As governments across the world upgrade their digital infrastructure, how they approach digital identity will determine how their digital relationships with their citizenry will evolve.
A multitude of studies have shown that even basic internet connectivity can ‘unlock economic opportunities, create jobs, and generate growth’. We can add economic resiliency to this list of benefits, which was illustrated in a very real way during the COVID-19 pandemic as the more digitised industries experienced lower revenue losses, and areas with superior broadband showed better labour market resilience.
Higher levels of internet adoption can also help “expand the tax base and strengthen revenue collection”, an attractive proposition for any government, and especially those in developing or emerging economies.
It’s no surprise then, that national digital public infrastructure (DPI) is a high priority for most governments today, featuring prominently in national development and economic modernisation roadmaps.
Benefits of digital public infrastructure
More than just economic development, DPI also contributes to social welfare, improving the overall quality of life of citizens in a range of areas, for example via improved educational outcomes, enhanced healthcare, and a stronger social safety net. This is why for Sub-Saharan Africa and Emerging and Developing Asia, investing in universal digital infrastructure ‘is a key part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals via Target 9.1’.
From a government perspective, DPI upgrades can better equip their institutions to address strategic objectives related to public financial management, implement efficiency and cost savings measures, or deal with the next iteration of cybersecurity threats.
The allure of modernisation via DPI has led to an uptick in government digital transformation initiatives over the past decade, most under the GovTech banner. According to the World Bank Group in 2020, “within the last five years, client countries are more frequently requesting support on how to design more advanced digital transformation programs to increase government efficiency and quality of service delivery, improve government-citizen communication, improve governance and oversight and modernise core government operations.”
While many of the GovTech initiatives help governments function better internally, that’s only half the equation. An equally important aspect of GovTech is outward facing, aiming to improve public service delivery and enable governments to establish better connections with their citizenry online. In many countries, this is referred to as Citizen Services.
But for governments to be able to provide trustworthy and efficient Citizen Services online today, they must first implement a robust digital identity system.
Establishing a digital ID system
Indeed, most governments start their DPI projects with “identity”. This is because to actually deliver the citizen services online, governments must first authenticate and authorise individuals before providing access to the service. And government services, just like healthcare, financial services, and e-commerce, depend on knowing who is on the other side of a transaction. The most efficient and secure way to do this is with digital identity, and that which is linked to legal identity.
The United Nations SDG 16.9 recognises the value and utility of national identity, and urges countries around the world to provide legal identity for all by 2030, since it “effectively provides the foundation upon which governments deliver many enshrined civic, economic, political, and other rights, including education, healthcare, voting, marriage, and travel”.
So implementing a digital ID system is a logical place to start with regards to DPI upgrades.
The good news, according to a recent report by the African Centre of Statistics (ACS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), is that “countries with well-functioning digital ID systems can also boost their economic potential by between 3 and 13 percent by 2030.”
The US’s Congressionally Chartered Wilson Center concurs, highlighting digital identity as a lever “to increase national economic competitiveness – in addition to helping to mitigate cybersecurity risks”. Their article “(Digital) Identity Crisis” reports that “every peer country in the world has either created robust digital identity infrastructure or has launched a national initiative to do so. Most are in response to a global explosion in identity-related cybercrime, making it an imperative for every country to secure its identity systems.”
The challenge then, is how to implement digital identity, and what digital identity model to adopt.
Challenges in the adoption of digital ID models
This is not a minor detail, because “investing in digital infrastructure, by itself, does not guarantee digital adoption.” And while research by the McKinsey Global Institute finds that basic digital ID alone could unlock 50 to 70 percent of the full economic potential, that is assuming adoption rates of about 70 percent.
Ensuring adoption is not easy, especially in economies where many citizens are “new to the internet” and may not have the skills or means to access online services. Or citizens may have trust issues – in the technology or the government’s ability to secure their data, and keep their interactions private. In the same report issued by the African Centre of Statistics (ACS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), we find that “the successful implementation of digital ID systems requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach, considering the specific needs and challenges of each African country.”
And an OpenID Foundation report on Human-Centric Digital Identity refers to a multidisciplinary body of literature which finds that “Identity Systems that are steeped in history and designed and built to meet the needs of real people – with their relationships and social contexts in mind – stand to be more sustainable and deliver greater benefits to society, i.e. better ‘serving’ their citizens.”
Putting users at the front and centre of digital identity solutions
Because so much of the potential of digital-identity powered DPI is contingent on a growing online population, .i.e. adoption, the whole formula falls apart if adoption fails.
The challenge of adoption is not confined to onboarding a new generation of ‘netizens’ – there are also challenges in onboarding digital-savvy citizens, and meeting their expectations in terms of convenience, user-friendly experience, and overall value of the services offered, expectations which have been primed by the modern social media and e-commerce apps that have had years of design, user experience testing, and big budgets to support their development.
Perhaps the worst outcome that could emerge is that the government’s online Citizen Services replicate the physical world versions which conjure up visions of a tedious process, long lines, and long waits.
So this is a rare opportunity for governments, via online Citizen Services, to build trust and confidence with their citizens, and deliver true value. In the process of modernising their services around a privacy-protecting, consumer-centric model and prioritising digital identity infrastructure, governments can keep pace with the demands of a digitally-driven society, prevent costly cybercrime, improve inclusion, and foster growth and innovation across their economy. And in the process, revolutionise their digital relationships with their citizenry.
BY ERIC DRURY, Digital Identity & Trust Advisor
Links
1. Briglauer et. al. 2021; Prado and Bauer 2021; Simione and Li 2021; Strover et. al. 2021
2. Falk and Hagsten 2021
3. Estimating Digital Infrastructure Investment Needs to Achieve Universal Broadband
4. OIDF: Human-Centric Digital Identity
5. Digital identification: A key to inclusive growth
7. Manlove and Whitacre 2019; Rosston and Wallsten 2020
8. Digital identification: A key to inclusive growth