Interfacing Digital identification with CRVS Pakistan

Integration of digital identification system with ongoing  Digital Birth Registration (DBR) and Smart Registry Pilot Projects in Pakistan.

Pakistan, like several other developing countries, does not have a credible record of births, deaths, the cause of deaths or of other vital statistics Unfortunately, the current information is not sufficiently disaggregated by age, gender, location and/or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, only 30% of births are being annually recorded in Pakistan (as of Dec. 2017) and the country is essentially without an effective death registration mechanism, preventing civil registration systems from adequately collecting vital statistics.  

Current government is fully alive to the situation and is keen to take concrete steps to improve the situation. For this an elaborate institutional support has been created with formation of Technical Support Unit for CRVS (TSU-CRVS) at Federal level (https://www.pc.gov.pk/web/crvs) and organization of  National and Provincial Steering Committees and baseline studies.  However, lack of CRVS legal framework, ineffective coordination between stakeholders, low coverage and completeness, lack of awareness and inadequate use of innovative approaches for digital identification are recognized as major barriers in  effective vital statistics registration system.  

Given the scale of challenge, a number of small scale CRVS initiatives have been launched over the last few years in several districts in the country with partners support.  These include Digital Birth Registration Program launched in 10 districts with the UNICEF Support and  the Smart CRVS Registry Project launched by WHO. Similarly, the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) is gathering this information from all over the country to the level of districts/sub districts. NADRA is incorporating personal digital identity for citizens from the age of 18 and above.  But none of the ongoing programs/projects is harnessing the benefits of digital identification from the very start till 18 years of life, thus missing opportunity of the crucial data use.   

TSU- CRVS now aims to develop an effective   system by using mobile technology and develop a robust, real time, and effective registration system which will be user friendly and interoperable. A cost-effective biometric solution could be helpful in improving / tacking vital statistics registrations and consequently enabling access to social services through the establishment of a foundational digital identity layer.  Leveraging current  the widespread use of mobile devices in the country, CRVS can utilize common cameras on smartphones and tablets to capture multiple modalities at birth and use deep learning algorithms to create a highly abstract, highly compact user profile that is unique to the individual. It would further enable the access to key services. By integrating such useful bio metric data to the ongoing CRVS initiatives (eg DBR and Smart Registry Platform) would provide a big boost  to the National CRVS Campaign.  

In the nutshell, this blending can cohesively bridge essential service gaps that result from the lack of recognition of formal identity.  This could be the beginning of a long term revolution in the field of CRVS in Pakistan.

References:

1. CRVS Initiative :Historical Overview & Next Steps (https://www.pc.gov.pk/uploads/crvs/Uploads/2ndPpt.pdf)

2.  Well Functioning CRVS and Way Forward (https://www.pc.gov.pk/uploads/crvs/Uploads/OK2Final.pdf)

3. 4th National Steering Committee Meeting On Civil Registration & Vital Statistics (CRVS) (https://www.pc.gov.pk/uploads/crvs/Uploads/Rpt-Final3.pdf)

Innovative use of mobile technology to register births, deaths and other vital data and its interface with ‘digital identification’ will be tested and applied for the  first time in Pakistan. Currently, NADRA, an autonomous body, is registering citizens after age of 18 years and individuals are registered biometrically by capturing figure thumb print only, making it less accurate and reliable.  The proposed application can use mobile,  tablet’s cameras to capture figure prints of Hands, palms, iris and finger tips. This will generate not only reliable and sufficient data, but also help individual to secure social benefits.

All individual’s information will be safeguarded to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Privacy of data will be ensured by taking following steps:

• Only authorized people, using approved processes, will be able to access information.
• Information will only be used for its official purpose, retaining its content integrity, and available to satisfy operational requirements
• All information will be classified and labelled as required.
• All information created, stored, processed, or transmitted in or over this system will be properly managed and protected throughout all phases of a system’s life cycle.
• Data will be stored on secure servers in Pakistan.
• Different procedures and security features will be used to keep individual’s data secure once we received.
• Any crucial information will not be shared with any other organization for marketing, market research or commercial purposes.
• Payment transactions (if any) will always be kept encrypted.

TSU-CRVS –Pakistan intend to propose  a software-based solution for biometric recognition that uses the existing cameras on mobile devices - no specialized hardware or connectivity required. It can be used to establish a foundational digital identity layer, through which services such as healthcare, education, and social protection can be delivered. Similar being deployed in some other countries.

The application’s Deep Learning architecture natively will allow for innovations in security and privacy by design. There would be  no underlying hard feature data that could be accessed by a motivated attacker and used to replay-attack a user’s identity.  

