Salama - first responder service

300,000 people live on Idjwi (DRC), an island with a surface area of just 310km. Distance from markets, poor infrastructure and absence of industry and communications contribute to chronic poverty and low levels of well-being. The situation for women is particularly dire - 73% report regularly feeling unsafe and 52% that it is common for women to be beaten by their husbands. In the absence of first responder services and a limited police force, Salama is a direct response to the security needs of women on Idjwi 

Co-designed by Ensemble and UFIN (Idjwi women’s cooperative), Salama is a mobile-enabled, interactive voice response service addressing the challenge of connecting remote, off-grid communities with high illiteracy levels. Harnessing Ensemble’s existing work to establish a free mobile communications network on Idjwi (facilitated by Open Cellular base stations), at scale it provides a platform for replication, service expansion and integration with local police services.

One of the few population studies conducted on Idjwi revealed, “miserable health and economic conditions, which tend to be worse than those in the DRC” (HHI, 2011).  80% of households live on less than $1 per day, well below the World Bank international poverty line ($1.90 per day). Women are particularly affected. Discriminatory customs ascribe strict gender roles. 53% of women have no formal education and 80% are not consulted on how household income is spent. Low social and political status is linked to high levels of gender-based violence - 73% of women feel unsafe in their home or community at least once a week (Ensemble, 2017). 

Idjwi lacks infrastructure and first responder services to ensure the safety of local women. Police and local authorities have limited presence, only serving market areas. Focus groups conducted by Ensemble with UFIN members (largest women’s cooperative on Idjwi) revealed that women rely on family and friends when they are threatened or attacked. However, the complete absence of transport links and communications infrastructure is a major barrier to this informal safety network. In fact, many women in the focus group noted that their only option is to cry out for help.

A collaboration between Ensemble and the largest women’s cooperative on the island, UFIN, Salama is a direct response to high levels of gender-based violence and insecurity affecting over 75,000 women on North Idjwi. 

With a small team on Idjwi and Head Office in the nearby city of Bukavu, South Kivu, Ensemble launched a series of focus group sessions with UFIN. Using human-centered design processes our aim was to identify priority needs amongst women on North Idjwi and co-develop digital solutions. 

Personal security emerged as one of three priority issues - almost all of the participants shared reports of robbery, rape and even murder. Ensemble followed-up with a week’s diary study and worked with members to map safe and unsafe places across the island and situations where the women felt their physical security is most at threat. The process revealed the need to address threats both within the home and in public spaces, particularly roads. 

Salama was initially conceived as an SMS based service. However, focus group feedback highlighted the challenge of high levels of illiteracy on Idjwi. Local women requested a voice-enabled service. As a result, Salama has been designed to utilise interactive voice response as a service delivery method.

Salama is a mobile-enabled, interactive voice response service that has the potential to be the first emergency responder service on Idjwi. 

It builds upon Ensemble’s previous collaboration with community representatives on North Idjwi (estimated 130,000 people) to co-design digital solutions to community problems. In 2017, at the invitation of the Mwami (or King), Ensemble installed the first public Wifi network, Pamoja Net on Idjwi. Ensemble worked with community representatives to co-design a community learning programe to strengthen digital awareness. The service has since been utilised by 3,900 people. Ensemble is now collaborating with Open Cellular (an initiative of TIP)to also install Open Cellular base stations that will provide a free mobile communications network for islanders. Both initiatives provide a solid foundation for co-develop of new digital services alongside the local community on North Idjwi. 

Following consultation with members of UFIN, Salama has been designed to enable people to call an emergency number and record a “help me” message that is immediately forwarded to six family and friends. Anyone who responds can then record and trigger a follow-up message notifying the other recipients that help is on the way. The service will be free to access and delivered though ordinary feature phones using interactive voice response technology facilitated through Open Cellular base stations. It is the first step in a longer-term plan to build a community-maintained cellular ecosystem that provides digital services of everyday use to people on Idjwi. 

Once the initial design and roll-out are complete, we see further opportunities to expand Salama’s functionality and coverage. For example, through creating “Safe Trip,” a check-in service so that if after a set time a user hasn’t responded Salama can send a notification to their contacts. This would address situations where women are attacked and unable to make an emergency call. Or a “Walking Buddies” service that would enable local women to alert others when they are making long trips and would prefer to travel in groups. 

Salama will be the first emergency responder service on Idjwi, as well as the first community designed digital service facilitated through a free mobile communications network. It provides a blueprint for the future development of other digital services co-designed by the local community using human-centered design processes. It utilises interactive voice response technology in direct response to high illiteracy levels, but tailored to the specific needs of local women on North Idjwi.

Salama uses interactive voice response as a delivery mechanism for a mobile application service. In response to the needs of women experiencing chronic levels of poverty it will be delivered by a free mobile communications network facilitated by Open Cellular base stations. 

Ensemble has employed human-centered design processes to ensure that service beneficiaries are directly involved in the design, testing and roll-out of Salama. As a result, the service is directly tailored to the specific needs of 75,000 women on North Idjwi and has been refined through focus group consultation, direct testing and feedback from members of the largest women's cooperative on Idjwi, UFIN. 

Salama is currently being tested and developed with a focus group of 20 women who are members of UFIN. Our aim is to first pilot the service amongst 30 other members of UFIN before roll-out across two population centres - Bugurula and Bunyakiri (with a potential reach of approximately 30,000 people). Ultimately our aim is to expand the service across North Idjwi, with a potential reach of 75,000 women. 

