IGF 2023 Networking Session #166 Gathering and Sharing Session: Digital ID and Human Rights C

This networking session is the first public gathering organized by a new transnational civil society community focused on digital ID and human rights. Members of the community will discuss their goals and collaboration in an open forum, inviting the IGF’s unique multistakeholder audience to participate and learn about the vision and current work of the coalition. Governments are increasingly turning to digital ID systems as tools to support development goals. However, too many of these efforts are implemented as top-down initiatives that include minimal engagement with their national populations. These trends continue even though digital ID programmes have been contested from many fronts including weak governance, human rights infringements and systemic exclusion. Civil society organizations have played an outsized role in critiquing, analyzing, strengthening and, at times, preventing poorly designed digital ID systems in countries worldwide. They often play an essential role in representing the experiences of local communities and marginalized groups in the national and international digital ID discourse. In November and December 2022, more than 40 civil society organizations convened to share experiences and consider the value and possibilities of sustained, organized, collective work toward shared goals. This process culminated in a summit meeting in Addis Ababa, on the sidelines of the 2022 IGF, which catalyzed a shared vision, principles and approach to advancing a civil society community on digital identity and human rights. Since 2020, community members have collaborated in activities such as giving input to public policy documents, advocating against digital ID frameworks and strategic litigation. They engaged collectively in consultative processes led by intergovernmental organizations, such as the 2020 revision of the World Bank Principles on ID for Development. The World Bank sought further input from the group on a Guidance Note for governments on engaging CSOs on digital ID system design and implementation. During the CSO Community’s formative phase, members have also engaged in independent co-strategizing exercises, advanced ad hoc transnational advocacy campaigns, and contributed to national and international policies and laws.

It is important that this session is hybrid, so that both speakers and participants can engage onsite and online. To this effect, we plan to use several different tools, such as collaborative pads and jamboards, in order to collect participants' questions, comments and experiences, and we plan to provide avenues for further engagement with participants and the community after the conference.