BD Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Project Region

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1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB5859 Project Name BD Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Project Region SOUTH ASIA Country BANGLADESH Sector Information technology (40%); General public administration sector (60%) Lending Instrument Investment loan/credit Project ID P Borrower(s) GOVERNMENT OF BANGLADESH Implementing Agency Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC), Ministry of Local Government Environmental Screening Category [ ]A [ ]B [ ]C [ ]FI [ ]TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared August 16, 2010 Estimated Date of Appraisal October 2010 Completion Estimated Date of Board Approval January 27, 2011 Concept Review Decision Following the review of the concept, the decision was taken to proceed with the preparation of the operation. Other Decision Teams can add more if they wish or delete this row if no other decisions are added I. Introduction and Context A. Country Context While Bangladesh continues to show noticeable progress in its economic and social indicators, concerns about weak governance and poor quality of public services continue to hold back the country. The dominance of state in delivering essential services to citizens adds more weight to the importance of efficient and accountable public services delivery. Facing this challenge, the current Government has expressed strong interest for better service delivery and overall governance improvement through better utilization of Information Communication Technology, and this vision is termed as Digital Bangladesh (D-BD). Despite rather ambitious nature, D- BD received wide public support and created high expectation among citizens. To date Government has taken a number of actions such as preparation of government-wide D-BD strategy, introduction of series of D-BD applications in line ministries, setting up large number of community information centers at upazilla level. Though facing considerable challenges, D-BD, if prudently introduced and rolled out, could bring a significant impact in enhancing public service quality and the way a society is governed in general.

2 B. Sectoral and Institutional Context Essential to the realization of D-BD for better service delivery and good governance is a nationwide identification system for citizen. Having a comprehensive and reliable national ID system is a precondition for effective public policy formulation, and targeting and verification of various public and private service deliveries. The absence of such ID system has taken a heavy toll of inefficiency and corruption in many public and private sector operation, public social protection programs in particular, which accounts for about 2.5% of GDP. Revenue mobilization, where Bangladesh stands poorly, and private services such as mobile phone and banking services also are affected. The successful preparation of the electoral voter list database of 85 million citizens for the 9 th parliament election 1 is widely considered laying a crucial foundation for building a national ID system. Not only has it created an accurate, comprehensive database 2 for entire voters (above 18 years old), but also the immense demand of voter ID cards, an unintended by-product of electoral voter database but the first identification card ever given to citizens in most rural areas in Bangladesh, has made the Government realized an acute need for proper ID scheme in the country. Citizens proudly use and display their voter ID cards in every day s life and voter ID card has quickly become the ID card in society. However, a more robust and reliable ID system and cards and the supporting IT system becomes a necessity to enable national ID system to be the basis for efficient and transparent delivery of public and private services. Current effort to detect duplicate IDs is likely to find a few million IDs that need to be cleansed and database and data center needs urgent upgrade for higher performance and security. In addition to ID system itself, a number of Government-wide legislative, policy, managerial and technical actions are warranted for the national ID system to serve as authoritative and reliable source for efficient and transparent service delivery. C. Rational for Bank Involvement The World Bank Country Assistance Strategy for FY recognizes that weak governance in Bangladesh continue to pose major challenges for its economic growth and social development. The strategy also proposes to take more pragmatic approach to support governance reform through a set of specific government-owned initiatives such as D-BD and right/access to information. In this regard, an IDA investment project to establish a robust, authoritative national ID system for enhancing quality and access to services is considered squarely fit with CAS priority and approach in addressing governance reform in Bangladesh. In addition, there is strong commitment and interest from main counterpart, the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC), and top leadership, Prime Minister s Office. It is evidenced by the fact that National Identity and Registration Act was speedily prepared and promulgated in January, 2010 and the national ID Registration Department (NIRD) with 125 professional staff has been established within the BEC with its organogram approved by the Establishment Ministry in a highly timely manner. Finally, the proposed Project for financing major investment needs would complement effectively the current technical assistance program 3 funded by nine (9) development partners including UNDP. The Held in December, 2008 and the election process has been widely recognized for its fairness. However there is a need to clean up duplicate IDs and other inaccuracies in the current database Preparation of Electoral Roll with Photographs (PERP) Project 2

