Pilot Countries

Overview

Thirteen countries in Africa were selected as pilot countries and rapid assessment missions to assess the current situation and capacity of national stakeholders to implement UN LIA took place under the leadership of the UNECA. Out of 13 countries, in 2021, 6 countries received seed funding from UNLIA TF to initiate the implementation of UN Legal Identity Agenda.

Rapid Assessment Mission

The in-country missions were led by 2-3 representatives from UNECA and lasted 5 days per country. During the mission the team met with UN Country Teams, government officials responsible for civil registration, vital statistics, identity management and digitalization of government systems, as well as development partners and representatives of civil society. The UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) were the first point of contact during the assessment missions. The UNCTs were sensitized to understand the role of each UN entity in the process of rolling out the UN LIA at country level. Agencies engaged in the missions included UNHCR, UNFPA, WHO, UN Women, WFP, UNAIDS, ILO, IOM, UNOPS, UNIDO, UNESCO and UNCDF. In all the countries visited, the Country Coordination Team (CCT) were constituted and UNICEF and UNDP were identified as the UN LIA 'Lead Agencies' to coordinate future communications with the Government partners and other UN partners.

During meetings with the relevant government departments and ministries, the UN LIA was presented to the senior government officials (usually ministers or deputy ministers) and further discussions, clarifications and reinforcement of the UN LIA model were done bi-laterally, which successfully led to a political buy-in.

In order to understand the current system of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management, field trips to registration centres were also conducted. The field missions provided information on the business processes for registering and acquiring identity documents. Interviews were conducted with the registration officers at these centres so as to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the systems.

At the end of the rapid assessment mission, the country recommendations were developed which include identified entry points for UN agencies and the relevant development partners based on their on-going programmes in the country. These recommendations were discussed during the national consultative workshops and these are included in the country reports. The national consultative workshops included experts from government, civil society, development partners and the private sector.

Once available, the summary of rapid assessment reports will be found here.

Countries

Based on the rapid assessment reports, a call for proposal was launched to provide seed funding (approximately $40,000 - 150,000 per country) to implement the UNLIA in each country. Below 6 countries were selected for pilot countries.

  • DRC
  • Kenya
  • Liberia
  • Mozambique
  • Sierra Leone
  • Zambia