By using industry leading data and code protection, and the biometric profiles will always be stored separately from personally-identifiable information to ensure privacy by design. TSU- CRVS would  work both with national  (eg NADRA, PITB, COMSATS) and the international organizations (Discover element , WHO, UNICEF) to conduct strict consent procedures and to ensure biometric data is owned and managed according to global security standards, and stored separately from medical or financial data. 

Our proposed solution makes use of large populations local mobile devices, without any specialized hardware. Using only the camera of the smart phone/ Android tablet, a health worker can capture the palmprint of an individual in a non-touch process. Once enrolled, portable identities will be created and synced across devices, allowing the individual to be authenticated, without requiring attributes such as name or ID number, and to access individual health records at any health clinic with this solution. Additionally, this mobile technology will enable offline enrollment and identification on tablets, with asynchronous data syncing when the devices gain connectivity. 

Idea would be to evolve technology to make this as a standalone mobile application or as a Software Development Kit for integration into partners' existing mobile- and web-based applications. The creation of a portable, digital identity helps connect disparate systems, promoting interoperability.  For example, at around 2KB per user model, upwards of 1 million people can be enrolled on a single mobile device. With this lightweight architecture, the enrollment and authentication can happen entirely offline, without connectivity; however, when these devices gain connectivity, user models can also be synced to another device. 

Presently, Government is fully committed to strengthen CRVS System in Pakistan. For this large scale CRVS advocacy campaigns are being planned with the support of partners.  Similarly work on CRVS Legislation is underway and expected to be take shape in near future. To address the low literacy and numeracy levels barrier, our application will be localized so that all text including the language that gives real time guidance on how to position the modality can be translated into any respective language. We intend to keep minimum written text and more visual display.

As stated above, TSU-CRVS is currently finalizing CRVS Thematic areas baselines studies and is working with multiple stakeholders for the development and finalization of National CRVS Strategic Plans and the operational plans. This is to be accomplished before the end of current year. Work for the improvement on community based digital identification is critical at this stage as this would enable us to incorporate this element into our National Action Plans. Government is envisaging to prepare and submit a long term ‘investment case’ for CRVS strengthening in by mid of 2020. 

Technical Support Unit- CRVS is housed and working with  Ministry of Planning Development and Reform for the promotion and strengthening of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics. It has extensive  collaboration with multiple stakeholders, which are represented in National CRVS, Steering Committee these are; 

1. Federal and Provincial P&D Ministry/Departments
2. National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA)
3. Punjab Information and Technology Board (PITB) 
4. Ministry of National Health Services and, Regulation
5. Ministry/ Department of Local Bodies
6. Comsats University of Information Technology.
7. Ministry of Law and Justice
8. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
9. Ministry of Interior
10. International Partners (UNESCAP, WHO, UNICEF, World Bank UNFPA)

Technical Support Unit (TSU) is a joint project bewteen UNICEF/ Partners and Ministry of Planning & Development Pakistan it is driving its strength through a high powered National Steering Committee. This committee is represented by a range of national, provincial and international partners working to strengthen CRVS in country. While TSU is playing a catalytic role for CRVS. It has strong coordination with NADRA (https://www.nadra.gov.pk) , Local Government and Community Development Department (LG&CDD), PITB (https://www.pitb.gov.pk/), Health Department and international partners including UNICEF (https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/topics/birth-registration), Discover ELEMENT (https://www.discoverelement.com/) and WHO (https://www.who.int/healthinfo/civil_registration/en/)

To ensure the sustainability of proposed solution, a potential revenue model would be utilized. For this purpose, intensive advocacies for CRVS will be conducted in pilot districts along with legislative measures at National Level to create demand for Vital Statistics Registration. In Pakistan, NADRA is the only registration authority  which issues smart NIC cards to citizens costing Rs. 750 for normal , Rs. 1,500 for urgent one and Rs. 2,500 for executive NIC. But by implementing this solution with digital identification component, no fee will be charged for biometric registration. However, to collect birth certificate, a fee of Rs. 100 will be desired as per each individual. This cost will be compensated by bringing the services closer to the people and reducing travel and related costs to customers. A National Centralized and Integrated CRVS system will be efficient and cost effective in the long run.

Currently Technical Support Unit - CRVS is pursuing a multi dimensional approach for strengthening of CRVS. One of the strong recommendations emerging from Pakistan International Summit (28 - 30 November, 2018) was to apply innovative approaches for CRVS Expansion. Since digital identification component is not sufficiently followed, it is critical for the program to initiate this activity as part of ongoing CRVS initiatives in Pilot Districts. 

Following are the key barriers in improving CRVS system and introducing digital identification in Pakistan.

1. Lack of Standardized Operating Protocols (SOPs)
2. Lack of awareness
3. Low demand generation
4. Lack of Political Commitment
5. Absence of CRVS Legislation
6. Lack of skilled manpower
7. Linguistic barriers
8. Lack of inter-sectional coordination

Our proposed solution addresses all above barriers in their respective ways.