Cavia: The App Project

Individuals in communities affected by the crises of sexual exploitation and abuse and HIV deserve to be heard from—directly, privately, unfiltered.

We are building a mobile app to do just that.

AIDS-Free World is creating a self-interviewing app that will allow people to discuss the most sensitive and taboo issues affecting women and girls, including sexual abuse and HIV.
Our Code Blue Campaign, which works to end impunity for sexual offenses by UN personnel, is creating an innovative way to bring the perspectives of those most affected by the crisis directly to decision-makers. An original smartphone app, Cavia, 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.
AIDS-Free World will then use the Cavia app to gain a deeper understanding—again, directly from the source—of sexual violence and HIV as perceived by adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV poses the greatest danger to the lives and health of young women, yet their views about—and solutions to—the crisis have never before been solicited in this way. Cavia will bring to life voices from a group whose sky-high rates of HIV have been ignored for far too long, at their own and the world’s peril.
The Cavia app will be uploaded to basic smartphones and programmed to play a series of pre-recorded, open-ended questions available in many languages. Participants will self-interview, recording their own responses in the language of their choice. The app’s 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 judgment from an interviewer or interpreter.
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.
Data from the app will be transmitted digitally and securely to remote-based transcribers and translators, and then to AIDS-Free World staff. The Cavia approach is therefore well-suited to the complex realities of conducting interviews in the COVID-19 era and beyond.

Prior to rolling out Cavia, local implementing partner organizations will organize and host a series of Community Forums. These conversations will introduce Cavia, describing the method and purpose of the collaborative project through facilitated, open dialogue.
After interviews have been completed and the findings collated, we will return to seek feedback and discuss the outcomes with a second round of Community Forums.

Ultimately, participants’ narratives will be presented to decision-makers, who will be pressed to design solutions based on insights from a truly inclusive group of experts—people with firsthand knowledge and experience of the problems. We plan to evolve the app quickly into freely available technology, allowing it to serve as an inclusive, efficient, and inexpensive means of exploring and solving a range of complex, sensitive issues.

AIDS-Free World is grateful to the Slaight Family Foundation and to the Oak Foundation for their support of this initiative.