PARTNERSHIP
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e-Vouchers for Mozambican women in distress
“Facial recognition software is processing- intensive, so we had to ensure we got the best product. The equipment is 100% perfect.”
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for women to services, goods, and resources.” Equitable access for women is essential to achieving gender equality and sustainable development. The aim, therefore, is to remove barriers to access to public services for women, who are the most marginalised among the displaced. In a nutshell, the project involves an electronic voucher system for emerging countries from NEC subsidiary NEC XON. This system
uses contactless IC cards (the same size as credit cards) given free of charge
NEC XON deploys technology to help people displaced by conflict N EC subsidiary, NEC XON, is working with UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality and women’s empowerment, to run a women’s
to women who need relief supplies. These women can use the
passport control areas.
The surveillance and analytics business unit at NEC XON delivers video surveillance, and analytical intelligence solutions and services to create safe public and workspaces in Africa. By first creating and validating a reference architecture in the labs, Boston gave NEC XON peace of mind that future orders would be based on a validated solution, created for the company’s needs and built to meet exact requirements. This helps to expedite after-sales support. The Boston Labs used remote testing capabilities to allow NEC XON to put the hardware through extensive testing prior to shipping. Boston then shipped the hardware directly from one of their international integration centres to the end-user in Senegal on NEC XON’s behalf. This saved money while also providing additional confidence in the solution, and also saved time in the larger context of Covid delays. “Facial recognition software is processing-intensive, so we had to ensure we got the best product,” said Jan Erasmus, Head of Surveillance and Analytics at NEC XON. “The equipment is 100% perfect.” “This process was a big cost saving for us,” said Erasmus. “We had utmost confidence and trust in Boston to ship the configured and tested systems directly to our end-user in Africa.”
cashless cards to purchase supplies using smartphone terminals located in mobile supply sales trucks, at any time or place. NEC XON, which is contracted to UN Women in Mozambique, provides the contactless IC cards and smartphone terminals.
support program through e-vouchers in Mozambique.
As conflict continues in various parts of Mozambique, especially in Cabo Delgado province in the northeastern part of the country, many people have been forced to leave their homes and still live as internally displaced persons. UN Women (a global advocacy agency for women and girls) is providing support by promoting “equal access
NEC XON and Boston create facial recognition platform for Dakar Airport
At NEC XON, we aim to solve social issues through the development of technologies and solutions that support the missions of international organisations, and ultimately improve the lives of the beneficiaries.
The greatest advantage of this
support service is that relief supplies reach internally displaced persons reliably. Conventional paper-based management of supplies often meant supplies did not actually reach evacuees after they were sent to government or support organisations. In addition, since the refugees themselves can choose and purchase the supplies they need, the aim (to provide what displaced persons actually need) is more effectively met. The biggest bottleneck in deploying IT solutions in these regions is the poor power and Internet infrastructure. However, the problem of charging the smartphone sales devices was solved by distributing them to mobile sales trucks instead of stores with poor power infrastructure.
Because there were several different components to the facial recognition solution, a significant amount of time had to be spent in The Boston Labs to design, define, and refine the hardware specifications. Once this was completed, the bill of materials was validated, priced up, and supplied to NEC XON as a pre-validated hardware solution. The requirement was based on facial recognition software for NEC XON’s client in Senegal. The market- disruptive technology was earmarked for use in the new Blaise Diagne International Airport in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, West Africa, in
N EC XON contracted Boston IT Solutions South Africa to design the hardware requirements for the company’s facial recognition solutions according to NEC XON’s software specifications to ensure optimal performance. Jan Erasmus, Head of Surveillance and Analytics at NEC XON
(C) B. Veja/UN Women 2022
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