MOSIP rallies stakeholders to foster discourse on inclusive digital ID development

Government representatives, commercial and multilateral partners, developers, academics, and civil society actors are in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to explore new and existing approaches to successfully implementing all-in digital identity and digital public infrastructure (DPI) projects.

This will be in a three-day event dubbed MOSIP Connect 2024, which opens Tuesday March 5, organised by MOSIP (the Modular Open Source Identity Platform), in collaboration with the Ethiopia National ID Program (NIDP).

Organizers confirm the event will see the participation of over 90 delegates coming from 30 countries, 59 exhibitors and more than 100 commercial partners and relying parties.

Discussions and reflections during the event will be all-encompassing and premised on the implementation and management of digital ID and DPI projects using open-source platforms like MOSIP.

Ethiopia is one of the countries currently implementing a population scale digital ID project based on MOSIP. There’ll be experience-sharing by other countries running MOSIP-based digital ID schemes. At the close of last year, for a recall, MOSIP announced it had attained a milestone of one hundred million digital and civil identities issued using its open-source technology.

Business at the conference officially opens in the morning of March 5 with a series of activities, including a keynote from the Executive Director of NIDP, Yodahe Zemichael, who is expected to paint a panoramic picture of the Ethiopia digital ID project implementation progress.

Broadly speaking, day one topics have been grouped under the ‘Build’ tag, meaning discussions will be hinged on issues ranging from enrollment to ID issuance, exploring the process of bringing robust and inclusive DPI to life. Topics on this day will, among others, involve insights about MOSIP, centralized and decentralized digital ID, identity at birth, biometrics in digital ID and ensuring biometrics quality, and safeguarding identity data and emerging opportunities.

Day two (March 6) will open with a series of early activities including a keynote from an official of the Open Wallet Foundation. Discussions have broadly been framed around how to “Grow” digital ID systems by creating an atmosphere of meaningful change where technology meets innovative, on-ground solutions for seamless access to rights and services. Some of the presentations will touch on issues like credentials wallets and perspectives on wallet adoption, securing biometrics, unlocking trust, open-source licensing, procuring open-source tools, emerging modalities and advancements in biometric technologies, and building trust in cross-border identity. This day will also feature a MOSIP Technology Committee meeting.

On the third and final day (March 7), attendees will be treated to another set of exciting topics, tailored to “Transform,” – a reflection of the desire of MOSIP and its partners to work towards a future of digital transformation where no one suffers any form of exclusion. Among the topics programmed for discussion include comprehensive insights on G2P (Government-to-People) transfers, adopting MOSIP from pilot to production, good technology adoption, facilitating integration, and a presentation on partner solution insights.

Across the three days, several panel discussions have been programmed, and speakers drawn from governments, MOSIP’s partner ecosystem, and industry, will address various topics of contemporary concerns relating to DPI. There shall also be “solution discovery” sessions during which dozens of digital ID and biometrics providers will showcase their products and innovations in the advancement of digital ID.

Through sessions, workshops and conversations, the Addis Ababa event will provide the opportunity for participating countries to “foster collaboration and in-depth discussions on inclusive digital ID systems.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  identity management  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  MOSIP Connect 2024