3 TA program, which ends by December 2010, has already identified defects and inefficiencies in the voter ID database and proposed high-level methodology and work process for building ID system and linking with core services, which would be the core features of the proposed Project. This joint approach among development partners would create considerable leverage for policy and institutional changes necessary for successful national ID system and linkage with service delivery. II. Proposed Development Objective(s) A. Proposed PDO The proposed project is the second phase of Bangladesh s long term drive for building national ID scheme, building on successful outputs of the first phase project, Preparation of Electoral rolls with Photograph (PERP). Therefore, the Project will attempt to address urgent deficiencies of current system in terms of accuracy of the database and systems for verification and to lay a foundation for following phases; rather than perfecting the system at the end of project period. With this in mind, the PDO is to develop a reliable, authoritative national ID system that can serve as an efficient, secure data platform for delivery of multiple public services, and pilot usage of national ID system in (two/three) public and private service areas. The expected benefits from this operation are: Revamped National ID database including entire population with reliable datacenter and facilities for disaster recovery Reliable poly-carbonate national ID cards for citizens providing opportunities for authorities to protect citizens from identity fraud and theft More efficient and transparent service delivery (in two/three areas) based on national ID database. Well functioning National ID Registration Department of BEC to manage the national ID system, which could emerge as autonomous national ID office in the future. B. Key Results The key results expected from the proposed Project are: Approximately 85 million national ID cards produced and distributed to eligible citizens within project period. The database is linked with at least two key pilot services where the data would be shared and used for improved service delivery. The birth registration records are digitized and cleansed so that it can be linked with national ID database at a later point in time. Data center and disaster recovery facilities established for the new national ID database. Well functioning National ID Registration Department of BEC established III. Preliminary Description i) National Identification System and Services 3

4 This component would aim to institutionalize and make operational the core business of the NIRD 4, namely the issuance of national identification cards and the provision of identity verification services in Bangladesh. It would provide technical assistance and capacity building inputs to design and implement the necessary procedures, records, databases, safeguards, quality standards and public communications. It would encompass the following activities: Rules and regulations for management of the National ID system: Following recent promulgation of the National ID and Registration Act, there is an urgent need to develop secondary legislation to operationalize the Act. Activities under this component would include, among others: a) setting up operational procedures for the newly established National ID and Registration Department of BEC; and b) regulatory and operational procedures to replace current ID cards with new cards. Comprehensive business process design for all NIDW operational activities (enrollment, card issuance and replacement and e-services). The design would define specific and time-bound actions - legal, institutional, and technical to be taken to ensure well-coordinated linkage between the national ID database and various databases (i.e., passport, tax identification number, pension, and banking) in ministries and private sector. The strongest possible safeguards will need to be put in place to ensure that the integrity of the NID database is not compromised. Comprehensive data cleansing. A long-term effort will be needed to ensure that NID data will be accurate, complete and consistent across the critical data bases in the public and private sector. Given the high accuracy of the voter list data base, it will be used as the standard against which to verify accuracy. A procedure and (if necessary) a regulatory instrument will be developed to investigate and adjudicate the various possible cases of discrepancy. Support to on-going Digital Birth Registration for Expanding National ID system. The on-going Birth Registration Project of the MLGA 5 has registered about 66 percent of entire population on a paper basis and digitized about one percent of those registrations, but with serious concerns about the accuracy. Therefore, the proposed Project would finance: a) the Ministry of Local Government to complete on-going birth registration digitization, de-duplication and data cleansing processes through direct financing to UNICEF; and b) linking (logically) with national ID database once digitization of birth data is completed. This would require a policy and institutional coordination among relevant agencies, appropriate security safeguards and assurance of acceptable level of accuracy in the Birth registration database as preconditions for this linkage. Utilization of the National ID system into the delivery mechanisms for selected services: The proposed Project would finance necessary activities goods and services- to allow the national ID database to be integrated into the provision of 2-3 key services from private and public sectors. Possible priority areas could include tax-payer services by the NBR, social protection programs by the Ministry of Social Welfare, and mobile phone and banking services. ii) IT Operations and management. This component will aim to design and implement technology facilities necessary to implement the NID system and services. The Project would finance procurement of hardware, software, design consultancies and managed services for all the IT facilities of the NIDW. 4 5 National ID and Registration Department of the Bangladesh Election Commission with the support from UNICEF 4

