Mobile Tech and Child Protection in West Africa

The purpose of this briefing note is to provide an overview of current applications of mobile technologies with relevance for child protection. This is an area of rapid innovation and new applications are being developed all the time. Telecommunications is one of the fastest growing sectors in Africa and the relevance and reach of mobile technologies for development and humanitarian work is only going to increase over the coming years. Many technical, legal and security aspects of these new technologies remain to be fully addressed and worked out.

Currently, some of the most relevant mobile applications for child protection include: Frontline SMS and Ushahidi for violence reporting; RapidFTR for family tracing and reunification in emergencies; RapidSMS for data collection, awareness raising and violence reporting; and the Mobile Vital Record System and Nokia data gathering for mobile birth registration...