Prove Who You Are: Identity, Displacement, and the 123 Million People Whose Credentials Cannot Cross Borders

Well, a couple of things you said there.

One, and I've been very clear with many of the stakeholders we've engaged in Gainesville since starting this a little over a year ago now, that this is not just a techno utopia vision.

Like, okay, some guy from Silicon Valley is going to drop in and sort of give you all the answers.

I mean, I think we've iterated with different prototypes and different ideas and we share them with refugees and migrants, they look at it and say, yeah, wow, that would be a miracle if you could make that happen.

But the reality on the ground is this, you know, we have to go through all of these bureaucratic hoops.

There's all this indignity embedded in the processes that exist today.

And so I can tell you this, you can solve that.

You can build the best technology in the world.

It's not going to actually meaningfully move the needle.

And one of the things that I'd say, if I look back just over the last year, that has, I find very pleasing, is the convening power that Civitas has in terms of being able to bring the right people together.

You know, and there's two markets that we're focused on.

One is in Kenya and the other is in Colombia.

And we've now held, you know, at least 10 or more roundtable conversations starting at the UN General Assembly, where we kicked off last September.

And then we were at the fall World Bank IMF meeting.

We brought together stakeholders in Kenya several times.

I actually just got back from Kenya a few weeks ago.

We had a roundtable conversation in partnership with Strathmore University.

And there were people represented from government, from the World Bank, from the major NGOs, the refugee communities.

And it was a very open, you know, powerful conversation around what are the pathways to addressing some of these issues that we've laid out at the World Bank.

these identity barriers.

Similarly, we've done a number of these in Colombia as well to really stress test the reality of what we're trying to do and say, okay, what is it going to take? And it's not just a technical solution.

There's advocacy work.

There's trying to make sure that we're effectively communicating to stakeholders the vast potential and also the severity of the issues that are being faced by these populations and trying to shift that narrative to these populations.

There could be job creators or not job takers and trying to get other people to understand that.

You know, then there's the policy work and really the changes that need to be made legally and from a process perspective and an administrative perspective and a good example.

Well, a couple of things you said there.

One, and I've been very clear with many of the stakeholders we've engaged in Gainesville since starting this a little over a year ago now, that this is not just a techno utopia vision.

Like, okay, some guy from Silicon Valley is going to drop in and sort of give you all the answers.

I mean, I think we've iterated with different prototypes and different ideas and we share them with refugees and migrants, they look at it and say, yeah, wow, that would be a miracle if you could make that happen.

But the reality on the ground is this, you know, we have to go through all of these bureaucratic hoops.

There's all this indignity embedded in the processes that exist today.

And so I can tell you this, you can solve that.

You can build the best technology in the world.

It's not going to actually meaningfully move the needle.

And one of the things that I'd say, if I look back just over the last year, that has, I find very pleasing, is the convening power that Civitas has in terms of being able to bring the right people together.

You know, and there's two markets that we're focused on.

One is in Kenya and the other is in Colombia.

And we've now held, you know, at least 10 or more roundtable conversations starting at the UN General Assembly, where we kicked off last September.

And then we were at the fall World Bank IMF meeting.

We brought together stakeholders in Kenya several times.

I actually just got back from Kenya a few weeks ago.

We had a roundtable conversation in partnership with Strathmore University.

And there were people represented from government, from the World Bank, from the major NGOs, the refugee communities.

And it was a very open, you know, powerful conversation around what are the pathways to addressing some of these issues that we've laid out at the World Bank.

these identity barriers.

Similarly, we've done a number of these in Colombia as well to really stress test the reality of what we're trying to do and say, okay, what is it going to take? And it's not just a technical solution.

There's advocacy work.

There's trying to make sure that we're effectively communicating to stakeholders the vast potential and also the severity of the issues that are being faced by these populations and trying to shift that narrative to these populations.

There could be job creators or not job takers and trying to get other people to understand that.

You know, then there's the policy work and really the changes that need to be made legally and from a process perspective and an administrative perspective and a good example.