Strategic Communications for Identification Systems

This guidance note unpacks how strategic communications can enhance the design, implementation, and delivery of identification (ID) systems that are inclusive and trusted. When leveraged holistically, strategic communications can help governments engage effectively with relevant actors throughout the lifecycle of an ID system, including stakeholders on the supply side of ID administration, such as government and private sector implementing entities, and those on the demand side, namely the people that an ID system is intended to serve. Effective communication with relevant actors sows the seeds for public awareness about an ID system, which ultimately helps boost engagement through increased access, both of which are fundamental to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Target 16.9 on the provision of legal identity for all. This note builds on best practices for communications outlined in the ID4D Practitioner's Guide to offer governments and ID system practitioners a more in-depth perspective on how to craft an effective strategy and implementation framework. In doing so, the guide highlights essential components for a communications strategy; spotlights cross-country campaigns specific to ID systems and beyond to demonstrate the breadth of potential approaches; and provides practical tools, such as terms of references and a measurement framework, that can support practitioners as they transform ideas into action