The ‘Frontline’ of digital identity innovation spans the Global South

The ID4Africa community focussed on Frontline developments in digital identity from around the world Day 2 of the 2026 AGM on Wednesday afternoon.

While some of those developments are coming from former colonial powers, African, South Asian and Latin American nations are driving innovation to address the needs of their own people.

France Titres Program Director for France Identite Florent Tournois reviewed the evolution of eIDAS v2 and EUDI Wallets, explaining the process from policy discussions to product launch and the many use cases where they can improve efficiency, user control and convenience. He also noted the large-scale test of EUDI Wallets that will be held during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

ID4Africa EC Dr. Joseph Atick introduced the eight finalist teams in the 2025-26 Africa Digital Identity Hackathon, which will be covered in depth when the winning team is announced on Thursday.

The Africa PKI Consortium is another example of continental stakeholders leading the development of the technology they need to address their common challenges presented at the conclusion of the afternoon plenary session.

Aadhaar ambitions match African ID authorities’

Many of the technical and policy steps in consideration by African ID authorities are shared with India, another in the series of ‘Frontline’ presentations revealed.

Aadhaar is now ready for global interoperability through the issuance of verifiable credentials, built on international standards that ensure user control.

Aadhaar is moving toward decentralization, which is part of the motivation for UIDAI to encourage more offline transactions. UIDAI Director of Technology Priya Patil explained that rather than decentralizing to achieve scale, as some other countries have done as India has already achieved scale. Instead the shift is largely meant to deliver the fastest, best possible experience.

Other next steps for Aadhaar include further emphasis on liveness detection and lower-assurance use cases like hotel check-ins.

Patil called on the identity leaders gathered at ID4Africa to collaborate on international interoperability, cybersecurity and biometrics research.

UIDAI Director of Authentication Sanjeev Yadav presented ID4Africa EC Atick with an Aadhaar award in recognition of the ID4Africa Movement’s contribution to the field of digital identity.

idLAC: lessons in cross-border ID from the other side of the world

RedGEALC Deputy Director Paula Brenes reviewed the idLAC initiative to support cross-border digital ID interoperability and data exchange across the Caribbean and Latin America.

idLAC acts as a broker in a hub-and-spoke model. It follows an open-source digital public good approach for single sign-on across borders.

The project has now moved from concept to the minimum viable product (MVP) stage, and a dozen countries are working to implement it. Brenes identified Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Uruguay as the furthest along.

idLAC is also currently being mapped against international standards, including eIDAS.

In addition to advancing the broker core, country adoption and building operational and governance frameworks are on the agenda.

Asked by Atick for advice to those seeking to put cross-border identity interoperability faster than the decades a political process can take, Brenes advises making use within the larger process of “safe spaces” where grassroots stakeholders within each individual country can meet and discuss the goal without the ego that can come when representatives of different countries come together.

Closing the data protection gap

Mauritius Data Protection Commissioner and President of the ADAPDP Drudeisha Madhub, who is also chair of the AU Data Governance Alliance, argued for the need for effective enforcement to apply data protection and privacy laws in a way that builds trust and encourages public adoption.

Data protection laws have spread rapidly across Africa, but operationalizing those protections is a challenge for the years ahead. Existing gaps between laws and compliance, compliance and accountability, and accountability and enforcement must be filled. That means increasing capacity, aligning governance and filling technical gaps, according to Madhub.

Mauritius has passed legislation for and is moving towards a system in which corporate data protection officers are certified by the data protection authority, and non-compliance can lead to fines or even criminal sanctions.

Madhub reviewed the barriers to enforcement, and how Mauritius is addressing them with a national data strategy, including with the establishment of a digital forensics lab.

The far-reaching data strategy handles common data protection challenges in a way that is adaptable by other countries, and Atick endorsed the strategy as an important development for governments to be aware of at the conclusion of the presentation.

An inherent gap

The following presentation went further, suggesting that not only is digital ID inherently risky from a human rights perspective, and therefore should never be mandatory.

Thandeka Chauke and Mustafa Mahmoud Yousif of Human Rights for Digital ID (HR4ID) Coalition argued that foundational digital IDs, systems linked to nationality and those that use biometrics introduce significant risk by design. Worse, some are mandatory in law, and but others are mandatory “in fact,” which Chauke says is where many harms occur.

Equal alternatives should be provided for those who choose not to use a digital ID, they argue.

But does the gap in risk come with a gap in function that makes this impossible? HR4ID will address the question in a day 4 workshop.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  Africa  |  African Digital Identity Hackathon  |  cross border identity verification  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2026  |  IdLAC