ID4Africa event opens in Kigali next week

The second annual meeting of the ID4Africa Movement, opens next Tuesday in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, hosted by the National Identification Agency (NIDA) of Rwanda. The conference runs May 24 to 26.

ID4Africa is a multi-stakeholder movement that promotes the transparent and responsible adoption of digital identity in the service of development in Africa. Its aim is to share experience and establish real world best practices that set the correct expectations for what is involved in launching and sustaining successful identity programs.

The theme for this year’s event is “Digital Identity: The Practical Guide”. The event will examine what practicalities are required for authorities to successfully launch identity programs, an agenda that was set at the inaugural event held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last year.

This year, presentations and workshops will be given by government officials as well as some of the world’s leading experts in identity. Topics will include the linkage of civil registration and national ID, the application of identity systems in support of democracy and elections as well as social protection, and will cover important governance and legal framework matters including privacy and data protection. Participants will also hear updates from several national identity authorities that have already begun implementation of such systems, as well as policy briefs from development agencies including the World Bank, African Development Bank, the African Union, the French Development Agency, and ECOWAS.

The forum will have a exposition running parallel, which will highlight innovative technologies and solutions pertinent to identity and security.

This year’s event comes in the aftermath of the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and in particular Goal 16.9, which calls on member states to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030.

Dr. Joseph Atick, Executive Chairman of ID4Africa said: “The adoption of this goal provides a mandate and should facilitate funding for identity related projects and initiatives and should empower identity authorities to carry out their national missions within an internationally recognized and accepted framework. While this is an important milestone, it is not prescriptive. It does not explain how to achieve this goal and that is where ID4Africa will continue to play an important role. As a multi-stakeholder movement, we are able to extract best practices from the collective experience and multi-perspectives that our constituency embodies.”

The event will include a site visit hosted by NIDA that will provide African government delegates with hands-on demonstrations of the best practices adopted by Rwanda. To celebrate the event, a special ID4Africa report entitled “The Identity Ecosystem of Rwanda: A Case Study of a Performant ID System in an African Development Context” will be released.

Pascal Nyamulinda, Director General of NIDA, said: “We are very pleased to have been chosen to be the host of ID4Africa 2016. Identification systems have been one of the key projects of our National Information and Communication Infrastructure strategy and a key layer in the systems integration and e-Government framework.” He added, “The record number of participants this year demonstrates how important this subject has become to all of us in Africa. An individual without a unique identity cannot function in a developing society that increasingly relies on e-Government for delivery of services.”

BiometricUpdate.com is an official media partner of the event. Rawlson King, contributing editor at BiometricUpdate.com, will be attending ID4Africa and providing extensive coverage of the conference sessions. Follow our Twitter feed to stay up to date.

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BiometricUpdate.com was the official journalist for the 2016 forum and exposition.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  data protection  |  digital identity  |  ID4Africa  |  privacy  |  Rawlson King  |  security