ID2020 Alliance Overview
ID2020 Alliance Overview
ID2020 Alliance Overview
The ability to prove who you are is a basic human right and critical to a life of dignity and
opportunity. But most systems used for identification are archaic, insecure, lack adequate
privacy protection, and for one billion people, are inaccessible.
We need to act fast. There is an urgent three- to five-year window to set the trajectory of digital ID.
There is increasing international focus on closing the identity gap quickly, and by harnessing the power of information technology, to
address it digitally. But addressing the first challenge while ignoring the second, exposes individuals to both the risk of exclusion and the
risks associated with misuse of identity data, ranging from identify theft to genocide.
The question isn’t “if” digital ID will be implemented and ultimately supplant what we have today, it’s already happening. The
real question is how.
Through our Certification Mark, shape Provide direct program support, either Advocate for ethical approaches to digital
the technical landscape to ensure that the through funding from the ID2020’s ID that prioritize privacy and user-control.
digital ID solutions which are developed Catalytic Fund or through Advisory
and adopted are user-managed, privacy- Services, to accelerate the uptake of good
protecting and interoperable. digital ID programs and facilitate access
to vital rights and services, particularly for
vulnerable populations.
ID2020 Alliance partners believe that digital ID must be privacy-protecting, portable, recognized
and trusted, and owned and managed by the individual to meaningfully improve lives.
The United Nations recognizes identity as a fundamental human right and has included “provid[ing a] legal identity for all, including birth
registration, by 2030” as one of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 16.9). Yet more than one billion people around the world struggle
to prove their identity. Most of those affected are children and adolescents, and many are refugees, forcibly displaced, and stateless persons.
For these vulnerable and underserved populations, the inability to identify oneself formally heightens personal risk and limits opportunity.
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At the same time, more than half of the planet has access to the Internet. Still more have access to mobile devices. Increasingly, our
relationships with institutions, and with each other, take place in digital spaces. While digital ID is, at its core, exactly what it sounds like — using
digital technologies as a way to prove who you are — if you interact with any technology connected to the Internet, you have a digital identity.
Our present model for digital identity is broken. These siloed digital
credentials don’t empower individuals, as they rarely unlock access to
vital services. Moreover, data is not under individual control, is often
insufficiently secured, and is of significant value to bad actors who may
Closing the identity gap is an enormous challenge.
exploit it for their own illegal, illicit, or unauthorized purposes.
It will take the work of many committed people and
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organizations coming together across different
Imagine, instead, that individuals could collect verifiable digital
geographies, sectors and technologies. But it’s exciting
credentials — immunization records, vocational training certificates,
to imagine a world where safe and secure digital
proof of residency, etc. — and then granularly and selectively
identities are possible, providing everyone with an
share these records to apply for a job, access financial services, or
essential building block to every right and opportunity
participate as a citizen or voter.
they deserve.
We have defined four key characteristics required for digital ID to deliver on this promise:
All of ID2020’s work stems from this perspective. In 2018, ID2020 Alliance Partners, working in partnership with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), drafted a formal articulation of our perspective on ethical approaches to digital identity. The landmark
ID2020 Alliance Manifesto (www.id2020.org/manifesto) lays out these shared principles and forms a starting point to guide the future of
digital identity globally.
Digital identity provides a leveraged opportunity for impact across global development.
Because digital systems underpin programs in global health, financial inclusion, refugee resettlement, and much more, digital ID offers a
leveraged opportunity to invest in global development. Whatever issue you care about, going forward, an ethical, responsible approach to
digital ID is step one.
Take, for example, the challenge of providing financial services to the world’s 1.7B unbanked individuals. Given rigorous (and necessary)
Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering regulations, banks cannot offer financial services to individuals without a verifiable identity.
Similarly, organizations working to address poverty (SDG Goal 1), hunger (SDG Goal 2), global health (SDG Goal 3) or education (SDG Goal
4), are often stymied because they don’t know how many people they’re actually trying to serve, nor can they accurately measure progress.
While digital ID alone cannot solve these issues, it provides a path to individual empowerment while providing accurate population-level data
that amplifies ongoing global development work.
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The ID2020 Alliance drives impact through three distinct activities.
1) Technical Market Shaping: transforming markets to make user-managed, privacy-protecting, and portable digital ID the norm
In January 2019, the Alliance launched the ID2020 Certification Mark at the World Economic Forum in Davos. ID2020’s Technical Advisory
Committee (TAC), made up of leading experts on digital ID and its underlying technologies, established a set of functional, outcomes-based
technical requirements for user-managed, privacy-protecting and portable digital ID.
The resulting Certification Mark gives direction to companies’ product development roadmaps, steering the market towards ethical,
inclusive technologies. Certification also allows companies meeting our technical requirements to market themselves as-such and gives
those implementing these technologies confidence in adopting certified solutions. Heavily weighted in these requirements is a focus
on modularisation, open standards, open APIs, and the portability of data between component systems, each of which is critical for
interoperability, portability and avoidance of vendor lock-in. Alliance partners share a commitment to key principles for digital ID, but remain
technology- and vendor-agnostic.
2) Program Support: accelerating the uptake of good digital ID programs, facilitating access to rights and services
Through ID2020’s Catalytic Fund, the Alliance supports organizations advancing high-impact digital ID programs. Many of these
organizations are located in areas where identification coverage is low and where there is the greatest potential for digital ID to promote
inclusive growth and personal opportunity. Ideal candidates for funding are organizations poised to self-fund their programs in the long-term,
but who first need to establish proof-of-concept and need external funding to do so.
