Publication: Private Sector Economic Impacts from Identification Systems
Loading...
Published
2018
ISSN
Date
2019-06-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Identification systems are a core component of sustainable development policies in countries with diverse economic, demographic, and political contexts. The role of digital identification systems in the private sector is equally large. The efficient, accurate, and secure use of personal identity data is at the heart of most transactions, regardless of the industry in which they take place. The implementation of robust and inclusive identification systems at the national level offers the potential for large financial gains for private sector companies. As a companion piece to the World Bank’s identification for development (ID4D) work on fiscal savings for government agencies, this paper provides a first step toward developing a greater understanding of the financial benefits of identification systems for the private sector. By developing a framework for cost savings and revenue generation opportunities and aggregating existing case studies, it provides a preliminary assessment of expected benefits of government-backed identification systems for firms across a variety of industries. This paper is therefore intended to serve as a resource for governments and donors looking to gauge the potential impacts of implementing an identification system and for private sector leaders and industry groups to fruitfully engage on identity-related issues.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2018. Private Sector Economic Impacts from Identification Systems. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31828 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Digital Identity Toolkit : A Guide for Stakeholders in Africa(Washington, DC, 2014-06)Digital identity, or electronic identity (eID), offers developing nations a unique opportunity to accelerate the pace of their national progress. It changes the way services are delivered, helps grow a country's digital economy, and supports effective safety nets for disadvantaged and impoverished populations. Though digital identity is an opportunity, it raises important considerations with respect to privacy, cost, capacity, and long-term viability. This report provides a strategic view of the role of identification in a country's national development, as well as a tactical view of the building blocks and policy choices needed for setting up eID in a developing country. The report presents a conceptual overview of digital identity management practices, providing a set of guidelines at a national level that policymakers can find helpful as they begin to think about modernizing the identity infrastructure of their country into eID. The report also provides an operating knowledge of the terminology and concepts used in identity management and an exposition of the functional blocks that must be in place. Policy considerations are referenced at the end of the report that governments can use as they contemplate a digital identity program. Given its abridged nature, the report is intended to be insightful and detailed, though not exhaustive. Several important topics related to eID are noted though deserve further discussion, including: economic and financial analysis, the development and setup of a national civil register, and cross-border aspects of eID. The building blocks, as discussed, can help ensure that a secure, robust and reliable digital identity platform can serve the development needs of a country for the foreseeable future.Publication The Role of Identification in the Post-2015 Development Agenda(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015)The post-2015 development agenda is being shaped as we speak. The role of identity and identification and its importance to development outcomes places it within the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda—specifically as one of the proposed SDG targets (#16.9), but also as a key enabler of the efficacy of many other SDG targets. Although there is no one model for providing legal identity, this SDG would urge states to ensure that all have free or low-cost access to widely accepted, robust identity credentials. Regardless of the modalities to achieve it, the recognition of legal identity – together with its associated rights – is becoming a priority for governments around the world. Political will is central, and the SDGs – unwieldy as they may seem today – provide a useful reference point for accountability. But new approaches expand the horizon of what is possible, and should serve as a stimulus to development ambition. Seizing these opportunities requires strong leadership, a supportive legal framework, mobilization of financial and human resources, and – critically – the trust of each country’s residents. Incentives, technology, foreign assistance and reforms will all be critical in achieving tangible results. Equally important is coordination at the global, regional and national levels, to ensure inclusive oversight and concerted global action. Support from donors and other development partners is widely diffused. It could focus more strategically on building core systems for registration and – equally important – ensuring that these extend into effective and inclusive systems to support development.Publication Identification for Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10-06)This report presents the current state of identification (ID) systems in Tunisia and their use across sectors. Based on an initial study completed in 2018 by the World Bank’s identification for development (ID4D) initiative, it provides a summary of the strengths and weakness of the country’s primary ID systems and recommended next steps for developing an inclusive and trusted identity ecosystem that will improve governance and facilitate access to basic rights and services. This report is organized as follows: part one gives introduction. Part two provides an update on the status of identity projects and their progress since the benchmarking study commissioned by the Government of Tunisia (GoT) in 2015 that led to the development of the unique citizen identifier (IUC). It gives an overview of existing databases and credentials, as well as ongoing projects and issues with implementation. Part three provides a summary of the main achievements, as well as ongoing challenges and uncertainties regarding identification in Tunisia across these various systems and projects, and then provides recommendations for addressing these issues