Biometric Enrollment Of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Beneficiaries

Transcription

1 Biometric Enrollment Of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Beneficiaries 5-May-2011 Cross River State - Ministry of Social Welfare & Community Development

2 Agenda Introduction Background on Cross River State The Social Safety Net Project - Project Objectives How We Did It Project Design Need for Technology Project Implementation Role of Technology Benefits of the Technology Challenges faced Suggestions for Improvement Next Steps and Way forward

3 Introduction Project Comfort is one of the major programs run by the Cross River State Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development It is also called the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program It is aimed at elevating the financial status of impoverished citizens of Cross River State (those living on less $1/day The CCT Program was initiated in April 2008 with a baseline study in the 18 local government councils in the State. Strategic planning and program design for data collection and technology procurement/deployment started in August 2008 and lasted until October 2008 Collection of data on CCT beneficiaries commenced in November 2009 and lasted until June The program was commission in August 2010 with payment being made to the first set of beneficiaries. Financial assistance in the form of monthly stipends are distributed to qualified beneficiaries as basic income support for they and their dependents Beneficiaries are expected to become self reliance and self-employed after a given period in the program

4 Background on Cross River State One of 36 Nigerian States that, along with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) make up the Federation It s a border state with one long-span international border and 3 internal borders Huge land mass and very long distances between the far ends of the State Poor road infrastructure especially during the rainy seasons Characterized by dense rain forests, large rivers, swamps and mountainous terrain that creates conditions for certain communities to be extremely remote The Capital, Calabar is the CLEANEST city in Nigeria and is undisputed as the leading tourist destination in the Country

5 CCT Project Design Objectives In designing the CCT Program, we identified a few criteria that the program had to adhere to: Clear eligibility criteria for beneficiaries Involve the community in identifying potential beneficiaries Uniquely identity for beneficiaries Clear conditions for accessing benefits and for continuing to access benefits Regular monitoring of beneficiaries to ensure that conditions for accessing benefits are being adhered to Accountability, auditability and transparency of funds disbursement Ensure that beneficiaries are able to sustain themselves at the end of the program Current Project Status There are currently, 5631 beneficiaries on the program. They were enrolled on three separate occasions as part of a mass registration exercise involving other Social Saftety Net Program beneficiaries

6 How We Did It Project Design Pre-gather data on potential beneficiaries based on submissions and suggestions from the community Verify the status and assets each prospective beneficiary through home visits and finalize beneficiary lists Pre-gather beneficiary data Verify beneficiary status and Assets Undertake a field exercise in each community where the beneficiaries were physically verified and their fingerprints, photographs and demographics data captured live using advanced enrollment equipment Verify and enroll beneficiaries AFIS Check for uniqueness Conducted a uniqueness test using a technology called AFIS and created a database of unique beneficiaries Printed, personalized and issued smartcards that contained biometrics and biodata of each beneficiary Deployed a payroll system that matched fingerprints to individuals before payments of stipends could be made Personalize and issue smartcards Configure payroll and disburse funds The technology components and data gathering efforts have cost the State an approximately $2.5

7 How we did it Program Implementation Data Capture Of Beneficiary Currently, data capture on beneficiaries is undertaken in a one-off mass enrollment exercise that also include the enrollment of beneficiaries of related Social Safety Net Programs such as displaced persons and pregnant women. The beneficiary data capture process involved: Distribution of enrollment forms that specialist form fillers assisted beneficiaries to complete Beneficiaries present valid documents such as birth certificates, school attendance, hospital bills, or attestations to support the information they provide Capture of: Demographic data Next of Kin details Finger prints (six fingers) Photographs (live digital photograph)

8 How We Did It Process of Biometric Data Capture Enrollee is issued a form with a unique form number Form is filled with the assistance of trained form fillers Form is verified for correctness and a tally is issued At his/her turn, enrollee proceeds sequentially to the following stations: Photograph station Fingerprinting station Data entry station --- demographic data are live captured using software Enrollee is then registered as a CCT Beneficiary by capturing details of school age children Enrollee is given both an enrollment and a CCT registration slip. Slip has all personal details and photograph

