We are experts in the ID system, but we never think we know everything.

By
Cocaine Company
-
22

Our global identity problem

If a person cannot prove who they are, can they take advantage of all of the opportunities society has to offer?

For the 850 million people around the world who lack any acceptable form of legal identity, the answer is no. Identity verification enables people to fully participate in the economy. It eases access to employment and education as well as services such as banking, government programs, and health care.

People living in low- and middle-income countries are more likely to go without personal details. More than half of those without proof of identity are children whose births were not registered. One in two women in low-income countries do not have ID. And even among those whose identity can be verified, many lack documentation that is suited to the digital age.

This means many of the resources that could help them improve their quality of life are out of reach. Enter the digital ID.

Fortunately, a formidable solution has emerged: an open-source, customizable digital identity solution called Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) that is available to all countries for free.

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Digital ID is a critical piece of digital public infrastructure

Digital ID systems are one of the three pillars of what’s known as digital public infrastructure (DPI); the others are digital payment systems and data exchange systems. By connecting people and making it easier to move money and share information, DPI is in many ways the modern-day equivalent of the roads and bridges that helped reshape economies in the 19th century. Researchers say that DPI can help low- and middle-income countries leapfrog traditional stages of development, lift millions out of poverty, and spur economic growth.

A digital ID system is critical because people need a verified national identity in order to tap into DPI’s other benefits, from digital bank accounts and instant payments to mobile phone accounts and personal data management.The original inspiration for MOSIP was India’s national digital ID system, Aadhaar, which launched in 2009. This ambitious effort would eventually enroll over 99% of all Indian adults.S Rajagopalan, a professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-Bangalore), was sure that Aadhaar would be transformational. In the early 1990s, he had worked on technology for people living in poverty in rural areas of India. He saw that access to public services was a recurring problem because the villagers didn’t have IDs. They needed an intermediary to vouch for them when they went to a hospital, for example, or when they wanted to access subsidized rations like wheat, pulses, or sugar. This issue especially affected women living in poverty.

“Accessing what is rightfully due to people became a problem because they were not able to prove whom they are.”

– S Rajagopalan
Co-founder
An open-source solution

MOSIP offers a digital ID solution that any country can adapt and use

The success of Aadhaar in India triggered a surge of interest in digital ID technologies around the world. By 2018, more than 60 countries were trying to develop such a system, including every country in sub-Saharan Africa.

But countries could not simply copy and use Aadhaar—or other national digital identity systems like those in Estonia and Singapore—because those systems were owned by the governments that developed them. They instead turned to commercial vendors, making costly investments that yielded frustrating results because the systems suffered from “vendor lock-in.” Commercial vendor software was proprietary, which meant governments could not customize it without tying themselves—financially and functionally

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Kanwaljit Singh, Ph.D.
Senior Program Officer, Gates Foundation
Dr. Kanwaljit Singh leads the foundation’s work on digital identity, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.

 

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