Announced on social media this morning, MOSIP and The International Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore, India have entered into a MoU agreement to mark the beginning of a digital ID pilot with Madagascar’s government (MNDPT). MOSIP confirmed the official start date of the project was back in September.
Madagascar’s identity security drive was notably financed by the World Bank in 2020, which sought to establish an effective and secure digital identity management system and build upon the interoperability of civil registration and national identity programmes. Aside from this $143 million funding support, the government has not yet fully accomplished a digital identity ecosystem beyond streamlining and digitalising government services, a set of adjustments that the government set out to complete due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MoU agreement will primarily seek to upgrade secure access systems to government services and handling of identity data, monitoring the pilot at each crucial stage of development, installation and maintenance.
MNDPT commented: “As part of the modernisation of Madagascar, which is a fundamental aspect of the vision of the Presidency, the establishment of a unique identification system as well as the authentication of all natural people in the territory are the fundamentals of the system”. And declared an equal collaboration with MOSIP which would also “enrich the MOSIP platform and its international base”.
The pilot project will facilitate over 1000 enrolments of identity data. MOSIP’s self-defined role will be to act as technical support with regards to the implementation process, to provide documentation and advice to aid the Government of Madagascar, pathing way for potential national schemes covering all aspects of technology, policy, regulation, and implementation.
