Primero: UNICEF’s open source software for social services
Primero is an open source software that supports digital transformation in social services. It helps workers manage protection-related data, with tools that facilitate child protection and gender-based violence case management and incident monitoring, as well as family tracing and reunification. Primero has 83 implementations in the world today across 67 countries and territories. For example, in Europe Primero was launched in Romania on 25 July 2022 by the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Equal Opportunities, through the National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights and Adoption (ANPDCA), in partnership with UNICEF Romania and Sera Romania. Since then, almost 14,000 Ukrainian children who fled the war have been successfully registered on Primero, out of an estimated number of 37,000 children in Romania. Primero is a result of a private-public partnership between UNICEF and Salus CM, a US-based company specializing in social, health, and human services, responsible for the development and long-term maintenance of Primero.
Primero’s use, its open source nature, and its role as a Digital Public Good
Primero was designed to support the collaboration of different actors who are managing data about vulnerable children and survivors of violence. The OS provides a common, secure system to protect data and relieve some of the information management burden from social workers and protection professionals.
"Social workers supporting vulnerable children and families face low pay, limited support, and immense stress. It’s a tough job that requires deep dedication, almost a calling. Yet, in the development sector, there’s little to help them do their work. Primero fills that gap. Those who use it rely on it daily, and it not only makes them more effective, but also keeps them safe." - Robert MacTavish, Child Protection Specialist / Primero Product Lead at UNICEF HQ
According to the interviewees, because the software is OS it becomes more transparent, customisable, and fosters a shared sense of ownership among the participating actors, such as governments and tech organisations. It also allows collaboration, and enhances cost-effectiveness, making it accessible for the budget of smaller organisations. It also aligns with UNICEF’s operational approach, which is to help enable governments to own their social services. Additionally, through being collaborative, it can support agile software development methodologies within the public sector, an area often hindered by innovation challenges.
"Agile development is challenging in a public sector entity like the UN, where accountability is key. Primero’s success comes from embracing an agile, community-driven approach. As UNICEF, we want governments to own and maintain it. The platform connects users to a large, transparent community where they can openly discuss, request, and contribute to features. Plus, it’s significantly more affordable than many proprietary competitors, making it ideal for small nonprofits." - Robert MacTavish & Jean Pierre Le Jacq , Chief Technology Officer at Salus CM
The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to accelerate the attainment of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by facilitating the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods certified Primero as a DPG in 2022 and 2023. That confirms that Primero adheres to the DPGA principles and best practices and directly contributes to the SDGs 2030 agenda. The 2030 Agenda, adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world SDGs.
"The notion of digital public good is more than just OS, it’s about coordination, efficiency, and empowering governments to deliver on their commitments. Moreover, governments are experiencing fatigue; they don’t want to keep paying for new systems. UNICEF providing Primero as a service is a major shift, aligning with a broader UN strategy to reduce duplication and maximize resources." - Robert MacTavish
"Being certified as a digital public good gives us a stamp of approval ensuring security, governance, and trust, so we can confidently compete with closed-source solutions." Jean Pierre Le Jacq
Primero’s license and upgrade
Primero uses the GNU Affero General Public License (GPL). The GNU GPL is a free, copyleft licence for software and other kinds of works, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software. The rationale behind choosing this licence is that it guarantees the freedom to share and change all versions of a program to make sure it remains free software for all its users.
"It's a well-established licence in the OS community. While it adds some complexity for the private sector in public-private partnerships, we don’t see it as a major obstacle and are perfectly happy with it." - Jean Pierre Le Jacq
In 2020 Primero developed Primero v2 a redesigned version of Primero with an emphasis on usability, security, and scalability.
" With the v2 we can create a Primero on demand. Without constraints on device and hardware procurement, our life has become much easier, plus, we’ve invested in a complete UX redesign, making it a much nicer experience. It is a great example of how we've matured as a project, focusing on long-term stability with major security and build improvements, even in areas that aren’t always visible." - Robert MacTavish & Jean Pierre Le Jacq
For more information on Primero click here.
A sincere thanks to Robert MacTavish Child Protection Specialist / Primero Product Lead at UNICEF HQ and to Jean Pierre Le Jacq Chief Technology Officer at Salus CM
Sources
https://www.primero.org/about-us
Picture taken from:
https://education.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-presents-key-principles-and-practices-for-supporting-the-inclusion-of-displaced-children-from-ukraine-in-school-education
Comments
Great work on this article @Yannis. We appreciate the visibility and good copy. Working with a focus on integrations and more interoperable systems, we are constantly working with public sector partners to share the value that connected systems represent. I wanted to also share the we have a dedicated Primero DAO where our users and tech partners converse about system enhancements. One of the most common requests/proposals we receive is about the need to integrate with other public service solutions. We welcome all to check it out here: https://unicef.tomars.co/
Thank you for your comment @Robert.
We will make sure to observe the future developments of Primero as it is indeed an important open source solution that has the potential to sustain other eGovernance principles such as that of interoperability and participation.