MOSIP Connect 2025: creating a winning ID system, inclusivity insights

On MOSIP Connect 2025 day one on Tuesday, various panels discussed topics relevant to the digital identity and digital infrastructure space.

Among them was Create a Winning ID System: Best Practices, which featured Peter Kusek from the World Bank, Sanjay Jain of the Gates Foundation, and JP Acuna as an identity expert. MOSIP’s Ramesh Narayana, who was moderating, asked the panel for their definition of a great ID system.

Acuna pointed to a fully adopted ID system that has become “a way of life” with people using it without mentioning it. Jain said it has to be “enabling” rather than getting in the way, while underlying trust is a key characteristic.

Kusek referenced his 10 years of work with ID4D across 70-plus countries. “People, policies, programmes,” he said, explaining that rights should be the center of the approach, with policies on data privacy and protection, and programs such as technology assistance, financing, research and knowledge sharing. Kusek said the governments that have been most successful were ones who had objectives in mind. And could unlock service delivery at scale.

Acuna said governments don’t have to go all-in with digital but should be “mindful” of the transition and to not make it explicitly mandatory. He also remarked on the difference between foundational ID and functional ID, and leveraging the law to underline functional ID.

Jain said a good practice is taking a problem-first approach, ensuring ID systems can, for example, provide subsidies to the people, and being a foundation for other solutions.

ID for all and insights into inclusivity

In a later session Kunal Raj Barua from the Aapti Institute, Andrew Hopkins from UNHCR and Kunal Walia from Dalberg headed up a talk on ID for All: Overcoming Barriers to Inclusion.

Hopkins, who works with ID for refugees, emphasized the messaging, with the inclusionary benefits of ID having to be made plain to the displaced. While cross-border data sharing is trending, Hopkins pointed out this can be “inappropriate” for refugees as they could be running away from a dysfunctional state and so wouldn’t want their data being shared back to that country.

A question came from the audience asking the panel “how to build the political will for inclusion.” Barua said a “village approach” is how it’s built, which means reaching out to local communities, and building digital literacy. He cited a practical example in MOSIP Connect 2025’s host country, the Philippines. The Southeast Asian country is formed of many islands but the Philippines’ postal service can be engaged to send out mobile kits across the archipelago.

Hopkins said funding is the way to build political will, which means donors and stakeholders.

Finally, Walia made the distinction between digital literacy and traditional literacy. He emphasized the importance of voice-enabled services, and urged private and public companies to include embedded voice functionality in their digital services, with the capacity to understand regional dialects.

 

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  digital inclusion  |  Gates Foundation  |  Identification for Development (ID4D)  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  MOSIP Connect 2025  |  UNHCR  |  World Bank