Press release

Gavi, NEC, and Simprints to Deploy World’s First Scalable Child Fingerprint Identification Solution to Boost Immunization in Developing Countries

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Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, NEC Corporation, and Simprints Technology
Ltd. have signed a memorandum of understanding on the use of biometrics
to improve immunization coverage in developing countries.

Despite enormous progress over the past two decades, there are still
approximately 20 million children (*1) who do not receive a basic course
of vaccines worldwide, leaving them exposed to some of the world’s
deadliest diseases.

One key cause is the fact that only half of all children under 5 in
sub-Saharan Africa are currently registered at birth, leaving many
without an official identity. This makes it difficult for health
practitioners to ensure these infants get the vaccines they need at the
right time.

Guided by Gavi’s experience and expertise in immunization, this new
project will combine Simprints’ biometric fingerprint technology and
NEC’s reinforced authentication engine to help create digital identities
for children 1-5 years of age and boost immunization coverage in
developing countries.

This new partnership will deploy the world’s first scalable fingerprint
identification solution to give children aged 1-5 a digital ID linked to
an accurate, complete medical record. All biometric records will be
stored securely by Simprints, a UK-based non-profit social enterprise,
after caregivers give informed consent to taking their children’s
biometric data.

Implementing this plan with conventional extraction and matching engines
would be very challenging, since young children’s fingerprints tend to
be blurred due to their softness. NEC’s fingerprint authentication
engine has overcome this issue, with optimization for infant
fingerprints and the use of fingerprint images taken with Simprints
scanners. This combination has resulted in highly accurate
authentication, with a certification rate of 99% (*2).

The three partners will begin carrying out proof of concept validation
of the technology in Bangladesh and Tanzania by early 2020. If
successful, the project will then progress to linking children’s digital
identity with their vaccination record, helping health practitioners to
track which children need to be vaccinated and when.

To date, Gavi has contributed to the immunization of over 700 million
children in the world’s poorest countries, and an estimated 10 million
lives have been saved.

This initiative helps to promote the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) established by the United Nations.

https://www.nec.com/en/press/201906/global_20190606_01.html

 
(*1)   Source: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

https://www.gavi.org/about/value/health-equity/

(*2) According to NEC research