A key component of ID4Africa’s activities is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) which represents the Movement’s most extensive channel of impact and engagement – physically uniting 1300-1500+ stakeholders from the identity ecosystem. The objective of the AGM is to give the Continent a sustainable voice for identity matters. Through the AGM, African governments jointly explore how digital identity and aligned services can advance socio-economic development in their countries.
The AGM consists of two main components – the Conference and the Exposition – which reunites, under one roof, three key stakeholder groups in the ID4Africa identity community:
- Leading identity stakeholders from African governments
- International development agencies
- The private sector
ID360: Digital Multiplicity of Unique Identity
The thematic for ID4Africa 2020 is anchored on digital or virtual identity, which is gaining prominence across the African continent, just as it is in the rest of the world. In developing countries, this notion of identity is emerging as a promising pillar for development that, in its impact, goes beyond legal or foundational identity. While it may be linked to the latter, the potential of digital identity derives from its necessity as a tool to participate in a modern society. It opens new doors for inclusive service delivery and for enabling innovative applications that support many economic sectors—from ecommerce, healthcare, finance, education, eGovernment, transportation, telecom, gig economies, etc.
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So what is precisely this notion of digital or virtual identity? Simply said, digital identity is an informational representation that enables unique individuals to prove, unambiguously and securely, who they are to an information system for the purpose of empowering them to assert their rights and receive services in a digital context.
While an individual is unique, their digital representation is not required to be so. Each sector could have its own version—called a functional representation which contains not only identifiers but sector specific data. In fact, for improved data protection and privacy one can argue that it is desirable that the multiple digital representations are not necessarily explicitly (or publicly) linked by default. This is a very important point and one that is subject to debate.
We view each digital representation as a perspective on the individual. We call these the multi-views of an identity and that is what inspired the overarching theme for ID4Africa 2020– ID360: digital multiplicity of unique identity. Essentially a unique moral person is the totality of all these views, but under no circumstance should it be possible to combine or link all these views to holistically reconstitute the individual identity without consent or legitimate reason (e.g. Court order, national security concern, or to eliminate fraud in benefits in government programs).
This should not mean that digital identity operates in silos, or that the problems that were encountered before because of lack of uniqueness would plague the digital notion. Digital identities should be anchored, within best practices, upon unique foundational identity and even legal identity if desirable or available. But digital identity has the flexibility to realize the benefits and promise of unique identity by operating as an inexhaustible commodity within an ecosystem where decentralization and diversity of actors and identity providers and services emerge and can interoperate, without loss of individual control or threat to privacy. This is what the totality of presentations for the 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) will attempt to demonstrate.
This is a thematic that is sure to occupy us for several years to come within the ID4Africa AGM. We expect it to lead to heated debates during the sessions of the 2020 AGM, particularly the Fishbowl, and to inspire what is next.
Depending on what stakeholder group you belong to, you may have a different motivation for attending; but one thing is clear, ID4Africa is designed to ensure that everyone derives value from attending.
- National identity authorities / Commissions
- Civil Registers / Birth Registration/Population Registers
- Electoral Commissions
- Banking and Finance/Development/Planning/Budget
- Immigration/Border management
- Health Ministry/Health Insurance Schemes
- Law Enforcement/National Security/Defense/Intelligence/Federal Road Safety
- Data Protection & Privacy Commissions
- ICT/eGov
- National Statistical Institutes
- President/Vice President/Prime Minister’s Office
- Legal/Justice/Regulatory/Legal & Human Rights
- Foreign Affairs/International Relations
- Public Administration & Decentralization
- Intergovernmental/Inter-African Organization
- Other Social Services
- Others….
Representatives from:
- Development Banks (e.g., the World Bank, AfDB, IADB, etc.)
- UN Agencies & International Foundations providing financing for social protection and humanitarian initiatives, national infrastructure projects, capacity building and technical advisory services to help accelerate Africa’s socio-economic development.
- Regional & International Humanitarian Organizations
Representatives of the civil society and other interest groups from around the world involved in the advanced development and implementing of identity schemes and infrastructure, including:
- Academic Researchers and Thought Leaders
- NGOs and Not for Profit Organizations
- Independent Consultants
- Subject Matter Experts
- … and all other groups currently engaged in matters concerning identity for socio-economic development in Africa.
The AGM creates a unique value and experience for all participants who join with the objective to exchange information, report on their annual progress, discuss challenges, evaluate solutions and define their priorities going forward:
- Learn from the experience of successful identity stakeholders and independent identity and biometrics experts in this rapidly growing domain
- Identify and meet organizations that support development to explore potential funding sources to finance your project
- Build capacity within your organization by using the forum to develop the knowledge base in your organization
- See the latest innovations on display at the expo and discuss your requirements with world leaders in identity management solutions
- Identify potential new engagements for your organization
- Gain insight into trends on needs and challenges in development
- Exchange knowledge and lessons learned with other agencies regarding ongoing identity funded projects
A seminal networking opportunity for all participants. The event is expected to bring together more than 1300-1500 highly qualified and selected decision-makers within the above mentioned stakeholder groups
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