Using the touchless to find the invisible – legal identity, biometrics and Covid-19

One of the main ways to stem the Covid-19 pandemic is to track how many people have become ill, how many have died, how many have recovered ¹.  To tackle the virus effectively those that have been in contact with someone who has been ill or is a carrier need to be traced.  They may need to be isolated.  If and when a vaccine is found, vaccination programmes will need to keep track of how much of the population has been reached.

In my last blog, I wrote about the potential impact of Covid-19 on those who are the most vulnerable and excluded in our society.  But what about the 1.1 billion people globally who are without a legal identity?  I wrote about the wider challenges for those who lack legal identity here, highlighting that, despite the pledges made under Sustainable Development Goal 16.9, 81% of those without a legal identity live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.  Africa, it is recognised, is likely to suffer disproportionately from the pandemic ².  For more on the SDG 16.9 pledges, see my earlier blog here.

In this blog, I look at the challenges that those without legal identity face and the role of biometrics and civil registration systems in tackling the pandemic ³.

 

The use of biometrics generally

Official state-issued documents such as a birth certificate, passport, drivers’ license, marriage certificate or voter registration number or card tend to be the evidence of an individual’s legal identity.  In order to possess such documents, a person must be listed on one or more civil registration system (basically a database) in the state in which they are a citizen or a resident.  Most of these systems rely on collecting data from an individual in order for that individual to be included on the database.  Some of those systems rely on biometric data.  Biometric data can include fingerprints, voice, facial or iris patterns or DNA – something unique to that individual ⁴.

Biometrics allow individuals to be identified and for that identity to be authenticated in a secure and accurate way.  Examples include the use of biometrics to identify citizenship or residency rights, social welfare entitlement, and for voter identification ⁵.  I have written about the use of biometrics to create universal legal identity here, here and here, about the implications of relying on multiple identity systems when it comes to voter registration and identification.

New biometric systems can be complex, invasive and may be unworkable especially in countries where many people lack a legal identity or where there is a plurality of distinct and/or overlapping civil registration systems.  For a discussion on this issue see my blog on Kenya’s Huduma Namba system. 

 

Biometrics in the context of Covid-19

In the context of Covid-19 and other crises and emergencies, legal identity becomes even more important.  Not having a legal identity, and therefore not officially existing, becomes a greater barrier to overcome.  As states and companies look to biometrics to manage the crisis and to find a way out of it, biometric solutions may create a two-tier system.  Those with a legal identity can access those solutions, those without risk being left behind.

The importance of biometrics is clear when it comes to administering antibody tests and vaccines.  This is not unique to Covid-19.  Biometrics have been a feature of many immunisation and testing programmes ⁶.   Immunisation and testing programmes work best when it is possible to identify individuals who need a test or vaccine administered, or who have already been tested or vaccinated.  In the same way, biometric ID systems will be key to tracking those who have received Covid-19 related tests or a vaccine.  As the Centre for Global Development notes:

“Biometric digital IDs can be a gamechanger. They can help governments target population segments e.g. healthcare professionals or elderly population, verify people who have received vaccination, and have a clear record.” ⁷

This is specially so where states are considering the use of Covid-19 ‘immunity certificates’ ⁸.

 

Biometrics for secondary impacts

Beyond the Covid-19 specific responses, states’ civil registration systems need to focus on dealing with the secondary impacts of the virus.  Those impacts include increased global poverty, strained healthcare systems unable to cope with pre-existing challenges (such as the spread of tuberculosis and the fight against malaria), global unemployment and increased violence against children, especially for those that have lost their caregivers to the illness ⁹.

States and aid donors need to find effective ways to distribute aid and social assistance to those who are not able to work or who cannot get access to food and other services.  Some states have started to fast-track systems that are already in the pipeline.  For example, Jamaica is planning on creating and rolling out at pace its national identification system (NIDS) ¹⁰.  This will allow the government to provide better and faster aid and benefits distribution.  NIDS will eventually become Jamaica’s main source of identity verification ¹¹.

Payment schemes will be essential for many people who no longer have an income because of lockdown conditions related to Covid-19.   Existing systems can be used, as has happened with India’s Aadhar system, which covers more than 99% of the population, some 1.25 billion people.  Aadhar was initially introduced as a way of providing a public subsidy and an unemployment benefits scheme, which was then rolled out to include a payments scheme ¹².  The system relies on technology, of course, but more fundamentally, it relies on everyone having a unique number identifier.   In the Covid-19 context, mass unemployment or reduced employment are becoming the norm and states are finding that they need to financially support a higher percentage of their population.  With that in mind, payment schemes and other social support and assistance programmes, such as cash transfers, will be essential ¹³.

 

Challenges in developing countries

Reaching those without a legal identity will be one of the biggest challenges to finding a way out of the Covid-19 pandemic.  With only one half of children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa registered at birth, health practitioners will struggle to deliver the right vaccine at the right time.  A number of organisations and programmes, such as Gavi, are already working on linking children’s digital identities to complete and accurate medical records ¹⁴.  But the pressure remains for many African countries to scale up and strengthen the capacity of their civil registration systems to respond to Covid-19 and future health challenges ¹⁵.

And it is not just the lack of complete birth registration systems which affects quality health data in developing countries.  Just as efforts are being made to extend civil registration programmes, including infant and toddler appropriate fingerprinting (which poses a different challenge to adult fingerprinting), the goalposts have moved.  The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for so-called ‘touchless’ or contactless methods (iris, face or palm scanning) for initial civil registration or in the everyday use of identity systems ¹⁶.

 

Can biometrics used for Covid-19 health initiatives help towards universal legal identity?

The answer is, potentially, yes.  For example, touchless biometric identification is already promoted by UNHCR.  UNHCR is beginning to practise touchless registration through iris recognition scheme to ensure that refugees have access to cash and in-kind transactions ¹⁷.  Programmes using this technology have been rolled out in Egypt for the distribution of financial aid and will soon be in use in Bangladesh, Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia.

Vaccination and antibody test programme could help to increase the number of civil registrations.  This will, in turn, reduce the number of people globally, and especially in developing countries, who are without a legal identity.  There is some evidence that in places where adequate and universal birth registration or registration of other vital events is lacking, vaccine programmes step in to fill that gap.  This is because civil registration (including birth or voter registration) rely on individuals overcoming many barriers to register themselves or their children.  Vaccination programmes, however, usually come to people.   For example, in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Tanzania, studies have shown that a combined vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and Hepatitis B reaches around three times more children in the first months of their lives than birth registration ¹⁸.

Immunisation programmes which rely on community outreach have been well placed to increase the number and ease of birth registrations in countries where those are not universal.  This was the case in the Gambia, where public health officers at district and divisional levels were given some registrar powers enabling them to integrate birth registration with maternal and child health clinics ¹⁹.  Such outreach programmes are needed more than ever to improve statistics systems and provide vital opportunities to promote civil registration.

 

Could the new ‘normal’ lead to universal legal identity?

This pandemic has changed so much already.  It will continue to do so with no going back to ‘normal’.  The new ‘normal’ will have many disadvantages and shortcomings to which we will all need to adjust.  If we are lucky, there might even be some positives.  One of those positives could be a renewed focus on the importance of universal legal identity.  The search for a way to administer a Covid-19 vaccine or a reliable antibody test to individuals absent from current civil registration systems could create the right conditions for a renewed engagement with the challenge of achieving universal legal identity.