Digital identity in developing nations

With UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 calling for legal identity for all by 2030, Biometric Update is taking a special in-depth focus on digital ID projects in developing countries with daily coverage of biometrics-based national digital identity projects.

Biometric Update Report: Understanding MOSIP: What the Modular Open-Source Identity Platform Is and How It Is Used

Features and interviews

Read Biometric Update exclusive features and in-depth interviews with project stakeholders about digital identity initiatives in developing countries.

ID4Africa news, conference coverage

ID4Africa is a Pan-African Movement motivated by the need to promote legal identity for all in Africa. It is a tripartite with representation from African governments, development agencies and industry. Biometric Update has provided full coverage of the meetings and livecasts since 2016. ID4Africa 2025 was held in Ethiopia.

The Aadhaar project by UIDAI

The Aadhaar project aims to provide a single, unique identifier which captures all the demographic and biometric details of every resident of India.

Interoperability Initiatives

Multiple major initiatives have been launched by ID stakeholders to promote and support open-source technologies or those based on open standards, in order to prevent vendor lock-in and give governments and other customers the flexibility of tools that are interoperable with each other. Among governments in countries with developing economies, a lack of interoperability has been seen as a major barrier to the long-term success and sustainability of ID systems.

International Identity Day

The campaign calls to recognize September 16 as International Identity Day in tribute to UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 which calls for legal identity for all by 2030. The purpose is to raise awareness about the role identity plays in empowering individuals to exercise their rights and responsibilities fairly and equitably in a modern society. Biometric Update is proud to be a coalition partner.