How mobile phones and digital tools aided Togo in overcoming COVID-19

How mobile phones and digital tools aided Togo in overcoming COVID-19

COVID-19 has infected more than 290 million people around the world, killed more than 5 million people, and forced millions more into extreme poverty as a result. There has been widespread devastation caused by the pandemic, which has had a particularly devastating impact in Africa, where more than 9.7 million cases and 228,000 deaths have been reported.

However, the severity of the crisis has varied from one country to another across the continent. Togo is one of the countries that has suffered the least. African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) data show that France has so far recorded 31,500 infections and 250 deaths due to COVID, which are relatively low numbers when compared to Nigeria or South Africa.

Government efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic in the small West African country with a population of approximately 8 million people and a gross domestic product of approximately $7.5 billion have relied heavily on locally-led digital solutions.

Last month, the Togolese Ministry of Digital Economy and Transformation, which is overseen by Harvard graduate and former World Bank analyst Cina Lawson, unveiled the most recent in a growing list of mobile-based solutions to assist Togolese in coping with the Ebola pandemic.

PassCovid19TG, a new mobile application, allows the general public to upload, access, and present COVID-19-related health information in a simple and convenient manner. Through the scanning of QR codes, vaccination certificates, PCR tests, and Togolese or European Union COVID Passes can be uploaded to the app, whether they are digital or paper documents.

People in Togo are required to present health passes before entering public spaces such as airports, worship centers, restaurants, and bars, and the new application, which makes use of smartphones to present COVID digital certificates, is expected to make the control and verification of health passes easier and more accurate.

According to Lawson, who oversaw the development of several technological solutions that enabled Togo to more effectively manage COVID-19 than its wealthier, larger and ostensibly more technologically savvy regional neighbors, Nigeria and Ghana, "The PassCovid19TG can also be used while traveling to confirm the Pass's validity in the country of destination, particularly in the European Union," he said.

COVID lockdowns and restrictions posed a threat to livelihoods in Togo, a country with a pre-pandemic per capita GDP of less than $700 in 2019 and an average daily wage of less than $2, similar to the situation in much of Africa. Togo's informal sector, which employs the majority of the country's labor force outside of agriculture, has been particularly hard hit by the crisis, according to World Bank estimates, accounting for approximately 62 percent of all jobs in the country.

Afraid that poverty would worsen as a result of rising unemployment and shrinking income, the government launched Novissi (meaning "solidarity" in the indigenous Ewe language), a mobile money-based cash transfer scheme in April 2020 to assist those who had been disproportionately affected by the Ebola outbreak.

Over 1.6 million Togolese registered for financial assistance via their mobile phones, according to information on the Novissi website. When it came time to choose beneficiaries, the digital ministry, under the leadership of Lawson used voter identification data, focusing on approximately 600,000 people who identified as "informal workers" in urban areas, indicating that they were likely to be poor.

Given that the government is unable to provide assistance to each of the country's tens of thousands of informal workers, more sophisticated methods of identifying the poorest citizens of the country had to be employed. Togo turned to satellite imagery and machine learning to solve its problems.

In collaboration with researchers from the University of California and the non-governmental organization GiveDirectly, the government was able to identify the country's poorest 100 cantons using satellite imagery data, which was then used to target aid. In the following step, the researchers analyzed mobile phone data from major network providers in order to identify users in those areas who displayed behavior patterns consistent with poverty.

On the Novissi website, Lawson writes, "We chose a fully digital approach that allows us to reach beneficiaries directly through mobile payments while also ensuring traceability and transparency." In our country, "the solution represents a genuine methodological departure from the past and foreshadows the future implementation of social safety nets and cash transfer programs," says the president.

In accordance with official data, Lomé has transferred approximately CFA13.3 billion (more than $22 million) directly into the mobile wallets of more than 800,000 people who live in various communities that have been affected by the crisis. Approximately 500,000 women have received cash transfers, accounting for the lion's share of recipients. Women received more ($22) in single three–five monthly cash transfers than men ($20).

During a recent interview with the Novissi program, President Faure Gnassingbe stated that people should not be forced to choose between death from COVID-19 or starvation. Another advantage of a mobile-based cash transfer system is that it could be used by other African leaders as well. Novissi makes even America's COVID cash transfer program look like a "dinosaur," according to Anit Mukherjee, a policy fellow at the Centre for Global Development, who writes in this Bloomberg article about the program.

Three months after launching the Novissi scheme, and as the number of reported COVID cases in Togo increased due to the outbreak of the more contentious and lethal Delta variant, the government launched Togo Safe, a COVID contact-tracking application, to initiate the health protocol required to contain the virus's spread in real time.

When people come into contact with those who have tested positive for the virus, the platform's web- and mobile-based technology uses digital geolocation to track them down and notify others right away.

It also includes a feature that allows Togolese to check the number of COVID cases in their immediate vicinity, as well as access health information and a directory of useful pandemic-related hotlines.

A key component of Togo's technologically advanced approach to pandemic management is the country's extensive vaccination program. It took less than a week for the country to vaccinate 98 percent of its health workers after receiving 156,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility in March. The country used a system that relied on digital channels to reach people all over the country.

The Togolese government has launched a mobile and web-based vaccination registration service, which allows people to register for vaccinations using their mobile phones or computers. It is sufficient for individuals to dial the shortcode *844# from a local phone number and follow the on-screen instructions in order to receive a 14-digit code that must be presented at a health center in order to be vaccinated.

In less than a month, more than 50,000 people had signed up for vaccination through SMS and the government website. Togo currently has the second-highest vaccination rate in West Africa, trailing only Cape Verde in this regard.

The digital-driven response appears to be effective, as COVID infection rates in Togo have remained low thus far, and poverty rates are only expected to increase slightly in 2020. Furthermore, it has received widespread international attention and acclaim. According to the COVID Performance Index published by the Australian think tank Lowy Institute, the West African country was ranked second in Africa for best crisis management and 15th overall in the world. According to Lawson, a large number of African countries have expressed an interest in replicating Novissi's model.

The country of Togo may not be known for globally recognized technology startups or billions of dollars in venture capital funding, but the country has ambitions to become a digital hub by 2025 by capitalizing on mobile penetration. Over 80% of the population had access to a mobile phone as of January 2021, according to the latest available data.

Damien Mama, who served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Togo from September 2016 to September 2021, believes that the small West African country is on the right track to improve its economy through the use of digital technologies, based on the government's success in leveraging ICTs in its COVID response.

A UN official wrote in a post that "the digital sector is without a doubt one of the most promising ways for a small country with big ambitions like Togo to achieve sustainable development goals."