Eco4Inc

1. Globally many developing countries are attempting to implement a fair temporary or permanent Universal Basic Income (UBI) but are finding it difficult to register households or families. They are struggling with registration, onboarding, verification and social distancing creating barriers.
2. We provide an inclusive ecosystem for digital registration, onboarding & verification, driven by the family guardians or trusted agents. The ecosystem protects the family as a unit, their privacy and overcomes social distancing measures to ensure inclusion of even the most vulnerable groups, including those in remote locations across the globe. We create a more agile and innovative collaboration framework that thinks global but acts on local level.

3. Emergency and regular cash transfers and temporary basic income can mitigate the worst immediate effects on poor and near-poor households living at or below the poverty line, that do not currently have access to social assistance or insurance protection.

With over 1.1 billion unregistered people globally, we fail as a society to deliver the necessary services including basic income during a crisis. Several factors contributing to the concealment of identities can be stemmed by designing an incentive model enabled by trusted biometric authentication technology to bring “invisible” people out of the shadows while preserving their privacy.

Access and outreach: With biometric registration and authentication, we can solve the last mile onboarding problem by uniquely identifying individuals and extending UBI through local digital guardians or trusted agents nominated by the community. Nominated individuals can transfer income to vulnerable groups that typically don’t have access to a phone or the digital world.

Interoperability and collective intelligence: By creating an identity profile through a secure national ID program, governments can analyse economic activity and anonymised spending data to evaluate efficacy of the program and shape policies informed by empirical evidence. This also provides the foundation for a digital payment system in the future.

Health security for all:  Leveraging contactless biometric capabilities such as facial and voice recognition limits physical contact with digital guardians/agents and reduces risk of infections with self-registration capabilities for individuals with access to smartphones.

“Invisible” people, particularly those in low-income countries where cultural and political sensitivities contribute to the intentional concealment of individuals such as informal workers, women and people with disabilities, will benefit greatly from creating digital identities to access UBI along with other government services. These individuals account for 40% of the population in low-income countries that are at risk of slipping through the cracks.

By creating an unconditional cash-transfer program protecting the identity and privacy of the individual and family units facilitated by nominated individuals, beneficiaries are incentivised to securely register their identity in the national ID program in order to receive funds on a regular basis.

UBI is not a panacea, however experimental implementation in several countries such as Kenya led to increased economic activity where every $1 cash delivered generated $2.16 in spending.

• Problem: Implementing secure UBI registration for all especially vulnerable people
• Solution: Inclusive digital ecosystem for trusted UBI registration during social distancing implementation
• Target Population: Everyone including vulnerable groups and those in remote regions:
  1. Established national ID: Provide a trusted digital identity based on biometric matching, liveness and uniqueness validation, leveraging the national ID and help complete the registration process.
  2. Non-established national ID: Leverage trusted community committees voted by the public and agents (telecom/government workers) to enable guardians to register people on their behalf when they are lacking connectivity, digital skills or are physically/intellectually not able to register themselves.

Identity is global and one of the basic fundamental rights of a human being. We are seeing many solutions being built in silos with minimum cross sector  and global interoperability. This led to some of the challenges faced today with dispersed implementations that lack interoperability and are not scaleable.

Our framework is based on the principles of Good ID, World Banks’s ID4D principles for identification, ID2020 certification, delivered via Public Private Partnerships and addresses local culture and values. 

We are innovating by remaining agile and employing a human-centric approach through interdisciplinary engagement via stakeholder and end-user participation.  Our mission is to build and maintain a global, multi-layered and cohesive trusted digital ecosystem for temporary and permanent UBI maintaining social distancing measures.

 The UBI is part of a wider platform that we developed based on the following:

1. Characteristics:

   1. Openness 

   2. Individual Privacy

   3. Human-centric

   4. Security controls

2. Our unique technologies

   1. Biometric validation and authentication.

   2. Government issued ID/document verification

   3. Strong authentication and authorisation 

   4. Identity governance and regulatory compliance 

   5. Consent management

   6. KYC and CDD

We have brought the microservices and lego bricks concepts to identity and built a digital identity platform that bridges the gap. We chose the UBI as we address the challenge in African countries where there is a strong civil registration system and distributed channels but not a functional method or UBI system that gives a digital identity to all. 