9 How We Did It Uniqueness Checks: AFIS To eliminate duplicate enrollments: Each fingerprint is checked for uniqueness The check is done after enrollment data from all location s has been consolidated into a single database duplicates are marked for further action The database is prepared for use during payment of monthly stipends

10 How We Did It Smart Card Encoding And Printing A smart ID card is produced for each unique beneficiary Card has: One or more fingerprints: encoded onto the card Demographic data: encoded and printed Photograph: encoded and printed The cards are dispatched to various local government areas for distribution to beneficiaries

11 Is the technology being used? Beneficiaries have been extremely patient with the system when there are hitches (which are few and far between) For instance, there are challenges reading the fingerprints of beneficiaries or matching them to those stored on the card They take exceedingly good care of their cards and are have quickly adapted to the technology and processes for registration and payments. CCT Conditions Monitoring and Enforcement CCT Conditions include: School enrollment of school age children in the household Minimum 16 days of school attendance by children Regular clinic attendance and immunizations of children Attendance of training sessions for trainable adult Monitoring & Enforcement Monitoring is done by social workers who do visitations and collect data on paper sheets Data is keyed into the central beneficiary registry through a point of payment application Beneficiary Payroll takes conditionalities into account

12 How We Did It Distribution of Stipends: Verification Process Monthly or Bi-monthly distribution of Stipends to beneficiaries at their localities Pre-requisite: Biometric verification of the beneficiary 1. Beneficiary presents his/her smartcard 2. Smart card in inserted into a smart card reader connected to the desktop computer which runs the Point of Service application that processes payments 3. Beneficiary s fingerprint taken and matched against finger print data stored on smart card 4. If there is a match, application proceeds to payment screens where payment is processed 5. Payment for the period is marked as having be made to forestall multiple payments

13 How We Did It Beneficiary without smart card(due to loss or damage) Sensitization campaign informing indentified beneficiaries of enrollment dates, time and location. Beneficiary is asked to place his/her finger print on a finger print reader for matching against finger print data stored in the central biometric database (Requires network connection from remote centre to central database location). Application checks for a match by comparing finger print data currently been read by the finger print scanner with finger prints of citizens stored in a central database. If there is a match, application opens to payment screen where payments are processed

14 What It Has Helped To Do Unique identification for beneficiaries: These has assisted with promoting integrity, accountability and transparency for the programme. Ensure that only real beneficiaries are served. Assist in tracking beneficiaries in terms of compliance with conditionalities/ responsibilities. Enhancing the ability to query the database/ registry for decision making and providing information Provides powerful audit and reporting to prevent misappropriation of funds Presently, there are plans underway to make beneficiary data available to State-wide identity management programmes to manage general service delivery by the State Government

15 What We Have Achieved Which Couldn't Have Been Without It Elimination of fraud: Accurate accounting from the service providers No ghost recipients Executive buy-in and support due to transparency imperatives Buy-in from stakeholders due to belief in the system

16 What Are The Challenges Lack of electricity to power the systems used for biometric data capture. Learning curve for users of the system: personnel at the registration or payment centers are not always skilled in the use of the biometric verification equipment. Resistance to change: Sheer refusal to accept new ideas and way of doing things. Absence of Management Information System to enhance tracking and reporting Huge Costs associated with mass enrollment events that it difficult to continuously adding beneficiaries to the system

17 Improvements and The Way Forward? Introduce manual or offline data capture methods: use paper forms to capture fingerprints and demographic data. Result: reduction of failures in the field that result from the constant lack of power. There has to be consistent and persistent training on computer application and other identified areas where gaps exist Continuous engagement with all key stakeholders and advocacy to achieve sustained buying, through the utilization of different change management strategies to address the issue of resistance to change. Provision of MIS to enhance tracking and reporting