First exclusion errors of the newly launched “Daem platform”

The “Daem platform,” which on 1 December 2021 began collecting applications for the two safety net programs launched by the government (ration-card program) and the World Bank (ESSN program), already registered 236,000 applications. About 70,000 applicants were unable to finalize the application. Some did not have an identification document, and were undocumented or stateless; other could not get access to some of the required documents or were unable to pay to obtain them; still others could not fully understand the online procedures because they either were not familiar with electronic devices or could not read or write correctly. The daily newspaper L’Orient-le jour also reported fraudulent practices, stating that some brokers – whether they were politically connected or not – promised people wishing to apply to the safety net programs that they would fill out the application on their behalf in exchange for a fee, and claimed that they could guarantee that their application would come through by pulling strings (wasta) (L’Orient-le jour, 12/17/2021). To this end, it is worth noting that even the best safety net programs have exclusionary and inclusionary errors of up to 44% (ILO and UNICEF 2021, 7). Once again, the Daem platform is yet another example that puts into question the effectiveness of safety net programs, and of the emergency-based approach they rely on.