First deployment of open-standard Identity Management interface OSIA in DRC

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, in partnership with CIVIPOL, the technical cooperation operator of the French Ministry of the Interior, DIGITECH, a leading provider of paperless Civil Registry solutions, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund and CARITAS, a confederation of 165 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations, announces the first deployment of the open-standard Identity Management interface OSIA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This World Bank funded project aims to register 2.4 million children and produce 600,000 birth certificates. The consortium led by CIVIPOL supports the ambitious goal set out by the United Nations General Assembly “One ID for all by 2030.”

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190620005047/en/

The consortium focusses on two project streams: the first stream concentrates on the enhancement of the current Civil Registry process through dematerializing the process and digitalizing existing Civil Registries. The second stream allows children enrolled in nursery and primary schools to register for free if they belong to the 60 % of DRC’s children that have not been registered at birth.

The data collection process was launched in April 2019 in the schools of Kinshasa, and is now entering its second phase with the integration of the registration data from the Civil Registry system – based on a DIGITECH solution - into the Civil Identity database provided by IDEMIA.

“The Civil Identity database is critical for the success of the program for the Congolese government,” says Debora Comparin, Senior Market Manager at IDEMIA. “The database and its back-end ensure that each child getting a birth certificate is de-duplicated and given a unique identifier. This provides the Congolese government with a long-term solution for modern identity management.”

Philippe Barreau, Executive Vice President for Public Security & Identity activities at IDEMIA, adds: “What makes this project so special is the first deployment of OSIA, the open-standard interface for Identity Management, developed with the Secure Identity Alliance (SIA). All members of the consortium are truly committed to offer a solution to their customers that avoids vendor-locking and focuses on the long-term benefits for the country.”

So-called vendor-locking has been identified as a key concern to ensure implementation of modern identity management systems in emerging countries. Whether design and deployment are led by a single technology partner or a master system integrator managing a multi-provider environment, governments often come to depend on their partner(s). Their ability to transition to new suppliers or technologies might be hampered by contractual arrangements, a raft of technical compatibility issues and considerable operational risk.

IDEMIA is a supporter of open-standard solutions to solve this problem. An open-standard approach utilizes existing modules and components from existing ID technology providers, and uses OSIA interfaces to enable the information interchange. Quite apart from the fact that these field-proven modules encapsulate decades of expertise from trusted partners, there is no need to reinvent anything. The modules are available on the market today.

“IDEMIA is proud to be the first company that actively uses OSIA in such an important program as the modernization of DRC’s identity management,” concludes Debora Comparin.

About IDEMIA

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities (such as pay, connect and travel), in the physical as well as digital space.

Securing our identity has become mission critical in the world we live in today. By standing for Augmented Identity, an identity that ensures privacy and trust and guarantees secure, authenticated and verifiable transactions, we reinvent the way we think, produce, use and protect one of our greatest assets – our identity – whether for individuals or for objects, whenever and wherever security matters. We provide Augmented Identity for international clients from Financial, Telecom, Identity, Public Security and IoT sectors.

With 13,000 employees around the world, IDEMIA serves clients in 180 countries.

More information on the advantages of an open-standard solution can be found in the Whitepaper Open-Standards, SIA, June 2019 at www.OSIA.io.

To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190620005047/en/

Contact information

Press Contact
Hanna SEBBAH
+33 6 63 73 30 30
idemia@havas.com