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The Cavia app

The Code Blue Campaign is undertaking a groundbreaking project. In our effort to end impunity for sexual offenses committed by UN personnel, we have devised an innovative way to bring the perspectives of those most affected by the crisis directly to the United Nations. The Cavia app will capture insights from a population more intimately familiar with UN sexual exploitation and abuse than any other: those living in areas that have hosted UN peacekeeping, emergency response, or development assistance operations.

Cavia, an original app that Code Blue is developing, will be uploaded to basic smartphones and programmed to play a series of pre-recorded, open-ended questions available in many languages. Those who opt to participate will self-interview, recording their own responses in the language of their choice. This design will ensure that individuals who are illiterate or who have low literacy levels can participate fully. Further, respondents will be able to conduct the interviews in complete privacy, at their own convenience and pace, and without the potential bias or fear of judgement from an interviewer or interpreter. This complete privacy will allow people to discuss, perhaps for the first time ever, the most sensitive and taboo issues. Critically, Cavia is being designed to allow participants to conduct self-interviews even if they have limited experience with technology and mobile phones or live in an area with unstable internet or electricity access.

Using the Cavia app, participants can self-interview without being in physical contact with an interviewer or interpreter. Further, data from the app will be transmitted digitally and securely to remote-based transcribers and translators, and then to Code Blue staff. The Cavia approach is therefore well-suited to the complex realities of conducting interviews in the COVID-19 era and beyond.

Community Forums

Prior to rolling out Cavia self-interviews in any given community, local implementing partner organizations will be supported by Code Blue to organize and host a series of Community Forums, in a manner that is adapted to local COVID-19 public health considerations and regulations. These conversations will serve to introduce Cavia, describing the method and purpose of the collaborative project through facilitated, open dialogue. Each Community Forum will ascertain community members’ interest in taking part in Cavia and lending their time and expertise to help solve a UN problem they have heard about, witnessed, or experienced directly so that other women and children in other countries will be spared. Mental health professionals will be available and poised to assist in the event that any participants feel distressed or re-traumatized.

With the support of local implementing partners, Code Blue will return after interviews have been completed and the findings collated to discuss the outcome of the Cavia project with a second round of Community Forums. This will also give Code Blue a chance to hear from community members about their experience with the self-interviewing process, and to identify areas of improvement based on interviewees’ feedback and recommendations.

Advocacy

Individuals living in host communities are untapped experts. Their unique ideas on how to prevent and address sexual exploitation and abuse are sorely needed in UN policymaking. Yet the UN persists in responding without first gathering victims’ and community members’ perspectives. The Cavia project intends to change that.

Ultimately, Code Blue will present audio narratives to UN policymakers, including highlighting proposed solutions to the UN’s crisis of sexual exploitation and abuse. We predict that this will be the first time that most Member State representatives and UN officials will hear comprehensive insights from the people most affected. With the knowledge afforded by these firsthand accounts, we anticipate a future in which UN decision-makers will design solutions based on a more nuanced understanding of the changes that are needed to end impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse.

We are grateful to the Slaight Family Foundation and to the Oak Foundation for their support to this initiative.

Pilot Community Consultations

In May 2018, as a precursor to the Cavia App project, the Code Blue Campaign held pilot Community Consultations in Sierra Leone, in partnership with the national NGO Timap for Justice. Sierra Leone is a post-conflict country where UN peacekeepers were active for six years. More than 100 Sierra Leoneans came out to tell their stories to the session held at Mile 91, offering unique and critical perspectives on the lasting impact of sexual exploitation and abuse.

The consultations revealed that victims have a desire to share their experiences, and that many community members view sexual exploitation and abuse as a somewhat inevitable phenomenon that they feel powerless to stop. From the pilot Community Consultations, it became clear that the Cavia app will be a critical mode of unmuting the voices of those directly affected by sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN peacekeepers.

Photo: CC World Bank