In other cases, we have used our core technology to build a digital national ID program.

uqudo has been developing and operating one of the most innovative digital identity platforms for the last five years for national digital identity programs in the Middle East and Africa. We  have strong partnerships with companies like Mastercard, Visa, Microsoft and many other organisations and are one of the winners of the EUvsVirus hackathon and recipient of the Arab Innovation Startup Award for Technology. 

Eco4Inc leverages existing and proven technologies for digital identity and digital onboarding and creates an open platform and framework for new innovations and technologies to be developed and tested for the future. 

We strongly believe in global partnerships and collaboration to close the Mission Billion identity gap with open standards for interoperability based on the principles of identification from the ID4D program. 

We are actively building strong relationships and collaboration with  ID4D, ID4Africa, Open  Identity Exchange, ID2020 and their members, and with the United Nations and the European Commission to create more global public private partnerships (Coalition of the Willing) to accelerate the realisation of the sustainable development goal 16.9 to have a digital identity for all before 2030

Activities A functional digital identity is a key enabler to implementing UBI or emergency cash transfers as has been identified by the UN and the World Bank.  To address the last mile registration and onboarding challenge, our program creates an open modular ecosystem with digital guardians to bridge this identity gap. We are not implementing a quick fix on a country by country level but creating an ecosystem for digital identity registration that can serve all sectors and cross border use cases.

Immediate outputs Even the most poor and vulnerable families and households in developing countries will now have the possibility to register for emergency cash transfer or government services. This will have an immediate impact on their socio-economic situation and health while minimising the spread of virus through social distancing and contactless biometric verification.

Longer-term outcomes for target population Our longer term objective is to drive sustainable impact to improve social-economic situation and health for vulnerable individuals and their families in the poorest developing countries and accelerate the realisation of the sustainable development goals for all. 

Our cross-sector digital identity ecosystem will be continuously adapting to new requirements and incidents or new technological innovations to drive the following outcomes:

• Drive inclusivity in the last mile for the most vulnerable people and their families to be able to register/apply for a functional digital identity and be able to have easy access to services across all sectors and borders. Focus is on digital guardians and trusted agents for the local registration and disbursement of all people who are currently not able to access digital services.

• Reduce inequality for marginalised people and enable fairer distribution of wealth 

• Improve prosperity, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable countries by creating a better future of living.

• Improve preparedness to new pandemic/health risks or social-economic risks from natural incidents, climate change and more. We help to create an emergency preparedness, response & recovery ecosystem for the poorest and most vulnerable people.

Improve resilience of most vulnerable people by improving their access to trade, finance, health, transportation, food, goods and public services.

We create a user-centric, open Ecosystem for Inclusivity - Eco4Inc. This comprises a multi-sector framework and trustworthy platform for universal basic income, personal health & public good.

Our ecosystem framework is based on the latest insights and best practices for the development of trustworthy and sustainable digital identity ecosystems from organisations including the WorldBank ID4D program, ID2020, Open Identity Exchange, The European Commission, WEF, United Nations, ITU, GSMA and many country-level best practices of digital identity trust frameworks. 

The ecosystem is based on the following key drivers for easy incorporation:

• User-centric and Privacy by Design, sharing as little data as possible while sharing as much data as necessary. For biometric data, we will be leveraging the Mastercard Inclusive ID hashing technology avoiding the need to store any biometric templates or capture data. 

• Modular/Segmented/Multi-Layered platform to ensure it can be incorporated into existing and new digital identification systems, especially within the last mile with digital guardians and trusted agents.

• Data Commons that are specifically targeted for public good for marginalised people and their local society, for example with anonymised UBI spending data to have better insight and intelligence and more dynamic and situational payment policies.

• Open Standards and open source platforms like OpenID Connect, FIDO and W3C Decentralised Identifiers, and technology/vendor agnostic to have global interoperability and no vendor lock-in.

Public Private Partnerships for global scaleup as the coalition of the willing and able to drive global adoption and reach across all sectors.

The Eco4Inc Platform is user centric and designed with inclusivity as the main principle. All our modular technologies will be designed with the marginalised people as the target user group. 

• Self-Registration -- is possible from any smartphone and supports contactless biometric registration and QR codes with easy to understand interfaces. 

• Digital Guardian -- enables registration by a trusted delegated person that can register on behalf of another person for instance the daughter can register her mother via a mobile device or phone. This can also be done without connectivity.

• UBI / Emergency Cash Transfer -- is enabled through a biometric verification to have contactless proof of identity that is initiated with a standard QR code.

