Gates Foundation to promote digital ID with $200 million infrastructure fund

The global digital ID trend is going to be boosted by the Gates Foundation. The charity announced $200 million in funding for “digital public infrastructure,” highlighting the potential of digital ID in efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The funding was announced last week at the Goalkeepers event, which itself takes place during the United Nations General Assembly. Goalkeepers is a Gates Foundation initiative launched in 2017 that aims to bring together powerful individuals to help in the effort towards the UN SDGs.

The $200 million Digital Public Infrastructure fund was announced as part of a larger $1.27 billion package that includes commitments to fight endemic diseases ($912 million), mitigate the crisis ($100 million), improving child nutrition ($20 million), and funding for the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda ($50 million).

The Foundation’s concept of “digital public infrastructure” “encompasses tools such as interoperable payment systems, digital identification, data sharing systems and civil registration databases”, he said. explained in a press release. The Foundation argues that these technologies can help low- and middle-income countries improve their resilience to food insecurity, disease and climate change, and can also help foster economic growth.

Although the Gates Foundation announcement uses the term “digital ID” loosely, it’s clear that mobile ID technology is of strong interest to at least one of the charity’s founders. In an interview with Scroll.in, Melinda French Gates spoke about the “powerful opportunities” that mobile devices offer that “we don’t even realize yet”, noting that mobile devices can help empower women in more patriarchal through solutions like digital. wallets. She also suggested that mobile technology can help foster the spread of digital accounts and other aspects of the kind of digital public infrastructure in which the Gates Foundation is engaged.

The funding announcement comes at a time of accelerating digital and mobile ID activity around the world, and particularly in Europe, where the regulatory environment is now actively encouraging the development of the technology. These activities could help the Gates Foundation and its partners to advocate for digital ID in other parts of the world in the future.

Sources: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Scroll.in