Despite the highly unstable political and security context, the NGO continues to work for development and invests for the long term with the "BII" program. program, which runs from January 2022 to December 2026 in the provinces of Bam and Boulkiemdé. The program has a budget of almost 3 billion CFA francs, 80% of which is funded by the Luxembourg government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The remaining 20% comes from donations by Luxembourg and European citizens, as well as other aid organizations. The program covers child protection and educational support. In this article, we focus on the digitalization of working methods in the social sector, which represents a real innovation.

In Burkina Faso, the poverty line affects many households. Children suffer the consequences in terms of their vulnerability, which sometimes takes the form of difficulty in accessing school, health care or, worse still, food.
Beyond this - as in all societies, unfortunately - children are sometimes victims of violence: physical, psychological, moral or sexual. In such cases, action is needed to protect them: this is the mission the NGO has been fulfilling since 2009 with the Centre Aide aux Enfants en Danger (CAED) Noomdo.
Since 2016, the NGO has also been helping children living on the streets, a growing phenomenon that speaks volumes about the vulnerability of children in Burkina Faso.

To cope with the large number of requests for care and avoid subjective analyses, the NGO le Soleil dans la Main has set up a digitalized case analysis system.

David Demange, Director of the NGO, devised this digital tool to put science and technological advances at the service of human beings and children at risk. Aware that child protection is not a scientific discipline, child protection is as complex, empirical and imprecise as the human being. The complexity of this innovation therefore lay in coupling the humanist and sensitive approach with a digital and scientific one.

To achieve this, Mr. Demange drew on the NGO's accumulated empirical experience in Burkina Faso since 2002. Indeed, the NGO has very often been faced with the challenge of identifying the most vulnerable of the vulnerable beneficiaries as objectively as possible. The contributions of experts in sociology, psychology, sexology, child protection, statistics and information technology have been necessary to develop the analysis tool and the methodology.the most accurate data analysis and processing tool possible, in order to respond as efficiently as possible to children's distress and danger. As funds are limited, this efficient targeting using a digital tool simply means that no one is overlooked, and that inappropriate care is avoided.

Let's take the example of a child in a vulnerable situation, but whose emotional sphere is strong around the child: support in earning a better income for the parents is preferable to sheltering and placing the child in a CAED.

A brief aside on the multidisciplinary team that worked on the subject under the direction of M.David Demange: The questions were developed (2020-2022) by David Demange, Adeline Kafando psychologist, Isabelle Motel-Picard sexologist...
Theanalysis algorithm was programmed by Jean Luca Moralès, a student at Paris Dauphine University in Paris (2022). Application programming (2024) was carried out by Massahoud Kombassere, a student at the Burkina Institute of Technology (B.I.T.) in Koudougou, under the supervision of Professor Rachid Gaëtan Nabolle.

How does this system work? It's quite simple: the interviewer establishes a framework for exchange with the child, conducive to an exchange of trust. The child is then asked around 120 questions to understand the context in which he or she lives. The context is quite broad, since the questions cover a range of areas: emotional, social, family, school, health, food, etc.

Based on the answers to the 120 questions, which cover both factual and sensitive/emotional aspects, scores are assigned and calculations are made to situate the types of dangers the child is experiencing, or the vulnerabilities he or his family is facing. The calculation algorithm makes it possible to characterize a child's vulnerability by comparing it with the vulnerability of all the children surveyed. This relative method enables us to identify the most vulnerable cases in relation to the average encountered. The more surveys we carry out, the more we can refine the quantiles of vulnerability thresholds, and therefore the care required.

In addition, the interviewer - who must be a qualified social worker - remains proactive, giving his or her opinion at the end of the interview with the child.
In this way, the survey gives results and the interviewer gives his or her analysis: the two may converge, or if there is a difference, then a further visit to the child will be made to settle the matter.
The convergence of the subjective viewpoints of the investigating agent and the scientific scores of the application represents a gain in confidence, efficiency, transparency and equity of care.

In this way, assistance can be rapidly organized into different types of care, such as :
- Emergency health care,
- Emergency shelter,
- Food support for the family,
- Facilitating access to schooling,
- Supporting the family or the young person with an IGA to help economic empowerment,

The SOLEIL digital survey tool is therefore an aid for identifying and classifying vulnerabilities and dangers, but it does not replace the professionalism of child protection workers and human sensitivity!

We are publishing this article to share our innovation with those involved. We hope that this "prototypical" activity will be replicated by other public and private players. We're making our know-how available as "open source".

On the one hand, we hope to find partners to develop the tool on a larger scale, and on the other, to find funding to help even more children in distress, so that they can build a better future for their country: Growing up in good conditions can only benefit the whole population.

Author
David Demange
Director of Activities
Architect
NGO LE SOLEIL DANS LA MAIN
Luxembourg
www.soleil.lu

The interviewer and the child - collecting digitized data

Source: lefaso.net/