Regional Workshop on Digital ID and Interoperability in Africa

June 6

– June 8

Banjul

Gambia

ECA

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), as a mandate of its policy and research activities, aims to enhance the advancement of digital ID management as a lever for inclusion and development in the African region. UNECA also aims to underscore the importance of assessing trends in the digital ID initiatives in Africa towards promoting socio-economic development of the continent. In this regard, UNECA through the Digital Centre of Excellence is organising a regional workshop on Digital IDs and Interoperability in Africa.

The Digital Centre of Excellence aims to bring together government institutions representatives, policymakers, representative of financial and telecommunications institutions and companies, data/tech companies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders for recurrent workshops and dialogues on the state of affairs in the implementation of effective digital ID management and digital ID framework, policies principles and practices that align with the continental Digital Transformation Strategy.

Objective

Within this framework, the key objective of this regional workshop is to facilitate discussions among government officers, policy makers, experts and stakeholders to deliberate over the state of digital Identity development and management in the African continent and to explore efficient solutions towards attaining interoperability for Digital IDs and payment systems in Africa.
pecifically, the workshop will seek to:

Identify existing gaps in civil registration systems in areas such as eligibility, accessibility and inclusion.
Identify areas of digital dominance with problems of access, or of digital gaps – such as in financial services, data collection and connectivity.
Identify the challenges to interoperability of Digital ID and digital payment systems in Africa and particularly, the factors that undermine trust amongst citizens and governments in Africa.
Enhance the prevalence of policies which ensure access by individuals to digital platforms in African countries.
Advance the harmonization of legal and policy frameworks for efficient digital ID and digital payment systems and data protection in the African region.
Enhance the adoption of effective technology for Digital ID Systems and introduce platforms such as Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), and other market options for digital ID systems and achieving interoperability of Digital ID systems.

Expected Outcomes

It is expected that the regional workshop will accomplish the following:

Educate and enlighten African States on the value of identity systems and the need to address existing gaps in civil registration systems in Africa.
Increase understanding of the importance of interoperable digital ID and digital payment systems for Africa.
Develop recommendations to address existing challenges to developing interoperable ID and digital payment systems for Africa.
Enhance the development and implementation of data protection frameworks and practices in Africa.
Increase awareness and understanding of global best practices for identity management and effective data policies and data protection practices and strategies.
Develop principles and policy recommendations for effective Digital ID management for African governments, regional organizations, private sector and other stakeholders in Africa.

Proposed Participants

This regional workshop targets all stakeholders involved in fostering the digital ecosystem, in particular policy makers, development partners, academia, businesses, financial stakeholders, civil society, innovation ecosystem stakeholders, academia as well as institutions.