Salama is the first step towards Ensemble's long-term goal of building a community-maintained cellular ecosystem that provides digital services of real everyday use to off-grid, remote communities affected by chronic poverty. It provides a foundation for the replication and roll-out of digital community services across other priority areas identified by local people including education resources, health information and community savings platforms. Salama also provides a framework for harnessing human-centered design processes to ensure that this ecosystem can be tailored to the specific needs of particular communities. As a result this ecosystem and the learnings drawn from its development could be replicated across different areas of the DRC and even outside of the country itself. 

To date, Salama has been driven by the efforts of a small team on Idjwi and the nearby city of Bukavu, with the support of an external volunteer technologist based in London. Financial support is a major barrier to further developed as the service to date has been financed solely by Ensemble. Our ambition to develop a wider community-maintained cellular ecosystem is also constrained by financial barriers and the need for additional technical expertise to support our technologists in the DRC. 

Ensemble will continue to collaborate with Open Cellular to install base stations for a free mobile communications infrastructure. Similarly, we will continue to engage a volunteer technologist in London to support our team in DRC on the technical development of Salama. External funding will be pursued from philanthropic sources to support the first pilot of Salama amongst a group of 30 UFIN members. 

The project is overseen by Ensemble's Director in Bukavu, South Kivu and led by a volunteer technologist in London and Ensemble's Technologist in Bukavu. It is supported on-the-ground by a part-time local technologist on Idjwi and our Head of Design and Innovation leads our human-centered design process to ensure strong engagement from the local community. 

Ensemble is a social business incubator supporting entrepreneurs in Eastern Congo to drive economic and social progress. Founded in Bukavu, South Kivu in 2015 we have enabled 24 businesses to establish and scale. Together these businesses have created 3,900 jobs, distributed 500,000 products and services, and last year generated $4 million in revenue. In 2016 - at the Mwami’s invitation - Ensemble began collaborating with local stakeholders to co-design and install the island’s first WiFi network, Pamoja Net. The network provides free public WiFi access in the village of Bugurula. Since its launch, 3,900 unique users have accessed the service, and 60% of the running costs are paid for by local businesses. Research revealed that 95% of users report some or a lot of positive change in their life because of Pamoja Net; relating in particular to wellbeing, education and social belonging. Ensemble is now working with Open Cellular (an initiative of telecomms industry) to install Open Cellular base stations on Idjwi that will integrate mobile communications into Pamoja Net. As a result, our team is integrated with local authorities and community leaders on Idjwi and has strong experience working in partnership with islanders to co-design and deliver projects. 

As noted previously, we are collaborating with Open Cellular to install Open Cellular base stations on North Idjwi for a free mobile communications network.

Ensemble is a platform for innovation and progress in Eastern Congo. We combine business and financial support with design and technology to help social entrepreneurs improve livelihoods and wellbeing in Eastern Congo.

Building on lessons learnt from five years of on-the-ground operations, our support has three dimensions:

Finance in the form of affordable loans or donations of working capital to start and scale the business 

Expertise in business and financial management, with a free, tailored package of consultancy

Digital technology to enable operations or provide useful services to customers

Each of these generates impetus. In combination, they enable social entrepreneurs to breakthrough barriers to delivering sustainable improvements to livelihoods and wellbeing.

Multi-stage programme of support 

Ensemble was the first social business incubator in Eastern Congo. 

In response to the absence of early-stage financial and business support for social entrepreneurs in Eastern Congo, Ensemble support partners through a two-stage programme that takes an entrepreneur from start-up, proof of concept, scale, roll-out and ultimately to securing third-party finance 

Ensemble addresses a gap in the market and helps build a foundation for our partner’s social and economic progress.

Phase 1: We provide start up funding to entrepreneurs who have a clear value proposition and strong business case. 

Phase 2: The focus during Phase2 is roll-out and scale. At this stage we collaborate with partners to monitor financial performance as well as social outputs and outcomes. 

Reflecting the challenges of supporting early-stage businesses in the DRC, Ensemble is currently funded by donations from private individuals, philanthropic foundations and government bodies. 

Our long-term model is to shift away from philanthropic support to paid consultancy income, drawn from a mix of social business partners, corporations and international NGOs. This will draw upon Ensemble's expertise in marketing, financial management, consumer research and technology development. 

For the people of a remote, off-grid island like Idjwi, the fundamental barrier to benefiting from the potential of digital technology to accelerate progress towards the SDGs is isolation from both mainland DRC and the wider international community, and high poverty levels. This dissuades ISPs, telcos and the national government from making the necessary infrastructure investments for connectivity. The potential to connect with Solve's MIT-backed network presents a significant opportunity for an overlooked community of people to benefit from high-level technical and business expertise to support initiatives that are specifically tailored to the needs of their community. Although supported by non-profits like Ensemble there are almost no other opportunities for people on Idjwi to access this type of life-changing support. 

Partners such as UN Women could help further refine our approach to women-led community design processes, developing a monitoring and evaluation frramework that could support replication. Technical partners could help enhance our response to geographical challenges on Idjwi and service resiliency that are specific to an off-grid, remote community. This would support more efficient expansion of Salama across North Idjwi. 

Our vision is for Salama to be the first in a series of interactive voice response (IVR) services that are co-designed, installed and open-sourced with the local community on Idjwi. Our existing collaboration with OpenCellular to install base stations on Idjwi provides the foundation of a growing telecommunications network on Idjwi. Support from the Morgridge Family Foundation would enable Ensemble to build on this platform. Specifically, to design and implement a multi-stage human-centered design process to identify community needs (relating to health, education, financial savings etc.) and work with focus groups on Idjwi to co-design, test and refine two further digital services that will be of benefit to thousands of people across North Idjwi. At present the community lack basic healthcare, education and any form of banking or financial services. The implementation of low-cost digital services could help significantly improve people's wellbeing.