Using Cellular Technology to Monitor Rights Violations and Improve Child Protection in Eastern DRC

Through the project, Ajedi-Ka distributed 15 cell phones, one to each VCCP and two phones to Ajedi-Ka staff in Uvira. These cellular phones were used to relay information on child rights violations from the VCCPs to Ajedi-Ka staff. A 24-hour telephone call-in service was established to enable VCCP members to place a call at any time to report a violation as soon as possible after it occurred.

Once the violation has been logged in Uvira, Ajedi-Ka staff returned the phone call to the VCCP member – at no cost to the VCCP cellular user. According to the organisers, this minimised expense at the grassroots level. Once the information was relayed, it was stored and decisions were made about whether further verification was needed in order to document the case. According to the organisers, the cellular technology allowed the VCCPs to quickly report violations and make decisions about verification while avoiding dangerous and cumbersome bicycle travel, which they had previously relied on.

The monitoring activities were carried out by VCCP teams in 15 rural villages around Uvira, where children are at high risk. Each VCCP is composed of 5 members, generally including: a teacher, a member of the local administration, an elder in the community, a member of the local church, and a business leader (usually a farmer or a businessman). Some VCCPs also include former child soldiers. As leading members of the local communities, VCCP members were advised by local villagers when violations occurred. Immediately upon alert of an alleged violation, VCCP members used cellular phones to alert Ajedi-Ka staff in Uvira of the violation and to discuss verification activities.

The programme included the development of a software system to record violations reported by the VCCPs in a manner that protected the victims' identity. Watchlist staff, with guidance from Ajedi-Ka staff, explored various possibilities with software developers for creating a secure system that was suitable for the DRC context - where most local level computer use is done at internet cafes, rather than on personally owned computers. VCCP members used site visits, interviews and other methods to verify violations immediately after they occur.

The programme also included training of local grassroots organisations and community members in child protection policies and instruments as well as how to use cellular technology to carry out monitoring and reporting.

Finally, Ajedi-Ka shared detailed information about each of the fully verified cases with Watchlist headquarters in New York often within days of the violation. In New York, Watchlist safely maintains a small database with the detailed information about each of the verified cases. This information is easily available for Watchlist to inform international policy-makers, especially the United Nations Security Council, about on-going violations against children in the context of armed conflict in eastern DRC.  

Conflict, Children, Rights.

Ajedi-Ka has established VCCPs in 15 of Uvira's 22 villages. These villages were selected as particularly high-risk areas for young people. According to the organisers, "As a result of this project, 22 new cases of violations against children were reported to Ajedi-Ka and 15 were fully verified from May to November 2005. In addition, Ajedi-Ka was able to quickly refer each of the verified cases to the appropriate local authorities and to provide practical recommendations for timely responses that should be taken to remedy the violations."

According to the organisers, the Watchlist/Ajedi-Ka pilot project succeeded in its goals of facilitating documentation of violations, diminishing reporting time and facilitating the flow of information to the international level. However, some challenges did arise. These challenges included difficulty charging the cell phones due to lack of electricity in the villages, restrictive calling time available for cell phone use due to limited budget and inconsistent internet access in Uvira to transfer information to New York. In addition, Ajedi-Ka was unable to track any developments which may have resulted from reporting the cases to local authorities after initial outreach due to limited resources.

Watchlist and Ajedi-Ka have now developed the framework for a follow up project which seeks to build on the successes achieved in 2005 and to address the challenges posed by the pilot project.