WHEN
This pilot was started in September and October 2018.
WHO IS THE MAIN APPLICANT
The Netherlands Red Cross has been working together with the St.Maarten Red Cross to help people affected by hurricanes Irma, Jose and Maria from Sep 2017. Having spoken with the St. Maarten Branch manager, it was agreed that the insights and learnings from the local team could be of great benefit to the creation of 121. For this reason, the very first 121 Research pilot took place in St. Maarten in the fall of 2018.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE
The 121 Pilot consisted of two tracks:
1: Human Centered Design (HCD) Track
2: Tech Track
1. HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN TRACK
121 products are designed keeping the end-users in mind. For the research pilot in St.Maarten, the end-users were People Affected, Red Cross Volunteers, and Aid Workers. In September 2018, 510 together with St.Maarten Red Cross, conducted co-design sessions.
The co-design sessions were conducted with:
- 27 People Affected Receiving food vouchers as aid
- 9 Red Cross Volunteers who experienced Irma first-hand
- 6 Aid Workers of which 2 experienced Irma first-hand
These sessions were held on the Dutch part of the island. The insights from these sessions were the first results to inform interface & system requirements iterations for 121 in general. They also set the base for all other insights being gathered as 121 co-designs further across the globe.
The insights from these sessions informed the interfaces and system requirements for the St.Maarten prototype.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) was later conducted with some of the people from the initial co-designs with an additional 24 People Affected to gain feedback for future iterations.
All insights & feedback gathered from both CODs and UATs are then added to the database of past and future CODs & UATs.
Since the co-designs in St. Maarten, there have been further sessions held in Ukraine, Malawi, Ethiopia and soon in Kenya.
2. TECH TRACK
The goal of the 121 system is Direct Cash Aid, which consists of two components: Digital Identity Creation and Cash Aid Distribution. For the pilot in St.Maarten, the initial prototype focused on the first component.
Digital Identity Creation: The first prototype was co-created in a collaboration between Tykn & 510 (An Initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross). Tykn leads the development of the #DigitalIdentityBackend and 510 leads the development of the #121Frontend and integration into the #121System.
MORE ON 121’S TECH PARTNERS
Tykn’s mission is “Creating a future of opportunity through digital identity. Because people matter.” And that is indeed what they have been working on: bringing privacy, data protection and efficiency to digital identities.
510’s purpose is to “Improve speed, quality & cost-effectiveness of humanitarian aid by using data & digital”. It started 121 in 2017 as a way to reach this purpose. It leverages data science, technology and Human Centered Design to create its products.
Read more on this topic here.