currently being piloted in partnership with a community based organization (CBO) in Lagos State. During the pilot, new insights will be gathered from the end users in order to improve our product offering and design it in such a way that it meets their needs. So far through the pilot, over 1000 young people haved signed up on VoiceIT, making use of the various health content and reporting features. By October 2024, VoiceIT will be deployed across 5 more CBOs and 10 schools with wide reach to high risk young people. This will help improve reporting of new cases of sexual and gender-based violence while improving their access to needed health and social services ina timely manner. 

VoiceIT is applying to Solve to be able scale our product to potentials users. The community of social impact leaders that Solve provides will enable me receive personalized support (monitoring and evaluation, legal, financial, coaching etc), learn, grow, forge long lasting relationships and network with potential partners within and outside of US. These partnerships will aid our expansion efforts and working with organizations with similar vision and goals. The funding and investment will enable me optimize VoiceIT platform for scale, develop, test and launch new features as well as hire more top talents to support growth in other countries. I will be nurtured by the powerful network of impact minded Solve team across diverse industries and sectors. The leadership and strategic advice from world leading experts will help shape my leadership journey to become a successful social impact entrepreneur. The opportunity to pitch VoiceIT before expert judges and exposure to media will further build my confidence, pitching skills and increase visibility for the work we do at VoiceIT. Being able to receive training in monitoring and evaluation will be vital to introducing and mainstreaming impact measurement practice within the work that we do. I will contribute to the program by sharing ideas, practicing constructive conversations and disseminating skills that I have gained when working with underserved communities in a developing context like Nigeria. I will be bringing lots of motivation and enthusiasm to the program.

VoiceIT provides innovative web and mobile technology solution that enables users (adolescent boys and girls, young and adult women) to be able to report cases of gender-based violence and connect with relevant organizations, health services providers, resources and experts at the click of a button. VoiceIT is being designed with the users in mind and this ensures ownership, adoption and scale. We work with several young people to understand their needs and challenges and how VoiceIT can be used by them to speak up and access needed services. 

Many cases of GBV go unreported as people do not know where to go to or seek help most especially in underserved communities where survivors face discrimination, stigmatization, poverty, power imbalance, injustice, gender stereotype among others. But with VoiceIT, that narrative is changing as we are placing the right technology platform in the hands of those that needs it the most

VoiceIT web and mobile application leads to a secure dashboard that collates all reported cases and disaggregates them. This will enable mapping of hotspot zones while providing needed data for decision makers to plan and provide targeted interventions.

Scaling up innovative technology platform as VoiceIT especially in underserved communities and fragile contexts is central to our theory of change. A Gender Based Violence free generation is possible if we deploy technology to aid real-time reporting and access to differentiated healthcare services including mental health services, provide accurate prevention focused information in a way that is engaging and educative, place right technology tool in the hands of those that needs it the most to make their voice heard regardless of where they live, color of their skin, economic or social status. We will be on the path to eliminating all forms of violence against women, girls and boys including fast tracking the achievement of gender equality goals. Population will live a more healthier and productive life while health systems infrastructure will be strengthened and data available for effective decision making.

Our impact goals for the next year is to

• Optimize our product (VoiceIT) for scale and add 2 additional new features
• Expand to impact 250,000 users across different vulnerable communities, organizations and fragile contexts in Nigeria
• Establish partnership with 5 sub-national governments to adopt and deploy VoiceIT across healthcare facilities
• Content translation of information on VoiceIT to local languages- Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo and Pidgin
• Partner with 5 corporate organizations to deploy VoiceIT for staffs to report cases GBV, sexual exploitation, harassment
• Train 50 young people and 50 parents on prevention strategies of GBV including the use of VoiceIT

I am measuring progress towards VoiceIT impact goals by

• Tracking the number of active registrants and users of VoiceIT
• Proportion of newly reported cases of GBV disaggregated by sex and location
• Proportion of new users connected to health, social services and experts
• Number of partnerships secured
• Number of healthcare facilities and organizations using VoiceIT
• Proportion of users who used the resources on VoiceIT to make informed decision

The core technology that powers VoiceIT are web and mobile application platforms. The web and mobile applications enables users to use the functionalities of VoiceIT. VoiceIT also visualize reported cases using a web data dashbaord to understand patterns, forecast and take needed actions informed by the data.

Full time: 4

Part time: 2

2 years

Four of the six team members of VoiceIT are women from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. At the core of our work is the quest to promote gender equity. We have developed key workplace gender diversity, equity and inclusion policies that protects the interests and rights of our staff and clients.  Working with several underserved and marginalized groups, we have institutionalized gender equity and inclusion practices as well conduct trainings and retraining of our staff.  This ensures we attract staffs or partners who holds dear to heart the principles of gender diversity, equity and inclusion at all times.