A central and differentiating feature of the IDINA project solution is the involvement of civil society as a source of identification attributes for individuals within local communities. This strategy is aligned with a recent World Bank report [ID4D22] that points the involvement of civil organisations as a key aspect of fostering trust and, consequently, the broad adoption of identification systems. The reason for this is the fundamental role of these organisations as intermediaries for communities and segments of the population that lack the means to influence public decisions.

Despite the relevance of this approach, geographic, cultural, economic, and institutional challenges still hamper public administration from reaching all communities and segments of the population [ID4D19]. Considering this absence of public authority, particularly civil registration representatives, the IDINA project will promote an even more preponderant involvement of local society. Moreover, locally trusted entities and citizens will also be responsible for providing information about individuals with whom they interact. This information, produced in a distributed and uncoordinated manner by the different agents, will be consolidated into identification attributes, and each attribute will be assigned a quality level that reflects the degree of trust in the respective information.

The community approach to building knowledge about populations will promote the inclusion of a more significant number of individuals in the exercise of full citizenship. However, this strategy also raises new technical and societal challenges that are central to the IDINA project, for instance, the mechanisms for assigning quality levels to the information produced; guaranteeing the privacy of the data of identified individuals and the sources of information; mobilising local agents as a source of information and promoting the system’s trust. These challenges are multidisciplinary and provide opportunities for technical innovation and new strategies for social inclusion.

[ID4D22] Eichholtzer, Marie Jeannette Alice; Desai, Vyjayanti Tharmaratnam. Guidance Note on Engaging Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for Successful ID Systems. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group, (2022).

[ID4D19] Junge, Nils. ID Enrollment Strategies: Practical Lessons From Around The Globe (English). Identification for Development Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group, (2019).

 

João Marco Silva, INESC TEC