5 National ID Database, Datacenter & Disaster Recovery Center (DRS). The on-going PERP Project is currently upgrading the voter ID data center and disaster recovery center, which will be used as the national ID database later on. Provided that the upgrade is completed successfully within the intended time period, what is left to be financed by the proposed project is to correct data that are proved inaccurate by AFIS 6. In addition, it is agreed that the proposed project would finance establishing a tier-three datacenter by the time the planned National ID Resource Center is constructed by IDEA P D O L O F C B M ID C P D N ID D C U L B R V P N E S N ID BEC U BEC D O BEC R O P A BB I P NID Card Production and Distribution. This subcomponent would finance printing equipment and material (polycarbonate) for production, physical storage, card life cycle management, and services for distributing new ID cards to eligible citizens. Given the authorities plan to replace the current ID cards with new cards within five years, the proposed Project would need to have a very efficient system of production, storage and distribution. It is agreed that the BEC would have a managed service with a private ID card production vendor instead of in-house production. It is also agreed that new ID cards would be distributed to the entire eligible population but a fee would be charged for future replacement 7. Data communications network. The proposed Project would establish a communications network (i.e. virtual private network) between the central Datacenter and 560 Upazila Offices, 63 District Offices, and 10 Regional Offices for local provision of NID related services. This would reduce of the need for citizens to travel to Dhaka for their ID card update and relieve the heavy administrative burden for the Dhaka Office. iii) Capacity building and Resource management This component will aim to develop the capacity of the newly established National Identification Wing (NIDW) of the BEC to acquire and manage the human and financial resources necessary for the operation and sustainability of the NIDS system. The project will finance studies, consultancies, information systems and training to design and put in place policies, procedures, systems and oversight instruments to ensure independent, self-financing and reliable operation of the NIDW. 6 Automatic Finger Identification System 7 The actual cost of card production and distribution vary to a large extent depending on the type, design, material and security features of ID card, thus, would be finalized only after decisions on these matters are made by the authorities. Regional experience for introducing national ID system indicates that it could range between US $ million for 100 million IDs. The World Bank team would work closely with UNDP to propose a set of options for authorities to consider and choose from. 5

6 Comprehensive capacity building program for the newly established NIDW of the BEC: The ID Act mandates the BEC to establish a separate department to deal with the national ID system and the organogram of NIDW has been recently approved by the MoE. While the BEC needs to expedite the recruitment process for staffing the NIDW, the proposed Project would identify specific needs both ICT and change management and provide a comprehensive capacity building program throughout the project period. Financing and cost recovery system. The project will finance studies and information systems necessary to design and implement a cost recovery mechanism for the NID system. While it is agreed that the new ID cards would be distributed to the entire eligible population for free, a fee would be charged for future replacement. NID would also charge fees would be charged to private sector agencies for verification services Change management and communications: The Project would finance a team of international and local experts on change management and communications. The management of the national ID system and provision of services to public and private sectors are considerably different from the election management tasks of the BEC. This would require a change of skills, mindset and attitude, making the BEC, in particular NIRW, a more service-oriented organization. Similarly, Bangladesh citizens will need to understand the needs, benefits and issuance procedures of a national ID card. iv) Project Management The Project would finance key staff, including project director, highly skilled ICT specialists, financial management specialist, and procurement specialist, who are essential for implementation throughout the project period. List of specific skill sets and number of staff to be financed will be worked out and agreed during the preparation, considering the input from the National ID Master Plan. In addition, the Project would finance common expenses related project office management. In addition, the Project would finance a team of international and local experts on change management and communication. The management of national ID system and provision of services to public and private sector are considerably different from conventional task of BEC, election management. This would require change of mindset and attitude, making BEC more service-oriented organization. BEC would be expected to be more citizen-friendly as maintaining ID system increases interaction with citizens significantly. Given that the proposed Project has large share of highly specialized ICT investments and BEC s lack of procurement and management capacity, the main beneficiary, BEC, has agreed to obtain services from professional contract management firm to manage entire tendering process and provide quality control services during implementation of such contracts. 6

7 IV. Safeguard Policies that might apply Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No TBD Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) Pest Management (OP 4.09) Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11) Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) Indigenous Peoples ( OP/BP 4.10) Forests (OP/BP 4.36) Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60) * Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50) V. Tentative financing Source: ($m.) BORROWER/RECIPIENT 10 International Development Association (IDA) 150 Total 160 VI. Contact point World Bank Contact: Junghun Cho Title: Sr. Public Sector Spec. Tel: Fax: (880-2) jcho@worldbank.org Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh (IBRD) Borrower/Client/Recipient Contact: Dr. Mohammad Tareque Title: Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance Tel: (880-2) mtareque@finance.gov.bd Implementing Agencies Contact: Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam Title: Additional Secretary, Bangladesh Election Commission Tel: (880-2) rafiq@ecs.gov.bd * By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties claims on the disputed areas 7

8 Implementing Agencies Contact: Mr. Monzur Hossain Title: Secretary, Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government Rural Development & Cooperatives Tel: (880-2) VII. For more information contact: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C Telephone: (202) Fax: (202) Web: 8