About

About the ID4Africa Movement

Founded in 2014, ID4Africa is an NGO that accompanies African nations on their journeys to develop robust and responsible Identity ecosystems in the service of development and humanitarian action.

Our Vision

Identity for all in Africa as a driver for social and economic development.

Our Mission

While in broad terms, ID4Africa is a Movement that promotes the responsible adoption of modern digital identity systems as drivers of socio-economic development, the mission consists of 7 specific modules of activities (listed below).

1. Promote a lifecycle approach through “Identity Right from the Start” in order to make people visible and empower them to exercise their rights from birth-to-death with dignity.

2. Promote service-oriented identity as a pathway to inclusion that allows populations to participate in economic development through efficient access to services.

3. Implement capacity-building programs to strengthen identity institutions and enable identity practitioners to more effectively contribute to their country’s identity development objectives.

4. Facilitate South-South experience transfer in order to allow the rest of the Continent to benefit from the pertinent lessons learned by the leading African countries in the continent.

5. Promote innovation to solve Africa’s identification challenges by encouraging a robust commercial identity marketplace, where technology and solutions providers continually compete on products, features, performance and price for the benefit of Africa.

6. Help African identity stakeholders access reliable information so as to inform their policies and investments.

7. Organize in Africa an Annual Meeting, accessible to all African nations, in order to actively engage and discuss identity matters and to lay out the ID development agenda for the upcoming year.

The Challenge

Africa’s economic growth is accelerating but the benefits are unevenly distributed. For social development to match economic growth and generate long-term gains, inclusiveness is essential. There is a clear need for robust national systems that provide identity to all Africans, ensuring that everyone can access government services and benefits, prove their eligibility and be included in Africa’s democracy and economic take off.

Community & Knowledge Exchange

ID4Africa is creating a community of concerned parties and individuals who understand that robust digital identity systems can accelerate inclusiveness, growth and socio-economic development in Africa.

Initially the Annual Meeting will serve as the focal point for knowledge exchange and networking between stakeholders. In time the ID4Africa Movement will include further opportunities for people and organizations to meet, discuss challenges, explore solutions and use digital identity to further socio-economic development in Africa.

Our Activities

The Movement’s activities are planned around an annual campaign cycle, which runs from the fiscal period July 1 to June 30 in the year following the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Each cycle begins by engaging the ID4Africa Community through research and situation analysis in order to update the understanding of Africa’s priorities and challenges in identity matters. This informs the Movement’s strategy and dictates the mix of activities that will constitute the annual campaign.

ID4Africa Events are significantly valued as a unique experience for participants who join with the objective to exchange information, report on their annual progress, discuss challenges, evaluate solutions and define their priorities going forward. Current events include: