Page 107 - The Digital Financial Services (DFS) Ecosystem

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Ecosystem

6.1 General Functional Linkages

We first consider whether particular types of national ID programs have a greater number of different functional
linkages. To measure the linkages, we count how many of the different sub-categories of services presented in
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section 5 and summarized in Table 6 are linked to each program. Thus, a program with evidence of linkages to
mobile money, digital banking, voter registration, KYC for elections, border enforcement, and SIM registration
would be measured as having six different functional linkages. These sub-categories may not reflect the full
variety of services linked to national ID programs, and for certain programs we were not able to identify much
information on linkages. Further, using the number of types of services for which we find evidence of linkages
as a proxy for integration of national ID programs into different areas does not tell us anything about how well-
developed those linkages are, as a program with many limited connections to different types of services would
be rated higher than a program with a few well-developed connections. However, this approach provides us
with a rough estimation of how well a national ID program is integrated with different services.

As shown in Table 8, national ID programs in South Asia have the highest mean number of linkages to different
functions, with 6.2 types of services on average linked to the five programs in the region. However, this analysis
is complicated by aggregating different programs to the regional level and by the small sample sizes. The high
average in South Asia is driven by national ID programs in India and Pakistan, which are linked to 11 and 12
different services, respectively, so the high average level of integration does not hold across South Asia. We
do not observe any real consistency in the number of linkages for national ID programs by region, as in Sub-
Saharan Africa for example it ranges from zero to 12 and in Southeast Asia from zero to eight.

Table 8 – Mean Number of Service Linkages by Region

Region Number of Programs Mean Number of Service Linkages

Europe 3 0.7
Latin America 4 3.0

Middle East and North Africa 8 2.1

South Asia 5 6.2
South East Asia 7 4.0

Sub-Saharan Africa 21 3.5

Table 9 illustrates that programs introduced in the period prior to 1995 have the highest mean number of
linkages, with national ID programs connected to six types of services on average. The three countries with ID
programs that launched prior to 1995 – Kenya, Peru, and Zambia – ID programs have all evolved since their
inception: each currently incorporates an electronic component and biometric information. The numbers
fluctuate between 2 to 4.1 types of services for any other periods, so there is no apparent association between
year of introduction and integration with different services.

7 These services include: Know Your Customer (KYC) services in several different areas; digital banking, mobile money, cash
transfers, relief, social security, and welfare under finance and social transfers; tracking services and treatment, and verification
of eligibility/coverage/benefit under health; monitory of extension services and distribution of subsidies under agriculture; moni-
toring, voting, and voter registration under elections; border enforcement, SIM registration, and passport under surveillance and
security; as well as driver registration, student and/or teacher or civil service attendance tracking, taxes, and travel under other
functions.

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