Foundational identity: A fundamental human right

For one to have a house standing strong, one needs to have laid a solid foundation for it. The same is true with identity, and digital public infrastructure more generally. Foundational identity is the bedrock of any legal or digital ID system, as it serves as the basis on which such systems are built to enable the provision of public services.

The World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative defines foundational identity as a system established principally “to manage identity information for the general population and provide credentials that serve as proof of identity for a wide variety of public and private sector transactions and services.”

ID4D goes further to mention that common examples of foundational IDs include civil registries, universal resident or national ID systems, and population registers, depending on the context.

In other words, foundational identity has been described by many as a major enabler of “platformification” – a new coinage in the digital transformation lexicon which denotes using digital technology to transform traditional business models into platform-based ecosystems through interconnected services for operational efficiency.

In many African countries, foundational ID systems such as civil registries are the basis for legal and digital identification systems which are built as “general purpose” systems, to support the establishment of different components of DPI to facilitate access to a litany of services from government and the private sector.

To obtain a national ID card in countries like Cameroon, Burkina Faso, South Africa or Tanzania, one needs to provide a birth certificate as a foundational ID document, which is what attests to the legal recognition and existence of that individual from the time of their birth.

Sébastien Gueremy, VP Identification & Verification Solutions at Thales discusses this in detail in an analysis on foundational ID published by Biometric Update in September of 2023.

In his write-up, Gueremy makes the case for having solid foundational identity systems, highlighting that they are crucial in establishing legal and digital identity which is critical in enabling citizens enjoy their fundamental rights such as having easy access to healthcare, education, enjoying the right to vote in elections or participation in other democratic processes, as well as the right to legal protection.

While it is true that foundational identity systems are crucial in digital transformation efforts of countries, establishing them and ensuring their optimum performance still poses a significant challenge.

This is reflected in a World Bank survey in 2021 and 2022 which examined the ownership of government-issued identity documents in 36 African countries.  It noted that in many of the countries, over 70 percent of the population did not have access to a government-issued identity document and one of the reasons, as seen in the case of Benin, was the lack of foundational identity documents like birth certificates.

The United Nations estimates that about 850 million people around the world still do not have a legal identity, and therefore are cut out from enjoying some of the fundamental rights they normally should enjoy.

That is why it is recommended that for countries to effectively handle situations like this and make legal ID more accessible for their citizens, major efforts must be deployed to put in place the right conditions for building foundational identity systems which can go a long way in closing the yawning digital identity gap in the world.

So, in order to build robust, inclusive and effective foundational identity systems which can be used for general purpose service delivery, there are a number of things countries can do. These include putting in place workable policies and legal frameworks, setting up national population registers if need be and digitizing civil registration systems, making such systems interoperable and integrable with other existing systems, harmonizing siloed identity databases, deploying the right technology such as biometric or other AI-powered solutions, laying emphasis on data privacy and security and having guardrails in place, and if possible preparing the groundwork for integration with international identity systems.

From the forgoing, it goes without saying that the impact of foundational identity on the advancement of the legal identity agenda cannot be undermined. It is a major step toward enabling countries attain their Sustainable Development Goals.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  civil registration  |  digital identity  |  foundational identity  |  Identification for Development (ID4D)  |  identity management  |  legal identity  |  SDG 16.9