A non governmental organisation, Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI), has launched a new digital platform called the Campus Pal App. The App is specifically designed for reporting cases of sexual harassment in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Speaking during the unveiling of the App, Ekiti State governor’s wife, Adeleye Fayemi, explained that the historical launch of Gender Mobile’s creative vision through its Campus Pal Mobile Platform, is an attempt to solve a social problem through technology.
“The Campus Pal Mobile Platform will engender real time confidential reporting of sexual harassment, data collection, and effective case management. It is a step in the right direction that underscores the intent and commitment of its creators to curbing the recurrence of this campus vice.
“Gender Mobile’s adoption of this technological approach is indeed a great new measure in the prevention or effective prosecution of incidences of sexual harassment, simultaneously providing succour and solution for victims of sexual harassment.”
She urged the NGO to extend the use of the application to those who want to report rape and sexual violence on campuses. “There is also a need to look into the growing pandemic of sexual harassment and violence in secondary schools,” she said.
Gender Mobile Initiative was stablished to complement the government’s effort to curb mounting cases of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria, leveraging and harnessing the power of technology.
The App will help address the high rate of under-reporting of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions. Over the years, there continues to be a high rate of under-reporting of incidents of sexual harassment and violation that are not reported due mainly to lack of a confidential reporting platforms and fear of victimisation.
The App is designed in such a way that it will be a confidentiality-driven reporting, reported case tracking, support community/safe space that supports proactive bystander intervention, information escrow, access learning centre to learn about policies, case appeal and on boarding information function.
Why Campus Pal App?
According to the Executive Director, Gender Mobile Initiative, Ms Omowunmi Ogunrotimi, said the gender initiative was born out of the desire to bridge the gap in terms of reporting sexual and gender based violence.
“We set up the call centre infrastructure, within one year of setting the call infrastructure, we realised that over 80% of report emanated from campus communities which shows that there is a high prevalence in environment of learning.
That informs our effort to launch into campus communities, essentially to provide support to drive systemic change in addressing the spate of sexual harassment in institution.
“The technology we are launching today is a platform where we can generate data, data is the new oil, the new currency. With data, we can do a lot of things, with data we can be sure that our interventions are meeting the needs of the communities that we are doing programing for,” she added.
