From Invisible to Citizens (I2C): Apparent age for primary school children without Birth certificates

Ages fraud scandals have tarnished African sport at the international level. In 2009, FIFA adopted MRI as an age determination tool for its youth level competitions but recent studies show that bone age assessment has a very large margin of error and cannot be a standard for determining apparent age when we know that environmental factors greatly influence the development of the child. There are populations in which the disappearance of growth cartilage is 4 to 5 years earlier than in another. The ugly face of the problem is that many children are born out of the healthcare system. In Cameroon, approximately 1.7 million children, or 66 %, do not have a birth certificate. These children are said to be "invisible" In other words, they live without being recognised by the country whose citizenship they claim. According to a study carried out by Unicef, 40,000 children, in the Far North region alone, will find it difficult to present their end of year First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) for lack of a birth certificate. To establish these birth certificates, it will be necessary to make an estimate of their apparent age in a complex process which discourages parents. It is evident that the determination of apparent age should not only be seen from a clinical standpoint. Instead, socio-cultural and environment factors must also be taken into account.

To remedy this situation which has reached the alert level, it is urgent to propose a simplified and open system for determining Apparent Age to turn invisible kids to visible ones based on available Data and Machine Learning techniques.