355 PEOPLE AFFECTED BY DROUGHT SELF REGISTERED

In December 2020 the Kenya Red Cross together with the 121 development team successfully completed a pilot inviting 355 people known to have been badly affected by drought to register using the low bandwidth self registration app. The registrations were conducted on Red Cross tablets tethered to the internet via aid workers smart phones. The person affected was invited to self register using the unfamiliar touch screen tablet with the helpful assistance of local volunteers and aid workers trained in guiding people through the steps assisting only when necessary.

Once the registration form was complete, the phone number the people had given to register instantly received an SMS to confirm the registration had been documented and what the next steps were for clarity.

“Receiving the SMS straight after registering gave confidence they had done so successfully”  Cash Program Manager Kenya Red Cross

After a community inclusion meeting the resulting list of included members of the program subsequently received two payments via the easy to access and familiar and locally available service of M-PESA. Meanwhile the registrations were being documented real time on the Orginisation portal (with designated access to protect personal information)

So how was this achieved and what were the learnings before during and after the Pilot took place?

In June 2019 the Kenya Red Cross together with the 121 product owner and 121 CEA officer traveled to the two villages in Oldyniro and Kipsing to co-design a solution to make cash based aid be safer, faster and fairer. These insights together with in field technical research were combined to create the November 2020 Pilot Program.

Below you can see the basic flow of the journey of the person registering for the Pilot in Isiolo, Kenya.