Social security in Tunisia is unreachable to the most vulnerable group: Female farmers. These women are not process-savvy, cannot travel to register or keep-up with quarterly payments. But their operator Tunisie Telecom believed technology could make it easier for them and wanted to leverage its proximity to get them to protect themselves. The objective was to increase the current rate of registered female farmers by 10%.
Describe the creative idea
Instead of trying to get an illiterate, remote, rural audience to register social coverage the old-fashioned way, it was necessary to find a way for the process to become better-suited for them. Our idea was to transform the complex social security process into simple mobile commands, familiar to female farmers.
Describe the strategy
The average female farmer is a mom in her forties who is illiterate or has only achieved primary education. She is an essential breadwinner for her family.
This day-to-day lifestyle prohibits her from thinking ahead, planning for accidents or ever taking a day off. She only worries about providing the essentials and making it to tomorrow.
These women live far from big cities, administrative offices and complex paperwork. Yet, they are capable mobile users as 95% are Tunisie Telecom clients:
Female farmers feel more at ease using a mobile feature phone than navigating the Social Affairs bureaucracy.
So instead of trying to get an illiterate, remote, rural audience to register social coverage the old-fashioned way, it was
Describe the execution
We created Ahmini: a simplified coverage platform that allowed:
• Registration through a code: Just 5 digits launched their subscription *803#
• Payment through automated micro-payments: 1-dinar withdrawals from their mobile credit topped at 217 dinars a year covered their dues.
And to spread the word, we created a TVC about the importance of social security and how to register for it. We used flyers and posters as educational assets that we spread in high-traffic areas in small communities such as post offices, traditional grocery stores and our own outlets.
Most importantly we went to engage with these women in their actual place of work during a national road trip. For 6 weeks, 27 workshops were organized in the 24 Tunisian governorates. There, the Ahmini team explained the benefits of social coverage, the risks they were exposing themselves to by not being affiliated and answered their concerns.
List the results
• Registrations: For the launch phase, Tunisie Telecom aimed to increase the current registration number by 10%. We succeeded in getting 10k new registered women, which amounts to an increase of 18% overall.
• Awareness: It was crucial to engage with a maximum of women and to educate them on coverage. The objective was to reach at least 20k women in the 24 governorates. The national tour stopped in each of the 24 governorates and were attended by almost 27k women.
11 Ministers joined the Ahmini road trip throughout the country. The Head of Government Youssef Chahed publicly endorsed Ahmini as a great initiative to empower rural women economically and socially and committed to further its reach during the upcoming years.