• Social Distancing / Health .Security -- is supported through contactless biometrics

Eco4Inc drives the global adoption of open standards for global interoperability and interconnection with existing and new digital identity and biometric authentication technologies and national identity systems.  Our APIs make it easier to integrate existing and develop new identity technologies that can scale on a global level. We are working with the leading organisation on our platform including Mastercard with their Inclusive ID technology, MOSIP, OpenCRVS and open standards like FIDO, OpenID Connect, OAuth, WS-Federation, SAML, W3C WebAuthn, User-Managed Access (UMA) and can integrate with any blockchain or self sovereign identity framework. 

Another important factor which is as important as interoperability is the component factor of our solution, the ability to pick and choose from our modules to address the current need and to integrate with local data sources or services.

Eco4Inc is specifically targeting the low connectivity environments and users with low literacy and numeracy levels through the following key capabilities:

Digital guardian or trusted agent: The concept enables a trustworthy delegated registration and onboarding, with contactless biometric verification and uniqueness check.  The Eco4Inc platform enables individuals to securely delegate a family member to register for or pick up government benefits on their behalf as their digital guardian.

Local communities and their social networks: We are leveraging local communities and their social networks to create a registration network that can reach the most challenging last mile conditions. This is a citizen engagement framework that incentivises local societies to organise trustworthy registration of self sovereign digital identities and verifiable claims such as family or household relationships.

Offline biometric verification: Biometric verification hashes can be stored on mobile devices or printed/shared as a QR code for offline use and/or remote verification. The Eco4Inc ecosystem enables biometric verification of identity for emergency cash transfers.

We have legal entities in the UK, the UAE, the Netherlands and Thailand. We have delivered projects in Bahrain, Kenya, Ghana, Namibia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE and the UK.

We have a focus in the Middle East and Africa (MEA region) and we are looking to deploy our solutions in a number of countries around the region.

Our implementations serve more than 5 million users.

We aim to be serving 20 million in two years and 200 million to 500 million in 5 years

Our platform has proven its elasticity to support programs on a national level and within different industry sectors.  Our base platform has been deployed as a National ID program and as an Enterprise Identity management platform (see section: Describe what makes your solution innovative).

Aligning stakeholders: Such programs require the buy-in from a considerable amount of stakeholders, although the momentum is there around the world, one of the challenges is the scale of such a program and how to address all stakeholders’ KPIs. 

Transition and change endorsement: UBI requires changes in policies and technology that requires all relevant parties and stakeholders to embrace and adopt for a successful implementation. 

Skill set and know-how: Such a project requires seasoned individuals with a wealth of knowledge and know-how.  There is a scarcity of the right technical individuals who are able to deliver such applications.

Regulation and relevant laws: There should be a strong mandate and may require change in regulations and legislations, which consequently could have an impact on timelines. 

Cost of program: UBI programs require a considerable amount of upfront funding. This can be a detrimental factor for the initiative and may be a reason for a delayed start or postponement.

Aligning stakeholders: The pressure on the stakeholder from society, citizens and NGOs will put the right pressure to get all parties to sit together to address this challenge. We are seeing the international community taking the right steps towards providing the relevant support. 

Transition and change endorsement: Considering the current support by government and challenges they are facing to get to the people who need support, an alternative that seems more fair and open can be a driver for the public good.  

Skill set and know-how: The collaboration between local talent and subject matter experts is paramount where such projects can take years. Also by developing microservices architecture that enable the use of the tested solution which will bring government as a service one step further. 

Regulation and relevant laws: With challenges that the current support systems are causing and facing, legislative bodies have the support they need to act.

Cost of program: The overall cost of a well implemented UBI is dwarfed by the direct and indirect savings made by countries and the economical impact. Presenting the evidence and showcasing the successful implementations can convince parties on the sideline.

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15 Full time employees. 

We are a strong team of identity specialists, we have architected and delivered identity projects for both the public and private sector.  Our mission in life is to build trustworthy platforms for the wellbeing of people and the planet. For the last 25 years, our executive team has been working on Digital Identity Implementation, International Standards & Policy, and Research & Innovation.

We have been leading design, development and operations of innovative and leading-edge identification systems in many countries - we have 6 successful digital identity projects across EMEA.

In addition, we have been involved in innovative pilots with the Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and GSMA and coordinated the XMNO project on identity data sharing between all UK mobile operators and identity providers. We specialise as a team in distributed ledger technologies, data protection, data privacy,  digital credentials, identity federation, PKI, biometrics and policy development.

