Better in their words…

The United Nations intends to use biometric data to track vaccinations from birth and tie them to individuals’ legal identities, says the biometrics solutions firm tasked with the project.

NEC is a multinational Japanese electronics company which specializes in biometric technology such as iris scanners, facial recognition and fingerprint readers. The company has partnered with GAVI, a UN-sponsored vaccination body, to collect biometric data from newborn infants. The data are then used to track their vaccinations.

GAVI, which is also funded by the World Health Organization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations, is committed to executing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of those goals, SDG 16, aims to register all children under five with legal identities. September 16^th has been marked as annual Identity Day in recognition of that goal.

NEC and GAVI have begun pilot testing a program in Ghana that immediately registers the biometric data of every newborn. At birth, infants’ fingerprints are scanned, as are the voices of their parents or caregivers. These data were collected to track each child’s malaria vaccinations but are now being used to create digital identities which will also be used to benefit from public services.

“The system designed to support early childhood vaccinations is part of a broader effort to provide legal identity to newborns and enable their identities to be safely authenticated,” NEC spokesman Joseph Jasper told Biometric Update last week.

“The same system [which] ensures correct vaccine delivery, by establishing the child’s place of birth and caregiver relationship, can also be used to assign national identity, and then used for the delivery of other public services, like for health and education,” added Biometric Update.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) hopes the Ghana program will ultimately lead to vaccinations being used for civil registration and for public services to be tied to biometric identities.

“Initiatives such as this also open up the possibility of using immunisation to complete Civil Registration, provided that appropriate governance, legislation and protocols are in place. If these conditions are met, biometrics can become an excellent investment to deliver public services,” said a WEF report last week.