OIDF leads critical discussion on digital identity futures

IGF 2025 explores pathways for developing and least developed countries to achieve inclusive digital transformation

At the recent Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2025 in Lillestrøm, a pivotal conversation about one of the most pressing challenges facing developing and least developed countries (DLDCs) took place - how can digital identity interoperability be balanced with national sovereignty?

Co-hosted by AfICTA, the Sustainable and Interoperable Digital Identity (SIDI) Hub, the Norwegian Tax Agency and the Norwegian Digitalization Agency, the workshop brought together policymakers, technical experts, and civil society actors from across Africa, Asia, and Europe to unpack what sovereignty truly means today, and how digital identity systems can be designed to respect it.

Through both moderating and contributing to this discussion, the OpenID Foundation demonstrated its dedication to advancing inclusive digital identity solutions globally.

From global principles to regional practice

The workshop was moderated by Gail Hodges, Executive Director of the OpenID Foundation and Co-Organizer of the SIDI Hub. She opened with an emphasis on the critical need for digital identity systems that enable cross border functionality, while reinforcing national autonomy over data, infrastructure, and policies.

Complementing this role, Naohiro Fujie, Chair of OpenID Foundation Japan, provided substantial technical insights from Japan's experience with cross border educational credentials using open standards like OID4VCI/VP. He also commented on Japan’s recent enablement of My Number Card with Apple ID in Wallet, Japan’s bilateral relationships with the European Union and Asian countries to advance interoperability across borders. Fujie-san’s contributions demonstrated how Japan’s approach to knowledge transfer, implementations with standards, and bilateral relationships can offer replicable models for African nations seeking to implement interoperable digital identity systems as well.

Similarly, Tor Alvik, Subject Director for Digital from the Norwegian government, elaborated on the learnings from both the Nordic and the Baltic countries participating in the Nobid alliance for cross border digital identity, and the practical challenges faced as early adopters of digital identity. Their pragmatic regional approach and learnings could also be of value to African peers seeking to accomplish similar objectives.

Digital identity as the foundation for inclusion

The session reinforced several fundamental principles that emerged from the expert panel discussions:

Digital identity serves as the gateway to inclusion

Without recognized digital identities, individuals remain digitally invisible and economically marginalized, unable to access essential services, including banking, education, healthcare, and mobility. Countries implementing early enrolment strategies, such as Nigeria's National Identification Number (NIN) issuance at birth, demonstrate how to establish robust citizen registries that ensure long term inclusion and help bridge Africa's digital divide.  

Successes in digital identity are not evenly distributed across countries or regions, so sharing best practices from leading countries, leading regions, and leading multi-stakeholder projects like Nigeria and the Sustainable and Interoperable Digital Identity (SIDI) Hub, can help close the gaps to benefit all jurisdictions and their residents.

Cross border interoperability is essential for regional economic integration

Interoperability of digital identity within a country, region or globally is not inevitable. It will require consistent, concentrated effort by stakeholders within jurisdictions and across jurisdictions to realize sustainable, and scalable outcomes. 

For the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to reach its full potential, seamless identity verification across borders must facilitate the free movement of people, goods, and services. Digital identity systems, therefore, need to be embedded within AfCFTA's digital trade protocols, with successful national models providing blueprints for regional scaling. Learnings can be gleaned from within Africa like the ECOWAS project, as well as from outside Africa like the Nordic and the Baltic states Nobid project, the EU Digital Identity Wallet, and Japan’s bilateral relationships. 

National sovereignty must be preserved within interoperable frameworks

Countries require strong data protection laws, robust trust frameworks, and regulatory alignment to maintain control over their citizens' data. This balance demands sustained political will, institutional commitment, and tailored support that recognizes varying levels of digital readiness across African countries. 

Efforts like SIDI Hub can help jurisdictions identify, and easily close, gaps in their policies compared to global best practices. Through careful and consistent approaches to policy and technology stacks, all jurisdictions, including those in Africa, can meet their domestic sovereignty goals, and their ambitions for pan-African and global trade. 

Regional models and global lessons

The workshop highlighted successful implementations across different regions:

Dr. Jimson Olufuye of AfICTA emphasized Africa's strategic role in shaping the UN Global Digital Compact, noting how principles of sovereignty and inclusiveness must be central to digital identity deployment under the AfCFTA framework.

