The World Bank approved on Tuesday, April 28, a financing of $ 273 million in the
Framework of the Single Identification Programme for Regional Integration and Inclusion in West Africa
(WURI).
This program is intended to set up basic identification systems that include any
person physically present in the territory of the Economic Community of African States of
The West (ECOWAS) regardless of nationality, citizenship or legal status.
It will improve access to basic services, such as social and medical protection, retirement
as well as financial and digital inclusion, the empowerment of women and girls, and the mobility of
Workers. According to Deborah Wetzel, Director of Regional Integration in Africa at the World Bank, "
basic digital identification systems can play an important role in the delivery of
social protection, health and financial inclusion services and are more important than ever in the
period we are currently living with COVID-19".
This funding is intended for the second phase of the WURI programme which includes Togo, Benin,
Burkina Faso and Niger and affects about 65 million people.
Each country will implement its basic identification system, as needed, and using a
limited number of criteria to ensure unique identification for each individual.
The WURI programme will help strengthen legal and institutional frameworks and establish systems
robust basic identification. Based on the Identification Principles for Sustainable Development
(ID4D Principles), it will put in place inclusive and reliable systems guaranteeing data protection
and whose design is human-centred. "In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, it is essential
identify and provide social protection to people employed in the informal sector, who are not< > covered by no programme but who are vulnerable and can slip into poverty.
The WURI programme can support social insurance systems for the informal sector, which are
interoperable with social registers and rely at regional level on identification platforms
Dena Ringold, Regional Director for Human Development in Africa at the Bank
global.
The $395.1 million WURI program was inaugurated in 2018 with Côte d'Ivoire and
Guinea in its first phase, and makes an important contribution to the development goals
human.
The program contributes to the World Bank Group end extreme poverty and stimulate shared prosperity.
It also supports the ECOWAS Regional Strategy 2019-2023, which aims to improve living conditions
of the populations of its member countries.