PhilSys shares notes with WURI officials on digital ID best practices

Delegations form six West African countries participating in a regional identification project dubbed WURI recently had a working session with officials of the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) on enhancing digital ID collaboration.

WURI stands for the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion.

The WURI countries whose representatives participated in the event include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger and Togo. The Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Registry Office (PRO) welcomed the WURI delegations, according to a PSA press release.

The PSA runs PhilSys which is a vast digital ID system aimed at providing Filipinos with a unique proof of ID called the PhilID, which has already been issued to more than 70 million people. It is part of government’s efforts to streamline service delivery and push financial inclusion.

The meeting which lasted for four days was organized with support from the World Bank’s Identification for Development Program (ID4D) and was an opportunity for the PSA to share its experience with the visitors on key strategies, challenges, and best practices in the development and implementation of digital identification systems such as the PhilSys and how such systems can be linked to essential social services and social registries to facilitate access to services.

The in-depth discussions which PhilSys officials had with members of the WURI delegation enabled the visitors to gain knowledge on various issues such as management, security, communications, and operations of the PhilSys like civil registration services. They also visited the center where PhilIDs are printed.

“The general impression is really very positive and we are very much impressed with the way the civil registration is being done, as well as the national identification [system] being implemented,” said Kone Karidja Epse Bamba, Director for WURI Cote d’Ivoire. “We hope to be able to apply all the things that we have learned during this visit to our own country.”

The experience learnt from the PhilSys will enable the WURI countries advance their efforts in building efficient, inclusive, and harmonized identification systems which will enable access to services, economic opportunities, and social protection for people in that part of Africa.

In April, ECOWAS stakeholders re-echoed their commitment to accelerate the regional ID project in order to boost integration and financial inclusion.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  civil registration  |  digital ID  |  ECOWAS  |  government services  |  PhilID  |  Philippines  |  Philippines Statistics Authority  |  social protection  |  WURI