As an operator, Tunisie Telecom had no stake in social affairs and guaranteeing security for the vulnerable. Yet, it knew mobile technology could revolutionize the way marginalized Tunisians accessed coverage and therefore guarantee them healthcare for life.

Women working in agriculture are the biggest uncovered group in Tunisia. These women are not process-savvy, cannot travel to register or keep-up with quarterly payments but their operator Tunisie Telecom believed technology could make it easier for them and wanted to leverage its proximity to get them to protect themselves. The objective was to increase the current rate of registered female farmers by 10%.

Instead of trying to get an illiterate, remote, rural audience to register social coverage the old-fashioned way, it was necessary to find a way for the process to become better-suited for them. Our idea was to transform the complex social security process into simple mobile commands, familiar to female farmers.

Female farmers live far from big cities, administrative offices, CNSS agencies and complex paperwork. So in order to get them to seek coverage Tunisie Telecom needed to decentralize the affiliation and payment process away from CNSS offices and to bring it to feature phone screens. To make that transformation happen, we partnered with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Women.

As for communication, we needed to rely on mainstream non-digital channels since the target is very isolated. Direct means like events were our best bet to engage female farmers. We really had to make it as easy as possible for them.

We created Ahmini: a simplified coverage platform that allowed:

• Registration through a USSD code: Just 5 digits launched their subscription *803#

• Payment through automated micro-payments: 1-dinar withdrawals from their mobile credit topped at 217 dinars a year covered their dues.

To spread the word, we created a TVC about the importance of social security and how to register for it on the national channel. We used flyers and posters as educational assets that we spread in high-traffic areas in small communities such as post offices, traditional grocery stores and our own outlets.

Most importantly we went to engage with these women in their actual place of work during a national road trip. For 6 weeks, 27 workshops were organized in 24 Tunisian governorates. There, the Ahmini team explained the benefits of social coverage, the risks they were exposing themselves to by not being affiliated and answered their concerns.

• Registrations: For the launch phase, Tunisie Telecom aimed to increase the current registration number by 10%. We succeeded in getting 10k new registered women, which amounts to an increase of 18% overall.

• Awareness: It was crucial to engage with a maximum of women and to educate them on coverage. The objective was to reach at least 20k women in the 24 governorates. The national tour stopped in each of the 24 governorates and were attended by almost 27k women.

11 Ministers joined the Ahmini road trip throughout the country. The Head of Government Youssef Chahed publicly endorsed Ahmini as a great initiative to empower rural women economically and socially and committed to further its reach during the upcoming years.