The Digital Public Goods Initiatives as Pathways to Identity Development LiveCast premieres this December!
As the role of identity in the daily lives of people continues to grow in significance, an inevitable policy question arises on a global scale: Shouldn’t identity be considered as a public good? This is not just a philosophical question; it has policy and developmental implications. It could be at the heart of a national strategy where identity is commoditized to stimulate innovation and down stream economic growth.
Commonly accepted wisdom defines a public good as a good that is both non-excludable (no one can be prevented from consuming this good) and non-rivalrous (the consumption of this good by anyone does not reduce the quantity available to others). Based on that definition and on what we know today of the role identity can play in development (ample studies from India, Peru, Pakistan and Africa), one can argue that inclusive foundational identity should be treated as a public good as a matter of national policy.
Part I: Digital Public Goods Initiatives as Pathway to Identity Development
This LiveCast is the first of two episodes on this subject. On December 3rd we will focus on digital public goods as tools to arrive at the development of digital identity. The second part will be scheduled for January 14th, 2021 and will focus on methods of standardization and interoperability as a pathway to creating the public goods (similar to OpenFinance and OpenBanking).
The Moderator
Joseph Atick
Executive Chairman
ID4Africa
Dr. Joseph Atick is a recognized world renowned advocate and expert on identity matters. Having been one of the founders of the identity industry nearly 30 years ago, he led several companies in that domain and developed some of the foundational algorithms underlying secure digital identity today, including the first commercially viable face recognition algorithm.
Dr. Atick retired from the industry in 2010 to focus on promoting identity for social and economic development around the world. In that mission he partnered with the World Bank and other UN agencies, and was heavily involved in the development and field testing of the methodology and analytic tools that would guide the subsequent activities in that space, and would lead to the launch of the ID4D initiative at the World Bank.
In 2014, he co-founded ID4Africa as a pan-African Movement to promote responsible digital transformations through digital identity in Africa. He is a staunch defender of privacy, data protection and human rights and continues to provide counsel to governments and international organization on the use of identity for public good. Dr. Atick holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics from Stanford University.
Special Keynote
On the Principles for Identification for Sustainable Development
Vyjayanti Desai
Program Manager
ID4D, The World Bank
As Program Manager, Vyjayanti Desai is focused on scaling up and operationalizing ID4D and collaborating with key external partners. Within the WBG, she has shaped many cross-departmental and inter-WBG programs, actively working to develop a unified agenda and designing integrated multi-sectoral solutions on a range of topics. ID4D is a multi-sectoral initiative of the World Bank Group (WBG), integrating approaches across several Global Practices and departments.
Learn more at: www.worldbank.org/en/programs/id4d.
Rapid Fire Presentations on Open Source Initiatives
Liv Marte Nordhaug
Co-lead Digital Public Goods Alliance
Liv Marte Nordhaug serves as a Co-Lead of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), an initiative endorsed by the UN Secretary-General that facilitates the discovery and implementation of digital public goods. The DPGA is co-hosted by UNICEF and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
Prior to her work on establishing and co-leading the DPGA, Liv led Norad’s Digital Empowerment Project. Read more about the DPGA at www.digitalpublicgoods.net
Sanjay Jain
Chairperson, Technology Committee, MOSIP
Sanjay Jain is the founding chair of the Technology Committee, for the Modular Open Source Identity Platform – MOSIP – that helps user organizations such as Governments implement a digital, foundational ID in a cost effective way, while embracing the best practices of scalability, security and privacy harnessing the power of open source.
Sanjay is also a partner at the Bharat Innovation Fund, which invests in early stage, IP driven companies. The Bharat Innovation Fund is associated with the Center for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmedabad. He leads the efforts at the Bharat Inclusion Initiative to bring more people into the formal economy, and workforce in India.
Edward Duffus
Global Head of Innovation Plan International
Ed previously worked at Accenture but since 2013 he has been using his expertise as a technologist and innovator to make a real social impact. Ed leads Plan’s global Innovation Team and oversees a portfolio of innovation projects to advances children’s rights and equality for girls.
Ed leads Plan’s birth registration work and is pioneering the use of digital technologies to strengthen civil registration systems in low resource settings. He is the author of the CRVS Digitisation Guidebook (www.crvs-dgb.org) and leads the development of OpenCRVS, an open-source digital solution for civil registration in low resource settings (www.opencrvs.org).
Country Testimonies
Yodahe Zemichael
TECHNICAL ADVISOR, TECHNICAL ADVISORY UNIT, OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, ETHIOPIA
Ibrahima Sory Conde
Partner Manager, WURI project, GUINEA
Ibrahima Sory Conde is a member of the WURI Guinea project – a World Bank initiative aiming to provide proof of identification and access to services. He is a software developer / Backend engineer and has taken the lead on partner management within this project. Previously, Ibrahima Sory worked as a CEO for a tech software startup. He graduated with honors from the University of Grenoble with a Masters degree in Science Technologies and Health. He is member of OW2 Consortium, an independent, global, open-source software community through JORAM.
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