Image details: Ray Kimble, President, Kimble & Associates, speaking at the ID2020 Summit, held at the United Nations Headquarters, May 20, 2016
An estimated population of 1.8 billion people globally are without legal identity, restricting them from access to legal, political and social economic services. This staggering number amounts to one-fifth of the world’s population. The most vulnerable of the undocumented group are children who fall into financial or criminal hardship and worse, often fall prey to child abuse such as trafficking and prostitution
A group of industry leaders and identity experts within public and private international organizations convened at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York to participate in the ID2020 Annual Summit. The group discussed how to tackle one of 17 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 16.9. Goal 16.9 aims to “provide legal identity to all, including birth registration, by 2030”.
The initiative, hosted by ID2020, was attended by over 65 speakers and more than 200 invitation-only attendees. The group discussed how best to address this global concern through technology and policies.
Ray Kimble, President of Kimble & Associates and Strategic Advisor of GSMA, participated on the panel, “Getting Started? A Public Private Partnership Approach.” Other panelists included Bill Hodash, Managing Director of Enterprise Data Management at The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Lawrence Wintermeyer, CEO, Innovate Finance; John Farmer, Director of Technology & Civic Innovation, Microsoft; Jessica Shannon, Partner, Global Governance & Anti-Corruption, PwC; Peter Graham, Managing Partner, PSG Solutions LLC; and James Bryce Clark, General Counsel, OASIS.
Mr. Kimble outlined the ongoing public-private partnerships (PPP) within the GSMA Mobile for Development Project, as well as how to ensure a successful PPP:
- Focus on the right partners.
- Thoroughly qualify and identify key partners while considering value chain. (While this sounds obvious, it is often an area of failure in early-stage PPP development. E.g., if the social cause is to improve health services, healthcare organizations are likely to play an important role.) Generating wide interest and participation is critical, but it’s more important to stay focused on the stakeholders that will be most impacted by the results of the successful PPP.
- Take time to define the outcomes and social/business benefits of the vision and not just a vision statement.
- Fully ascertain the services the PPP enables such as education, healthcare and social inclusion, thus, cascading down to the partners who become impacted and therefore, vested.
- Build the marketplace.
- Develop a shared vision and obtain consensus on the need for a PPP.
- Engage with stakeholders while maintaining focus on the outcome and business value of the PPP.
- Define the necessary frameworks and models in a way that is transparent and focused on the long-term.
- Policy
- Regulatory
- Legal
- Financial – direct, in-kind, ROI, etc.
- Procurement
- Develop Sustainability Plan sooner, rather than later.
- Funding Model
- Resolve how to scale from early stages of the PPP to the ongoing maintenance of the PPP at its maturity.
- Consider potential impacts of the close-out of the partnership.
Kimble & Associates was grateful to be part of such a significant and impactful event. The next steps to building a successful PPP and addressing the needs of the 1.8 Billion people without legal identity starts now. We look forward to working with the United Nations, World Bank, GSMA and other organizations to tackle this critical problem.
Ray Kimble, President, Kimble & Associates
