The officially recognized legal identity in Micronesia is a birth certificate.[1]Birth registration in Micronesia is required for school enrollment and to obtain a passport. [2] There is limited data on the birth registration rate in Micronesia.[3] In 2015, the Committee on the Rights of the Child reported the birth registration rate as 70% .[4] Implementation of birth registration in Micronesia is done on a state by state basis with national oversight by the Department of Health and Social Affairs. [5] Each of the four states has their own way of capturing, storing, and archiving civil registrations, with unique identification numbers used for all civil registration records registered at the court. [6] While there is a need to centralize civil registration data, a streamlined national registration system is difficult to implement in Micronesia as the four different states have widely varying topography which require vastly different approaches to administrative procedures. [7] As a result, varying administrative barriers to birth registration exist state to state. [8] The central state experiences very high rates of birth registration while other outlying states with difficult to reach islands have low birth registration rates. [9] Limited transportation and communication pose significant challenges for recording and registering births, especially in remote areas.[10]
Micronesia has not implemented a digital ID system yet, but planning and building of necessary infrastructure are in progress. [11] In 2019, there were plans to implement a digital government platform with a voluntary National Digital Identification (NDID) system that would provide a “unique legal identity to all citizens and residents of FSM [Micronesia]” to “increase access to and enable the digitalization of public and private sector services”. [12] The plan includes a holistic ‘whole of government’ approach to establish common standards and provide access to shared services across the national and four state governments, making it both a foundational and functional ID system. [13]
One major barrier for Micronesia to implement such a system is limited internet access, with only around 21% of people using mobile phones (the lowest in the Pacific). [14] Building internet infrastructure which creates universal access to the internet is underway with assistance from the World Bank under the Digital Federated States of Micronesia Project which began in 2020 and is set to continue until 2026.[15] For this, the World Bank has contributed a grant of over USD $30 million, primarily for improvement of Micronesia’s digital connectivity.[16]
Once implemented, the national ID system will be linked to public and private sector services, including e-Services relating to “health, agriculture, urban, transport and education”. [17] The plans state that the system will be voluntary, [18] with “options for people to voluntarily opt in or out without disadvantage”. [19] However, it is unclear whether it would be possible to access the linked eServices without registering for the digital ID system, which could make the system de facto mandatory. This means that in order to access basic services such as healthcare, one would have to register for a digital ID, unless there are alternative ways to access those services developed to truly leave one without any disadvantage.
In the published plans for the NDID system, there is no mention of stateless persons or refugees, or the documentation required to register for an NDID. While there is a mention that the system is to be developed for citizens and residents, [20] it is unclear at this stage whether stateless persons will be able to access the system.
One of the three priority areas for the implementation of the NDID system is to improve women’s access to government services.[21] Part of the performance criteria for the implementation of the NDID system includes consulting with communities and ensuring majority support for the proposed system.[22] The form and method of the consultations are not detailed, but are said to have found “demonstrable majority support” and to have reached the general population as well as specific target groups of youth and parents. [23] These community consultations are set to be done throughout the implementation process and with suitable representation from “women, youth, people living with disabilities, remote communities and other vulnerable groups”.[24] Women’s groups in particular have been included in the consultations to ensure the design of the system improves access to services for women.[25] The performance criteria also ensures that there will be a complaint and grievance mechanism in place prior to rolling out the system. [26] Stateless persons have not been specifically mentioned as a group taken into consideration for designing the NDID system more inclusively.
