Identity Management: A neglected dimension

of international development

Mia Harbitz

Global Summit on CR&VS April 18, 2013

The higher the HDI, the lower the rates of under registration of births

ID-Management chain to ensure legal identity

Birth certificate

Other attributes

Verifiable and unique, legal identity

Civil Registration

Civil Identification

Unique personal number Biometrics

Age of individual

Leve

l of

secu

rity

Identity token

Timely reporting of vital event

The role of the Civil Registry

Civil Registry Enrollment*

Emits (Birth, marriage, death)

Certificates

Informs Vital Statistics

Must be able to guarantee veracity of certificates

*Enrollment=

registration of vital

events: births, deaths,

marriage, divorce,

adoptions.

Is the civil registry the ugly duckling of public institutions?

Supply side issues

• Lack of information about importance of civil registry

• Decision makers not well informed

• Outdated legal frameworks

• Cumbersome procedures

• Institutional weaknesses and asymmetries

• Inadequate economic resources

• Limited institutional presence

• Unsystematic and unsustainable technological solutions

• Human resource limitations

Foundations for effective identity management

ICT

Use of standards ISO,

IEEE, ICAO

POLICY

Buy-in from decision makers – and citizens

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Revision and update of legal framework governing CR&CI

Conclusions I

• Develop National Identity Management Policy – Id-M is a sovereign responsibility

– IFIs and other donors should have catalytic role

– No cookie cutter solution

• Coordinate with other public services – Hospitals—vaccination centers

– Statistical agency

– Primary schools

– Ministry of Social affairs/gender

– Ministry of Planning and/or Finance

Conclusions II

• Shorten the distance to the civil registries – Creation/redistribution of civil registries

– Information campaigns—impact evaluation

– Cultural sensitivity

• Develop communication strategies

• More research – better data – better results – What cannot be measured cannot be improved

Identity management in the IDB

• Since 2011: Regional birth registration indicator

• Our work is guided by Institutional Strategy: Institutions for growth and social development where one of the pillars is recognized as: Registries for social and economic growth.

• Social and environmental safeguard screening of all lending projects to promote: Legal identity for all

Some encouraging results from IDB projects:

• The IDB has promoted of inclusion of question on registration and

identity documents in surveys and censuses since 2000.

• Under registration of births dropped from ~20% to ~10% in 10yrs

• Argentina: Plan Familia CCT (USD 1,000M): Reduction of under

registration from reduced from15 to 10% in the period 2004-2009

(Source Ministry of Social Development annual report)

• Ecuador: Modernization of Civil Registry (USD 78M) from

dysfunctional to highly respected civil identification system in three

years.

• Uruguay: Seamless integration of CR-VS-Civil identification (CI)-

Social services

• Peru : best practices in CR and CI made the Registry Agency more

trusted than that Catholic Church and helped save more than USD

260M (2009-11) by better focusing the public sector programs.

(Source Ministry of Economy)

http://www.iadb.org The Inter-American Development Bank Discussion Papers and Presentations are documents prepared by both Bank and non-Bank personnel as supporting materials for events and are often produced on an expedited publication schedule without formal editing or review. The information and opinions presented in these publications are entirely those of the author(s), and no endorsement by the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent is expressed or implied. .

Contact: Mia Harbitz

miah@iadb.org

http://iadb.libguides.com/registros

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