Assessing socio-digital identity ecosystems in Africa

AN advert I recently saw for a running and fitness application used the slogan “risk is the dancing partner of reward”. While it did not inspire me to go running, it did make me think of the risks involved in using applications and other technologies. And that got my mind (if not the rest of me) running to digital identity ecosystems: A world where reward and risk are all too closely intertwined, and dancing partners are plentiful.

Research Information Communication and Technology Africa and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) (Delhi, India) partnered in 2021 to examine the design, development, governance, and implementation of evolving socio-digital identity ecosystems in 10 African countries.

With support from the Omidyar Network, the team worked with local researchers in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe to obtain a snapshot of the state of digital identity, using an evaluation framework specifically designed by CIS for assessing related ecosystems.

The 10 case studies arising from this project were published individually over the past week, followed by a comparative report in which crosscountry similarities, differences, policy windows and concerns are examined.

We undertook this project because digital forms of (legal) identification are becoming increasingly popular and prevalent on the continent.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, similarly to other forms of digitalisation, increased both the appetite for and potential utility of socio-digital identities (for example, for vaccine certifications). The African Union Commission, for instance, is working on a policy framework dedicated to the theme.

Digital identities are not only shaped by the complex realities (and even more complicated histories) in which they are deployed in Africa, but they shape the everyday realities of most of us who live on the continent.

Some are optimistic about these impacts (or rewards), others less so. Some of these concerns (or risks) are grounded in reality, others rarely so.

Despite these frequent tensions and contradictions, some forms of digitising identity management ecosystems seem to be inevitable on the continent — whether we like it or not.

These factors underline the need for critically assessment of the design, development, implementation, financing or funding, and governance of digital identities.

The risk-reward dance is, therefore, an important one to master. And doing so — that is, the practice of mitigating risk while maximising positive outcomes — should also be within reach. Active decisions and choices are made in the design of digital identities infrastructures, meaning that they are neither inevitably nor necessarily detrimental from a developmental, human rights, and/or inclusion perspective.

RIA and CIS, therefore, started this project with perhaps the naïve assumption that if digital identities can be conceived and designed with concepts like human rights, developmental goals, sustainability, and safety at the forefront, they might yet hold a beneficial impact (or rewards) for the continent.

Risky rewards

Plenty of opportunities exist for designing approaches that deliver rewards and mitigate risks. Many of the countries examined are currently in the process of reforming or creating policy instruments of direct or indirect relevance to digital identity ecosystems and shaping risky opportunities.

In Lesotho, for example, a draft Computer Crime and Cybercrime Bill awaits promulgation and a data protection regulator needs to be established in line with the country’s existing data protection regulation.

In Mozambique, both a data protection law and a national cybersecurity policy are currently being drafted and/ or prepared; while in South Africa, a draft official identity management policy was published in late 2020. (While the deadline for public comments has passed, the process is worth following for subsequent opportunities for input.)

These and other potential policy windows relevant to digital identity ecosystems and highlighted in the comparative report present a critical juncture which civil society and other interested stakeholders might use to help shape a landscape in which digital identity can be more rewarding from a developmental, human rights and/or exclusion perspective.

But besides these (and other opportunities) for mitigating risk, the 10 country studies indicate that the hope of reward is sometimes marred by colonial histories that often lead to crowded and disorganised digital ecosystems, opaque and at times highly controversial public-private interplays, a frequent lack of institutional capacity (or will), difficult interactions with some aid/developments actors’ agendas, and a seemingly unquenchable thirst for digital Kool-aid in the absence of a much strategic vision, political will, and/or institutional capacity.