Dr. Kossi Amessinou from Benin's Ministry of Economy and Finance presented the ‘C'est Moi’ initiative, a government issued identity card offered free to citizens, as a concrete example of nationally led innovation that serves both policy objectives and inclusion goals while maintaining interoperability within the ECOWAS region.

Abisoye Coker-Adusote, Director General of Nigeria's NIMC, detailed the country's integrated NIN ecosystem and its push toward digital ID interoperability at national, regional, and global levels, highlighting the importance of initiatives like the SIDI Hub's trust framework mapping efforts.

Tor Alvik Subject Director from Norway's Agency for Public Management and eGovernment contributed Nordic perspectives, sharing lessons from regional digital identity cooperation across the Baltics and Scandinavia. This included successful trust based models that maintain legal independence, while enabling shared infrastructure collaboration. 

The SIDI Hub's global impact

Debora Comparin from the Secure Identity Alliance outlined the SIDI Hub's mission to co-develop sustainable, open, and interoperable digital ID solutions in collaboration with over 45 countries. The Hub's work on use cases, including refugee identification, digital education credentials, and opening a bank account, demonstrates how practical implementations can span continents, while embedding sovereignty by design. 

Debora highlighted the work delivered to date (published at here) and the plan ahead, including a reference architecture to deliver digital identity interoperability for the African Cup/ Olympics ‘champion use case’, and a tool for scaling digital identity trust framework mapping. 

Actionable pathways forward

The workshop identified concrete steps for accelerating progress:

• Regional interoperability pilots could be encouraged between states with advanced systems, such as Nigeria and neighbouring countries, to provide practical insights into cross border functionality and identify implementation gaps. All panelists saw the value of a bias to concrete action like this by countries and regions. 
• National policies and implementations that leverage international standards will be on a fasttrack to enable domestic, regional and global interoperability while respecting sovereignty, trust framework mapping and compatibility with regional and global identity protocols.
• Trust framework mapping within jurisdictions, and across regions and globally, is vital for cross border movement of people and trade. The efforts by SIDI Hub to study 10 jurisdictions’ trust frameworks and map them into shared values and characteristics can help not only align existing digital identity implementations, but the next wave of jurisdictions to map their own policies, identify gaps, and remediate those gaps with insights into current best practices.
• Public and private collaboration, combined with citizen education campaigns, will build trust and demonstrate real world value through practical applications, like transportation discounts, healthcare access, and financial services.

Sustaining momentum through standards leadership

The session concluded with strong support for continuing SIDI Hub's work, particularly in advancing open standards, reference architecture to enable interoperability, mapping trust frameworks, and multi-stakeholder engagement. The OpenID Foundation's involvement, both as a convening force and technical contributor, demonstrates how standards organizations can drive meaningful progress in global digital identity adoption and interoperability.

As digital identity systems become foundational infrastructure for cross border trade, education, and financial inclusion, the collaborative approach demonstrated at IGF 2025 provides a blueprint for ensuring that interoperability and sovereignty work hand in hand. With appropriate standards, governance, and partnerships, developing and least developed countries can shape digital identity systems that are both globally connected and locally controlled.

Plans are afoot to continue the work between SIDI Hub and our Norwegian, Japanese and African partners  to identify ways in which we might jointly address friction points in progress towards the introduction of an African Free Trade Area. 

The workshop's outcomes will inform ongoing policy and technical implementation across Africa and beyond, with the OpenID Foundation continuing to play a crucial role in facilitating the standards development and international cooperation necessary for inclusive digital transformation.

• Session description and summary report (IGF website): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/igf-2025-ws-290-sovereignty-and-interoperable-digital-identity-in-dldcs
• Full session report: https://openid.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/290-Sovereignty-and-Interoperable-Digital-Identity-in-DLDCs_Rapporteur-notes-_IGF-062525.pdf
• Session presentation: https://openid.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Workshop-6_2506_Sovreignty-and-Interoperability-of-Digital-Identity-in-DLDCs_Hodges_0900-v2.pdf
  • Including Naohiro Fujie's presentation: https://openid.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/naohiro.pdf

About the OpenID Foundation

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.