in the future.Publication G20 Digital Identity Onboarding(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018)A unique, legal identity is necessary to allow all individuals to participate fully in society and the economy. The ability to prove one’s identity underlies the ability to access basic services and entitlements from healthcare through to pensions and agriculture subsidies. This is especially true for marginalized segments of society such as women, poor rural farmers, refugees and also extends to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). The importance of legal identity has been acknowledged by the international community through agreement of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which calls for all UN member States to “provide legal identity for all, including birth registration” by 2030.Publication Understanding Cost Drivers of Identification Systems(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-12-13)Approximately one billion people globally lack government-recognized identification. As a consequence, they face barriers to accessing critical services and exercising their rights. Robust, inclusive, and responsible foundational identification (ID) systems2 can be transformative for a country’s development and for the welfare of its poorest and most vulnerable populations by enabling financial inclusion, the empowerment of women and girls, access to basic services, social safety nets, and political participation. Moreover, at a systemic level, leapfrogging traditional paper-based approaches in favor of digital identification systems can generate significant benefits across the public and private sectors by increasing efficiency and accountability (chiefly through the reduction of fraud, leakages, and waste in public programs) as well as driving innovation in service delivery (through the use of mobile or digital payments, for instance). As governments across the globe are implementing new, digital foundational identification systems or modernizing existing ID programs, there is an urgent need to develop accurate estimations of the associated costs. There are a handful of existing analyses that have attempted to estimate the overall cost of foundational ID systems: for instance, Gelb and Diofasi Metz (2018) estimate that it is likely to cost a low income country roughly 0.6 percent of GDP to build a foundational ID system, or about $4–11 investment per registrant for enrolment and credential issuance. The same study cites figures for a few countries suggesting recurrent costs of around 0.06–0.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). As the authors point out however, few data points exist and these figures may not apply to different types of systems or to all countries.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication MIGA Annual Report 2013 : Insuring Investments, Ensuring Opportunities(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-11)In fiscal year 2013, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) issued 2.8 billion dollars in investment guarantees for projects in our developing member countries. At 1.5 billion dollars, representing more than half of new business, the bulk of MIGA's guarantees issued support investments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sixty-nine percent of new business volume this year was in complex projects in infrastructure and extractive industries, a strategic priority for the Agency. This year, 82 percent of MIGA's new volume fell into one or more of strategic priority areas: investments in the world's poorest countries, "South-South" investments, investments in conflict-affected countries, and investments in complex projects. MIGA also established the conflict-affected and fragile economies facility to further deepen support to this priority area.Publication Economy Profile of Djibouti(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10-31)Sixteenth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2019 covers 11 areas of business regulation. Ten of these areas - starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency - are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. Doing Business provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. This economy profile presents indicators for Djibouti; for 2019 Djibouti ranks 99.Publication Leakage of Public Resources in the Health Sector : An Empirical Investigation of Chad(2007-09)In the public sector in developing countries, leakage of public resources could prove detrimental to users and affect the well-being of the population. This paper empirically examines the importance of leakage of government resources in the health sector in Chad, and its effects on the prices of drugs. The analysis uses data collected in Chad as part of a Health Facilities Survey organized by the World Bank in 2004. The survey covered 281 primary health care centers and contained information on the provision of medical material, financial resources, and medicines allocated by the Ministry of Health to the regional administration and primary health centers. Although the regional administration is officially allocated 60 percent of the ministry's non-wage recurrent expenditures, the share of the resources that actually reach the regions is estimated to be only 18 percent. The health centers, which are the frontline providers and the entry point for the population, receive less than 1 percent of the ministry's non-wage recurrent expenditures. Accounting for the endogeneity of the level of competition among health centers, the leakage of government resources has a significant and negative impact on the price mark-up that health centers charge patients for drugs.Publication Formal Finance and Trade Credit During China's Transition(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04)Using a large panel dataset of Chinese industrial firms, the authors examine the determinants of access to loans from formal financial intermediaries and extension of trade credit. Poorly performing state-owned enterprises were more likely to redistribute credit to firms with less privileged access to loans through trade credit, a pattern consistent with some of the extension of trade credit being involuntary. By contrast, profitable private domestic firms were more likely to extend trade credit than unprofitable ones. Trade credit likely provided a substitute for loans for these private firms' customers that were shut out of formal credit markets. As biases in lending became less severe, the amount of trade credit extended by private firms declined.