Silicon Trust caught up with ID4AFRICA's Executive Chairman and Founder, Dr. Joseph Atick to discuss their webinar series and their response (and the African Continent's) to CIVID-19. It's an insightful conversation and may include clues to how the industry will move forwards beyond COVID-19. Silicon Trust is a long-standing media partner of ID4Africa. Follow video coverage of the Movement at https://silicontrust.org/2020/06/30/africa-responds-to-covid-19/.

In part 3 of our webinar series around COVID-19 and Identity management, we looked at how the identity industry has been responding to emerging challenges to their customer practices posed by COVID-19. The objective is to identify technological innovations and new business processes that enable identity management to be performed in a world where pandemics represent a major risk factor. Session I (From start to 1:23hrs:10min): Restarting Economies & Reopening the Skies-Identity Post-COVID19: A highly interactive panel of 7 thought leaders led into animated discussions by ID4Africa Executive Chairman, Dr. Joseph Atick, to explore the opportunities for digital identity innovations and so-called smart solutions to help countries safely restart their economies including reopening their borders, in particular their airspace for travel. Session II (Starting @ 1:23hrs:10min to end): Spotlight on Contactless Innovations: Featuring a lineup of 5 Rapid Fire presentations followed by dedicated Q&As related to each presentation. This session will present innovations and smart point solutions that address certain aspects of the challenge posed by identity management in the era of pandemics, and especially contactless biometrics and mobile, and even an exploration of self disinfecting sensors. Speakers: Nicolas Raffin - IDEMIA: Starting @ 1:26:33 min Mohammed Murad - IRIS ID: Starting @1:38:21 min Martin Agbassou - ZKTeco: Starting @ 1:46:33 min David Gerulski - Integrated Biometrics: Starting @ 1:53:06 min Jean-Baptiste Milan - HID Global: Starting @ 2:00:27 min Presentations available for download at: https://id4africa.com/webinar-s-3/

Can't miss takeaways from experts who are thinking and working this crisis on a daily basis. Wisdom to guide the actions of the worldwide development community. Be part of the dialogue.

Exclusion under COVID has become a serious problem--those who have access to communication technology and those who do not. This is calling for what UNICEF has terms GOING BEYOND DIGITAL... in order to avoid this new form of exclusion. Watch this fascinating exchange.

New data protection risks have been created by the COVID response which is a consequence of going digital--generates and consumes more data. Need to pay attention to this before it is too late. Measures discussed: data purging after response, tokenization, digital multiplicity of unique identity, better governance, etc. Watch this fascinating multi-agency dialogue on a topic that is very hot right now.

The priorities of all development agencies and donors have shifted to COVID response. Myriad of programs, e.g. $160 B response fund by World Bank. Not just emergency funding, but also support for game changing innovations. Reference provided by Vyjayanti Desai, Program Manager, The World Bank - ID4D : "The World Bank ID4D Mission Billion innovation challenge": https://id4d.worldbank.org/missionbillion

Substantial impact. Contractions of economies on the order of several percentage points, high unemployment together with the fact that significant numbers of people were already near the poverty borderline, will mean hundreds of millions will fall back into poverty or for the first time. A situation that may take another 5 years to bring back to pre-COVID levels. Major setback for world economic development.

COVID reaffirmed the principles. Currently the worldwide development community is in the midst of updating the principles with more emphasis on inclusion. COVID has shown that access to digital identity could be the difference between life and death for people. For more insights listen to the discussion.

COVID massively disrupted birth and death registrations worldwide. But it also showed the importance of registration for health and population management. Expect the increased health investments to bolster registration going forward. Very insightful analysis of the trends.