We have also provided hands-on technical and policy advice to governments, private sector organisations, privacy for biometrics to governments, financial services, telecoms and many other industries worldwide. 

Harm Jan related roles: 

• Strategic Council at the Institute for Future of Living 

• Founding member of the Energy Commons Institute 

• Co-editor of the latest Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) Report 

• Member of the Board of Directors of Trust in Digital Life 

• Co-authors of the Smart Cities Roadmap of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 

• Expert advisor to the European Commission and Parliament

Mastercard: We are developing pilots that leverage the Mastercard  Inclusive ID ecosystem.

VISA: We are a VISA Ready digital identity proofing partner. 

OIX: Through one of our board members, we are creating a Global Identity Trust Framework

ITU: Through one of our board members, we are a member of the ITU FIGI SIT group.

GSMA: We have a strong relationship with GSMA on Digital Identity and IoT security.

Microsoft: We are a channel partner of Microsoft Azure and leverage MS Decentralised Identity platform.

ID2020: We are exploring pilot funding and ID2020 certification opportunities.

ID4Africa: We are supporting ID4Africa as a panellist in webinar and other activities.

ID4D: We are supporting ID4D in workshops and other activities and exploring funding opportunities for pilots.

Through one of our board members, we are active members of:

The Alliance of Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI), ETSI on IoT Security & Privacy and Contact Tracing standardisation, the Institute Future of Living (IFL) on Smart Government and Smart City collaboration and the Energy Commons Institute to support the energy transition with trustworthy data commons by and for the citizens.

The platform is offered to government agencies which will eliminate the cost for citizens. We have determined that the automation of the process and using the digital service reduces the overall cost for such an implementation. We license the product as a service. This will be deployed in countries where firstline support will be carried out by the trained government agencies.

We offer a multi-purpose identity platform which is used within private and government entities under the SaaS model. This generates revenue to develop our platform.  We are able to offer a competitive price to governments as it is used in the open market by enterprises which brings economic growth, a reduction in fraud and generates savings in operational cost. 

Also such projects tend to bring in support from donors as it attracts economical growth.

uqudo is revenue generating and did not need to raise funds other than a small convertible loan. Information will be provided directly to the World Bank ID4D Mission Billion team.

Information will be provided directly to the World Bank ID4D Mission Billion team.

Information will be provided directly to the World Bank ID4D Mission Billion team.

The World Bank’s ID4D community is uniquely placed to support our Eco4Inc program especially for the following challenges:

Aligning stakeholders: ID4D could help with the selection of pilot developing countries that want to implement UBI or emergency cash transfers and are struggling with the registration of households or families and are interested to explore the use of digital guardians and the Eco4Inc ecosystem.  Through the ID4D community we can identify the key stakeholders for these first pilot countries and ID4D could help with the creation of a coalition of the willing and able, for the pilot and scale-up.

Transition and change endorsement: ID4D could help the required transition and endorsement by selected developing countries to actively support a pilot to see how the concept of digital guardianship and biometric verification could help the implementation of UBI or emergency cash transfers. 

Skill set and know-how: ID4D could help with the sourcing of a support team with the right skills and know-how to be able to run a successful pilot program together with the other stakeholders.

Regulation and relevant laws:  ID4D could help with the creation of a legal support structure like a sandbox for the pilots.

Cost of program:  The World Bank ID4D program could help with the funding of Eco4Inc.

Program with grants or other financial support and help with fundraising by other sponsors and introduction to multilateral organisations.

Funding & revenue model. We are looking for funding for our first pilots in developing countries and for scale-up to accelerate the closure of the identity registration gap in the last mile. We are open to exploring revenue and cost sharing models between public and private sector organisations.

Legal and regulatory matters. We are looking for legal support and approval on temporary or permanent UBI testing and roll-out with biometric identity verification and digital guardians.

Marketing, media, and exposure. We are looking for media and marketing exposure to be able to have a global reach and awareness for the Eco4Inc ecosystem and platform.

Eco4Inc is open for future partnerships with UN Agencies like the UNDP, Gates Foundation, MOSIP initiative, NGOs and multilateral organisations. 

The main support we are looking for is to be able to scale-up as quickly as possible through accelerated access to funding and sponsorship.

Other support we are looking for is to create a global coalition of the willing and public/private partnership with some key organisations that can help with the global sourcing of people and skills to accelerate the closure of the identity registration gap.