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Aug 17, 2020
DigitalWelfare State
Promoted by the World Bank (WB), regional development organizations, donors and companies like Mastercard or McKinsey, there is a prevalent (loudest) narrative which says that having a legal digital identity makes the difference between being excluded and included in society. These statements are both impressive and familiar:
For example, in its Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development, the WB says that digital identification systems can “improve governance, boost financial inclusion, reduce gender inequalities by empowering women and girls, and increase access to health services and social safety nets for the poor [emphasis added].”
And McKinsey (2019) estates that “well-designed digital ID not only enables civic and social empowerment, but also makes possible real and inclusive economic gains—a less well understood aspect of the technology.”
In his 2019 report, Philip Alston, UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, analysed how the digitization of the interactions between citizens and governments is becoming the norm, and how the result is the emergence of a digital welfare state, and of a world in which “citizens become ever more visible to their governments, but not the other way around.” For Alston, “improved welfare provisions, along with enhanced security, is one of the principal goals invoked to justify the deep societal transformation and vast expenditure” required to implement digital ID systems. Systems for social protection are increasingly driven in such ways “to automate, predict, identify, surveil, detect, target and punish,” not to improve the life of those who need them the most. And many governments are rushing uncritically towards this type of era.
Continue:
https://www.biometricupdate.com/202008/digital-welfare-state
Digital
Promoted by the World Bank (WB), regional development organizations, donors and companies like Mastercard or McKinsey, there is a prevalent (loudest) narrative which says that having a legal digital identity makes the difference between being excluded and included in society. These statements are both impressive and familiar:
For example, in its Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development, the WB says that digital identification systems can “improve governance, boost financial inclusion, reduce gender inequalities by empowering women and girls, and increase access to health services and social safety nets for the poor [emphasis added].”
And McKinsey (2019) estates that “well-designed digital ID not only enables civic and social empowerment, but also makes possible real and inclusive economic gains—a less well understood aspect of the technology.”
In his 2019 report, Philip Alston, UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, analysed how the digitization of the interactions between citizens and governments is becoming the norm, and how the result is the emergence of a digital welfare state, and of a world in which “citizens become ever more visible to their governments, but not the other way around.” For Alston, “improved welfare provisions, along with enhanced security, is one of the principal goals invoked to justify the deep societal transformation and vast expenditure” required to implement digital ID systems. Systems for social protection are increasingly driven in such ways “to automate, predict, identify, surveil, detect, target and punish,” not to improve the life of those who need them the most. And many governments are rushing uncritically towards this type of era.
Continue:
https://www.biometricupdate.com/202008/digital-welfare-state