Beginning in 2020, the Alliance will also provide Advisory Services to governments, companies and NGOs considering implementing a digital
ID program. ID2020’s support will ensure that an ethical, user-managed approach to digital ID is enshrined in the early design of the program
and carries through in technical procurement, program implementation, and ecosystem development.
Across both types of program support, ID2020 prioritizes programs where there is a clear potential for scale and replicability, and particularly
those where we believe the partner organization is a key fulcrum for systemic change. For example, ID2020 is working closely with Gavi, the
Vaccine Alliance to develop replicable programs linking immunization and digital ID, recognizing that nearly 60% of the 1.1B people without an
identity are children under 18, and critically 89% of children and adolescents without identity live in Gavi-eligible countries.
ID2020 has developed rigorous processes to evaluate prospective digital ID programs for scalability, replicability, and interoperability, and to
ensure that each program we support contributes towards a robust, comprehensive evidence base.
3) Joint Advocacy: building public awareness and stakeholder support for good digital ID
The Alliance has established a respected, trusted voice in the digital ID ecosystem due to our ethics-based approach, our breadth of
experience, and the technical expertise of our partners. The Alliance can coordinate messaging to reach our partners’ diverse audiences,
amplifying our shared perspective on the potential risks and opportunities of digital ID.
The Annual ID2020 Summit brings together diverse voices from across the digital ID ecosystem, including executives from multinational
companies, senior UN and government diplomats, technologists, and civil society, to discuss the ethics of digital ID and chart a shared
roadmap forward.
Across these three activities, ID2020 is focused on four thematic areas where we believe there is significant unmet need and a
window for outsized impact.
Cities People on the Move Financial Inclusion Maternal and Child Health
As government entities at the With displacement rising Digital ID can play a significant Successful immunization and
front-lines of social service globally, millions of refugees, role in expanding access to public health programs are a
provision, city governments can forcibly displaced, and stateless formal financial services for the viable avenue towards ensuring
lead the way for best practices people lack the requisite 1.7B people currently unbanked. universal birth registration and
in digital ID. documentation to access vital access to digital ID.
services.
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As a collaborative effort of global partners, the Alliance is taking an approach that is holistic,
market-based, and which is solving for scale at day one.
No government, company or agency can solve this challenge alone. Setting the future course of digital ID and navigating the associated risks
is a challenge that requires sustained collaboration.
Launched in 2017, the ID2020 Alliance has grown rapidly over the past three years and now includes over thirteen partners.
Founding Partners
General Partners
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ID2020 is unique in its philosophy and transparent governance.
ID2020 is building a new global model for the design, funding, and
At Gavi, we recognize how important it is that
implementation of digital ID systems and technologies. There is no other
technology used in development settings protect
multi-stakeholder effort focused on user-managed, privacy-protecting,
individual privacy. Our partnership with ID2020 allows
and portable digital ID.
us to better understand the rapidly evolving digital
identity landscape, and the launch of the Certification
Ad-hoc investments in single use-case projects (“business as usual”)
Mark provides valuable shorthand that Gavi, other
will be insufficient to bring about the transformative impact required.
development organizations, and governments can rely
Changing the flow of funds is necessary to re-align incentives. That’s
on to ensure that privacy and data protection are never
why Alliance partners are pooling funds and collaboratively investing in
compromised.
programs that consider digital ID holistically, as a platform for diverse
benefits, services, and use cases throughout an individual’s life.
Seth Berkley, CEO, Gavi
Private sector engagement is critical for solving at scale. Alliance partners include technology companies with a collective footprint in the
billions and a shared commitment to an ethical approach to digital ID. Decisions about how Alliance funds are administered, which programs
to fund, and which technical standards to support are made jointly by Alliance partners through a transparent governance process,
preventing dominance by any single institution or sector.
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Joining the Alliance
The Alliance is open to all partners aligned with the beliefs outlined above and cleared through ID2020’s due diligence processes. The
governance model is designed to avoid dominance by any single institution or sector.
• The tiered model is designed to ensure that partnering organizations contribute at a level appropriate for their skills and
competencies, while recognizing the “bold bets” made by founding partners
• The two seats on the Board for representatives of private sector Founding Partners act as representatives of the pool of private
sector Founding Partners. The same is true of the two seats for representatives of public sector Founding Partners.
• We recognize that our collective impact will be maximized through collaboration across sectors, and even with direct
competitors. To that end, Alliance partners are actively working to involve their own “rivals” in the Alliance’s work.
The Alliance is committed to open standards, open source technology, and organizational transparency. While Alliance partners are able to
help shape the Alliance’s work, the Alliance is in no way is designed to create monopolies or vendor lock-in.
Based on # of employees:
Initial Commitment* $1M (5,000+)
$500K (500 - 4,999) n/a
$200K (50 - 499) No financial contribution is required for participation of
$50K (<50) public sector organizations; however, all partners will be
expected and required to participate in applicable ways
through the contribution of human capital, intellectual
Annual Commitment* Based on # of employees: Based on # of employees: property and/or goodwill. Public sector Alliance partners
$250K (5,000+) $100K (5,000+) are also encouraged to help finance the work of the ID2020
$125K(500 - 4,999) $50K(500 - 4,999) Alliance to the extent that grants and donations are a core
$50K (50 - 499) $20K (50 - 499) operational function of the partnering organization.
$12.5K (<50) $5K (<50)
Benefits
Participation in ID2020
yes yes yes yes
events (preference for speaking slots) (preference for speaking slots)
Organizational representative
eligible for one of four (4) partner yes yes
seats on the Executive Board
* Participation as a Founding Partner requires an up-front commitment as outlined above. The upfront commitment includes the first two (2) years of membership at the Founding Partner level. At the third
anniversary of membership, Founding Partners are asked to contribute on an annual basis at the rate outlined above.