By David Agba
Abuja
The second annual government meeting of the ID4Africa movement opened yesterday in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, hosted by the National Identification Agency (NIDA) of Rwanda, with over 650 delegates from 36 African and 29 non-African nations attending.
They are to spend three days exchanging knowledge and experience related to digital identity
and will set the working agenda and priorities for the year to come for development of identification systems in Africa. They are joined by representatives of 11 international development and United Nations’ agencies that recognize the importance of legal identity as a driver of socio-economic development.
The theme this year is “Digital Identity: The Practical Guide” as the event delves into what practicalities are required for authorities to successfully launch identity programmes, an agenda that was set in the
inaugural meeting of the movement, held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in June 2015. This year’s event comes in the aftermath of the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and in particular Goal 16.9, which calls on member states to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030. Executive Chairman of ID4Africa, Dr. Joseph Atick, said: “The adoption of this goal provides a mandate and should facilitate funding for identity related projects and initiatives and should empower identity authorities to carry out their national missions within an internationally recognized and accepted framework.”
The Director General of NIDA, Pascal Nyamulinda said, “We are very pleased to have been chosen to be the host of ID4Africa 2016.
Identification systems have been one of the key projects of the National information and communication infrastructure strategy for it to stand as a key layer of the systems integration and e-Government perspective.”
At the event, the organizers will also announce the 2017 host country and will officially appoint the ID4Africa Ambassadors serving for the 2016/2017 term.
ID4Africa is a multi-stakeholder movement that promotes the transparent and responsible adoption of digital identity in the service of development in Africa.
