Novissi Togo: ML and phone data to deliver shock-responsive social protection

The COVID-19 crisis disrupted livelihoods in Togo, particularly for informal sector workers who lack social protection coverage. Traditional social safety systems were not shock-responsive, lacked dynamic registries, and relied on outdated data and in-person processes, limiting the ability to rapidly identify and serve vulnerable households during the crisis. The NOVISSI program in Togo uses artificial intelligence to make social protection shock-responsive. Launched during the COVID-19 crisis, NOVISSI combines administrative data with satellite imagery and data science methods to assess needs and prioritize the most vulnerable informal workers for cash transfers. Machine learning models help determine eligibility and target beneficiaries more effectively in the absence of up-to-date social registries, enabling rapid, phone-enabled registration, assessment, and benefit delivery. This AI-enhanced approach supports scalable, data-driven targeting of social assistance to those most affected by economic shocks.

The Government of Togo launched the Novissi program in 2020 as a fully digital social protection initiative in response to the socioeconomic disruption caused by COVID-19. The program was implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation, in partnership with national statistical authorities and international development partners. Novissi was designed to deliver rapid, targeted cash transfers to vulnerable populations affected by lockdown measures. Leveraging Togo’s national voter ID database and mobile money infrastructure, the government deployed machine learning and geospatial poverty targeting techniques to identify eligible beneficiaries, particularly in rural and economically distressed regions. The initiative represents one of the first large-scale applications of AI-driven satellite imagery and poverty mapping for social protection targeting in Sub-Saharan Africa. By integrating mobile money, digital identity systems, and remote sensing analytics, Novissi demonstrated how digital public infrastructure can enable rapid, transparent, and inclusive government-to-person (G2P) transfers.