Analysing the impact of Digital ID frameworks on Marginalised Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The adoption of Digital Identification systems has been hailed as transformative for many developing countries; sub-Saharan Countries being no exception. Reference is often made to the potential increase in public service delivery efficiency and to the ability of such systems being a significant component of the Digital Economy, that has the capacity to leap-frog economies. At a national level, many Sub-Saharan African countries are adopting these programs through legislation and, as they are currently designed, do not offer adequate rights protections nor do they meet the needs of the population. It is increasingly becoming apparent that African countries face a confluence of challenges that require a more nuanced and tailor-made approach when introducing programs such as Digital IDs. Currently, 81 % of the 1 Billion people lacking legal identities and or proof of any legal identity residing in sub-Saharan Africa. Further, majority of the Digital ID systems adopted by sub-Saharan African countries require that persons registering provide various forms of formal identification in order to enable collected biometric data to be integrated with already existing identification repositories which would then be held in a central database. This would, therefore, imply that already marginalized communities, that have historically been unregistered, would remain unregistered and without formal identification. It is because of this, that the adoption of Digital IDs raises questions regarding the ability of the systems, and legislative and policy interventions, to remedy traditional inefficiencies of the lack of registration or formal identification of persons such as refugees and other marginalized communities. Further, the digital IDs bring about new challenges such as the protection of basic privacy rights of residents and citizens. In light of the above, the aim of the project will be to research and identify the implementation of Digital ID in sub-Saharan Africa through regulatory instruments, and outline any risks and challenges identified with this implementation in the relevant region with the goal to address the following questions: • How the implementation of Digital ID systems, including the legislative instruments establishing said systems, remedies the lack of registration and formal Identification of refugees and other marginalized communities, that was prevalent in the traditional Identification system. • The adequacies of legislative instruments and mechanisms used to protect the privacy of the said marginalized communities.