Need to Overcome Inequality Over Digital Connectivity: A-G
Digital services can also discriminate if access is not provided to people in remote rural areas in the outskirts and interior of Fiji, says the Attorney-General and Minister for Economy. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was speaking during the two-day World Bank regional workshop on use cases for digital ID in the Pacific that opened yesterday at Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel.
“One of the greatest challenges we have in Fiji is that we have 110 islands that are inhabited, [but] there are some islands that actually don’t have connectivity,” he said.
“You have that service available but you don’t have the same service available to somebody else within Fiji and you are creating this inequality between these two groups of people within Fiji.
“In fact, there may not be a distinction between them, but the moment you make a dis- tinction in respect of giving them access and not giving them access to the network coverage, you are creating disequality.” National identity card
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said by October 2021, every single Fijian would have a national identity card that they would carry this as their only source of identity number.
While it is a form of primary identification, he explained: “[Digital identity] also helps Government manage the distribution of resources and utilise limited resources in a wise manner.
“[It also helps] ease in doing business. If you have an identification system, that has got integrity, that identity system will be used by banks and other players or stakeholders within the economy to help people very quickly.
“We need to ensure that at the end of the day, whatever we do, there is integrity within the systems for international
countries to be able to accept our identification.”
Australia’s High Commissioner to Fiji, John Feakes said women were particularly disadvantaged as they faced additional barriers to accessing ID in many countries.
“As technology advances and government services increasingly become digitised and move online, digital identity is seen as a logical solution to reducing the identity gap.
“However, this is a nascent field and barriers to the development and adoption of digital identity solutions still exist, namely uncertain regulatory environments and privacy.
“These factors preclude or constrain national governments from exploring, piloting and ultimately scaling national digital identity systems.” Access to digital identity
Mr Feakes said access to a digital identity would determine who could access or was locked out of the digital economy.
“Again, women are badly affected by a transition to digital identity solutions. For example, women are up to 40 per cent less likely to even own a mobile phone and in some settings that limit their ability to claim a digitally enabled identity and lock them out from the potential of future digital economies.”
World Bank resident representative – South Pacific, Lasse Melgaard said digital ID was merely an enabler, but a vital one.
“It is a mechanism to allow individuals to safely and securely establish identities online in order to access digital services and participate in the digital economy,” Mr Melgaard said.
“[And] access to digital services will increasingly be critical to deliver on our economic and social development objectives.
“It will be key to providing access to healthcare, social programmes, education and banking services that improve lives and deliver on economic development objectives.”
He reaffirmed the Bank’s commitment to increase inclusion of people, particularly those living in remote regions, to get access to services that previously were out of reach.