Using Biometric Technology for Scaling: An Interview with Eje Esangbedo, Simprints’ Director of Partnerships
MLC Interview | March 14th 2022
“There is no single “best” biometric method as each offer has advantages and disadvantages, especially when working with specific populations and in specific contexts. It is critical to choose a technology that will work effectively in the specific contexts to prevent people from being misidentified or even excluded from services due to a failure of the biometric technology used.”
Biometrics are a way to identify who you are or verify that you are who you say you are, through measurements of biological characteristics. These characteristics can be physiological (e.g., fingerprints or iris) or behavioural (e.g., voice or gait). Biometric technologies can be used to to generate unique identifiers to connect cases together, verify delivery of interventions, and improve beneficiary tracking in last-mile settings.
MLC Member Simprints recently collaborated with an FCDO funded initiative, COVIDaction, to provide guidance on Using Biometric Technology to fight COVID-19. The purpose of the paper is to discuss how biometrics can be used responsibly for the COVID-19 response, focusing on the use cases of vaccine delivery, clinical trials, and aid delivery.
We wanted to learn more about MLC Member Simprint's experience with Biometrics and its relevance to their scaling trajectory so we reached out to Ejemhen (Eje) Esangbedo, Simprints’ Director of Partnerships. Eje provided a short summary of the paper and explained how biometrics can help scale innovations as well as their relevance to other organisations interested in scaling their innovations by using biometric technology.
Check out our interview with Eje and the first of the MLC’s video interview series here:
“Biometrics are not a silver bullet; safeguards, planning, and benefit/risk analysis need to be taken into account to determine whether biometrics are appropriate for a specific intervention and to track whether the biometrics continue to offer benefits in rapidly changing conditions.”
