NZ government seeks insights, information on market for digital civil registration

New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is “seeking ideas and opportunities to help shape our thinking around the future of civil registration,” and has issued a tender to gather information about the current state of the market. In this case, civil registration refers to the system by which government records the vital events of its citizens and residents – i.e., identity data.

DIA says its existing registration system has reached its best-before date, and an update is needed to keep pace with developments in digital identity and digitized government services. “We want to create a highly modular, secure, and future-proofed civil registration system that simplifies people’s registration of their major life events, supports cross-agency integration, and continuously adapts to emerging needs and technologies.” Replacing the aging system will “enable streamlined registration processes, advanced authorised data-sharing across agencies, and support for new digital identity solutions.”

The tender document is intended to help organizations determine whether and how they might like to participate in the Civil Registration Market Engagement process, which seeks insights, data and creative thinking.

“We want to be challenged about our assumptions about technology, ways of working, delivery – all aspects that will inform a long term plan for the overall system,” DIA says. “We are open to ideas from suppliers who can deliver complete solutions as well as those who can contribute to specific parts or ‘building blocks’ of the civil registration system.”

Participant companies must have something to show for their work; no startups with no products or experience to speak of. And “ideas should be compatible with the existing legal framework and have in-grained flexibility to mature as legislation evolves.”

Notable specifications identify liveness detection as a key characteristic of the engagement building block for the civil registration system, and identity proofing as a key characteristic of the processing building block. The Assumptions section also specifies that “DIA provides existing identity proofing and liveness functionality that the solution may connect to and use.” Presumably, this is among assumptions that DIA wants to be challenged on, as it has already sought improvements to facial liveness detection for its biometric capture technology.

Regardless, for now, the process is essentially a brainstorm. DIA makes it clear that “this engagement is for the purpose of gathering information only; no suppliers or solutions will be selected at this stage. A formal procurement process may occur in future. At this stage, we are NOT seeking proposals or quotes.”

Article Topics

civil registration  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  identity proofing  |  New Zealand  |  RFI  |  tender