Malawi reaches 13.5M digital IDs as universal coverage comes into view

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has hailed Malawi’s legal identity drive, with its continued support, which has seen more than 13.5 million citizens now issued a trusted digital identity. Other supporters of the project include the European Union, the Norwegian government, and Irish Aid.

Over 150,000 people were enrolled in the country between April and June, the UN agency said in a blog post, praising the government’s commitment to advancing its universal legal identity agenda. The ID expansion is also said to be narrowing the gender gap, with 53 percent of those enrolled between those months being women. Last year, the NRB launched a five-year blueprint to accelerate efforts towards universal legal identity.

Progress has been driven largely by technical support and innovation which have led to civil registration reforms as the country’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) implementation enters a critical phase.

UNDP noted that in the past months, teams from the National Registration Bureau (NRB) have continued to comb communities enrolling citizens for digital ID to enable them to easily access several services from government and the private sector.

About 99 percent of Malawians who are aged 16 and above now have a national ID, which takes the country to the brink of full universal identity coverage. Nations like Cape Verde are also on that path with strategic reforms which have led to near-universal foundational ID coverage.

Officials in Malawi have emphasized the importance of the national ID system, saying it is not only useful in facilitating public and private sector service delivery, but also in enabling strategic socio-economic planning by public authorities.

Malawi is one of the African countries where a national identity project was started, with enrollment happening at breakneck speed. Specifically, the mass registration campaign ran from May to November 2017 and registered approximately 9.2 million individuals.

With the sustained efforts and support from bilateral and multilateral partners, as well as stakeholder alignment on key priorities recommended by the UNDP last year, the government says it is bent on making the national ID card much more than an official document.

The Digital Advisor for UNDP Malawi, Azhar Malik, confirms this, stating that an ID “serves as a gateway to essential public and private services, enabling citizens to open bank accounts, register businesses, access social protection programmes, secure formal employment, participate in elections, and obtain travel documents.”

Malawi’s drive is consistent with efforts many other countries are making to move DPI from mere administrative projects to concrete systems that can effectively make life simpler for millions of people. An identity system is of no use if people do not own it, and that ownership is useless if it doesn’t translate into concrete societal benefits for individuals.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  legal identity  |  Malawi  |  national ID  |  SDG 16.9  |  UNDP