Breaking the Documentation Wall: Digital Identity for Displaced People

Wow.

We see it on television.

We know it.

But to actually be with those people and to talk to them and to realize what they've lost and the desperate situation they're in in terms of not having proof, the proof of who they are.

So what are the countries that are experiencing the largest migrations?

Yeah, well, to set the stage, and some of the numbers I quoted earlier, so the almost 118 million forcibly displaced people around the planet today represents one in 70 globally.

However, that number, especially due to the increased frequency and severity of climate events that are expected, is expected to grow to one to eight in the world.

So could you imagine one in every eight people on the planet will have experienced some force of forced displacement? So just to kind of set the stage on that, that's not a sobering statistic.

And it disproportionately affects folks in lower to moderate income countries in the global south.

And this is where the need is so great, particularly in the face of rapidly declining humanitarian aid and support.

But why don't I talk a little bit about a couple of the countries that we're specifically working in.

So one is Colombia, and Colombia is a really interesting example of a country that has traditionally had very progressive policies towards migrants.

So with Venezuela's collapse, it pushed millions of people across the border.

And Colombia, for a period of time, granted legal status at scale to these folks.

So this is a very large group of people, about 1.8 million people, that were able to enter the country, apply for regularization status, and be granted what was called a PPT document, a temporary protection that would give them access to a whole range of services.

Now, in reality, operationally and technically, it wasn't always so easy for people who were holding this PPT document, but in concept, it was a very welcoming approach to helping people settle and start to rebuild their lives.

Now, unfortunately, that program ended several years ago.

So there's about 1.3 million Venezuelan migrants that are living in Colombia that have irregular status.

And those folks are even more vulnerable at the moment.

And Colombia also hosts the largest internally displaced population in the world.

Some circa 7 million people due to violence and conflict over many years have been internally pushed out of their homes and their villages.

The government of Colombia has a very large task of helping to integrate these large populations.

And this is why they're also fairly receptive to new solutions, innovative solutions to help provide access to services for so many of these people.

The other country that we're focused on right now and some of the surrounding countries is Kenya and East Africa.

And Kenya specifically has about 860,000 refugees, people that have sought asylum and been granted refugee status, the majority of whom live in two encampments, Kakuma, which I mentioned earlier, and Dadaab, which is close to the Somali border.