Over three years, the company developed several projects. The main one is Amply, a set of blockchain implementations that will allow the government of South Africa to manage Early Childhood Developments Services better.

Early Childhood Development Services is a network of state-funded special centres that help children from the lower strata of South African society to socialise, foster various skills and enter state schools. According to official data, Early Childhood Development centres provide communities with different services from basic nutrition assistance to teacher development programs.

Amply project will use a distributed ledger to improve the documentation system in the network of state-coordinated centres.

“Amply is using blockchain technology to improve Early Childhood Development (ECD) services in South Africa. Using blockchain infrastructure and smart contracts, we prototyped a system that will help strengthen the current registration, contracting, information and management systems,” states the company.

In the following year, 9needs will conduct a test use of blockchain at 50 ECD centres in South Africa. The company applied for a newly-established UNICEF grant program and won $100,000. 9needs will invest the money in the implementation of the project.

This is the first-ever investment into a blockchain company through the UNICEF Innovation Fund, which is

“…A new way of doing business at the UN; combining the approach of Silicon Valley venture funds with the needs of UNICEF programme countries. The Fund allows us to prototype technology solutions, as well as expand our networks of open source collaborators to improve children’s lives,” explains Cynthia McCaffrey, Director of the UNICEF Office of Innovation.

Previously, the international organisation declared its readiness to experiment with the blockchain technology. Now it chose 9needs for the first investment.

In partnership with world leaders like Aflatoun International (financial literacy to 4.5M kids), Healthruwords (personal development to 2.5M community members), InSchool (IoT for Schools), GIVE Foundation is launching its token in September in Thailand with 10,000 kids in 5 different schools.

It is a digital identity blockchain application being used to replace an existing paper-based system to register children for a government funded pre-school subsidy in South Africa. Service providers use the mobile app to verify children’s attendance at classes and to capture other useful information. This will increase trust in the funding mechanism and make funding available to more children who need it. It will save administration time and costs..

The Cape Town organization, which is running a pilot with South African preschoolers, creates immutable digital identities to help children in Africa receive educational services and subsidies.

Project Amply strives to revolutionize early childhood development in Africa. Combining mobile and blockchain technology to increase impact and accountability of public services and generate real-time data.

OUR MISSION
Amply is a digital identity protocol that builds trust. We provide every child with their own self-sovereign digital identity based on the blockchain. This will enable children to receive benefits and services that they might have previously been excluded from.

In our pilot project, Amply is being used to replace an existing paper-based system to register children for a government funded pre-school subsidy in South Africa. Service providers use a mobile app to verify children’s attendance at classes and to capture other useful information. This will increase trust in the funding mechanism and make funding available to more children who need it. It will save administration time and costs. And it will provide really useful information about how and where services are being delivered.

Amply is unique in that it places each individual child at the centre of their relationships with Early Childhood Development services in a way that is ‘self-sovereign’ and directly beneficial to them. This means that a child’s digital identity and personal data are privately owned and controlled by the individual (with some help from their guardians). Over time, their life records become a rich source of data and value that can be used to receive services and insights that will become more predictive, precise, personalised, preventive, and participatory.

With consented access to personal data and identity assurance, entirely new classes of innovative applications can be developed for both local physical and distant virtual services. This is a big deal for growing a web of trust around children, to meet their developmental needs.

We use digital identities to
– gather real-time data and link it to sovereign identities
– increase efficiency and quality of public services for children
– create accountable blockchain based subsidies management platforms