Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems

Approximately one billion people globally lack government-recognized identification. As a consequence, they face barriers to accessing critical services and exercising their rights. Robust, inclusive, and responsible foundational identification (ID...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/702641544730830097/Understanding-Cost-Drivers-of-Identification-Systems
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31065
id okr-10986-31065
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-310652021-09-17T05:11:08Z Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems World Bank IDENTIFICATION UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER DIGITAL IDENTITY CIVIL REGISTRY BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY Approximately one billion people globally lack government-recognized identification. As a consequence, they face barriers to accessing critical services and exercising their rights. Robust, inclusive, and responsible foundational identification (ID) systems2 can be transformative for a country’s development and for the welfare of its poorest and most vulnerable populations by enabling financial inclusion, the empowerment of women and girls, access to basic services, social safety nets, and political participation. Moreover, at a systemic level, leapfrogging traditional paper-based approaches in favor of digital identification systems can generate significant benefits across the public and private sectors by increasing efficiency and accountability (chiefly through the reduction of fraud, leakages, and waste in public programs) as well as driving innovation in service delivery (through the use of mobile or digital payments, for instance). As governments across the globe are implementing new, digital foundational identification systems or modernizing existing ID programs, there is an urgent need to develop accurate estimations of the associated costs. There are a handful of existing analyses that have attempted to estimate the overall cost of foundational ID systems: for instance, Gelb and Diofasi Metz (2018) estimate that it is likely to cost a low income country roughly 0.6 percent of GDP to build a foundational ID system, or about $4–11 investment per registrant for enrolment and credential issuance. The same study cites figures for a few countries suggesting recurrent costs of around 0.06–0.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). As the authors point out however, few data points exist and these figures may not apply to different types of systems or to all countries. 2018-12-20T22:06:34Z 2018-12-20T22:06:34Z 2018-12-13 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/702641544730830097/Understanding-Cost-Drivers-of-Identification-Systems http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31065 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic IDENTIFICATION
UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER
DIGITAL IDENTITY
CIVIL REGISTRY
BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY
spellingShingle IDENTIFICATION
UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER
DIGITAL IDENTITY
CIVIL REGISTRY
BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY
World Bank
Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems
description Approximately one billion people globally lack government-recognized identification. As a consequence, they face barriers to accessing critical services and exercising their rights. Robust, inclusive, and responsible foundational identification (ID) systems2 can be transformative for a country’s development and for the welfare of its poorest and most vulnerable populations by enabling financial inclusion, the empowerment of women and girls, access to basic services, social safety nets, and political participation. Moreover, at a systemic level, leapfrogging traditional paper-based approaches in favor of digital identification systems can generate significant benefits across the public and private sectors by increasing efficiency and accountability (chiefly through the reduction of fraud, leakages, and waste in public programs) as well as driving innovation in service delivery (through the use of mobile or digital payments, for instance). As governments across the globe are implementing new, digital foundational identification systems or modernizing existing ID programs, there is an urgent need to develop accurate estimations of the associated costs. There are a handful of existing analyses that have attempted to estimate the overall cost of foundational ID systems: for instance, Gelb and Diofasi Metz (2018) estimate that it is likely to cost a low income country roughly 0.6 percent of GDP to build a foundational ID system, or about $4–11 investment per registrant for enrolment and credential issuance. The same study cites figures for a few countries suggesting recurrent costs of around 0.06–0.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). As the authors point out however, few data points exist and these figures may not apply to different types of systems or to all countries.
format Working Paper
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems
title_short Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems
title_full Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems
title_fullStr Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems
title_full_unstemmed Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems
title_sort understanding cost drivers of identification systems
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/702641544730830097/Understanding-Cost-Drivers-of-Identification-Systems
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31065
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