For someone who has been forced to leave their home, losing important documents can create problems that last for years. A missing identity document, birth certificate, medical record, or other official information can make it harder to access healthcare, education, financial services, employment, and humanitarian assistance.
Now, a new initiative is exploring how artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure could help address some of these challenges.
Civitas ID has received a $500,000 two-year grant from the Gates Foundation to develop open-source digital infrastructure using AI and open standards. The initial focus is on displaced populations who face documentation barriers.
The development could be significant for NGOs and humanitarian organizations because documentation is often an overlooked part of humanitarian response. Providing food, shelter, healthcare, or financial assistance is only one part of helping displaced communities rebuild their lives. People also need ways to prove who they are, access their records, and connect with essential services.
The project raises an important question for the humanitarian sector: Can AI and open digital infrastructure make it easier for displaced people to access services while protecting their privacy, security, and dignity?
Why Documentation Can Become a Major Barrier
For most people, identification documents are something they rarely think about.
A passport, national ID, birth certificate, school certificate, medical record, or financial document may simply be part of everyday life.
For displaced people, however, these documents can be lost or become inaccessible very quickly.
Conflict can destroy government offices and records. Natural disasters can damage documents. Families fleeing suddenly may have no opportunity to collect important paperwork before leaving their homes.
Crossing borders can create another layer of difficulty.
A document that was valid in one country may not be enough to access services in another. People may also struggle to replace records when the institutions that issued them are far away or no longer functioning properly.
The result can be a frustrating situation where someone is eligible for assistance but cannot easily prove their identity or access the information needed to receive it.
The Digital Opportunity
This is where digital infrastructure could make a difference.
Instead of relying entirely on physical documents, secure digital systems can potentially allow people to access or verify important information electronically.
For humanitarian organizations, such systems could also make it easier to coordinate assistance.
Imagine a displaced person who has already provided basic information to one trusted organization. If appropriate information could be securely verified and reused when accessing another service, the person might not have to repeatedly explain their situation or provide the same documents again.
This could reduce administrative delays and make services easier to navigate.
However, this only works if the system is designed carefully.
Digital identity is not simply a technology challenge. It is also a question of trust, privacy, security, access, and human rights.
What the Gates Foundation Grant Is Supporting
The $500,000 grant over two years will support Civitas ID’s development of open-source digital infrastructure.
The use of open-source technology is particularly interesting for the nonprofit and humanitarian sector.
Many NGOs operate with limited technology budgets. Organizations may also work across different countries and rely on multiple systems.
If digital infrastructure is designed using open standards, it may be easier for different organizations and platforms to connect with it.
This could potentially reduce the need for every NGO to develop an entirely separate system.
It could also create opportunities for developers and organizations to adapt technology to different humanitarian contexts.
For a sector that often struggles with fragmented information systems, interoperability could become increasingly important.
Where Artificial Intelligence Could Help
AI could potentially support different parts of the digital infrastructure.
For example, AI systems can help process large amounts of information, organize records, support document-related workflows, and make digital services easier to navigate.
This could be particularly useful in humanitarian settings where organizations may need to deal with large amounts of information while working with limited staff.
But AI should not be treated as a magic solution.
The technology can make mistakes.
It can misunderstand information, produce inaccurate results, or behave differently when working with data from communities that are poorly represented in its training or testing processes.
That means AI should be used carefully, especially when the information being processed can influence someone’s access to essential services.
Why This Matters for NGOs
For NGOs, the potential benefits extend beyond technology itself.
Humanitarian organizations often spend significant amounts of time collecting documents, verifying information, updating records, coordinating beneficiaries, and completing administrative procedures.
A reliable digital system could potentially reduce some of this workload.
Instead of spending excessive amounts of time searching for records or repeating the same verification processes, staff could potentially focus more attention on direct support.
This could be especially valuable during large-scale emergencies, when humanitarian organizations are already under pressure.
When thousands or millions of people need assistance, even small improvements in administrative efficiency can make a meaningful difference.
Helping People Access More Than Humanitarian Aid
Documentation does not only affect humanitarian assistance.
A person’s ability to prove their identity can influence access to many areas of everyday life.
It can affect whether someone can enroll their child in school, receive healthcare, find formal employment, access financial services, or interact with public institutions.
For displaced populations, these barriers can make rebuilding a stable life even harder.
A secure digital infrastructure could therefore potentially support people beyond the immediate emergency response.
The longer-term goal should be to help people regain some control over their lives and access opportunities that may otherwise remain out of reach.
The Importance of Open Standards
The open standards element of the project deserves particular attention.
Humanitarian organizations often use different technology platforms. A healthcare NGO may have one database, an education organization another, and a government agency a completely different system.
When these systems cannot communicate, beneficiaries may end up carrying the burden.
They may be asked for the same information repeatedly.
They may have to register separately with different organizations.
They may even have to prove the same facts multiple times.
Interoperable digital infrastructure could potentially reduce some of these problems.
If systems can communicate securely, organizations may be able to coordinate more effectively while reducing unnecessary duplication.
But interoperability also makes strong data governance even more important.
More connected systems mean organizations need to be very clear about who can access information, why they can access it, and what they are allowed to do with it.
Privacy Must Come First
The potential benefits of digital identity systems come with serious privacy concerns.
Displaced people may already be in vulnerable situations.
Information about their identity, location, family, health, nationality, migration history, or circumstances could be highly sensitive.
If this information falls into the wrong hands, the consequences could be serious.
A digital system therefore needs strong safeguards from the beginning.
NGOs and technology providers should think carefully about data collection, storage, access, sharing, retention, and deletion.
People should also understand, as much as possible, what information is being collected about them and how it will be used.
Building trust cannot be an afterthought.
What Happens If AI Gets It Wrong?
Another important issue is accuracy.
Suppose an AI-powered system incorrectly matches a person with the wrong record.
Or imagine that an automated process flags someone’s information as suspicious when it is actually correct.
If there is no human review process, that person could face delays or potentially be denied access to an important service.
This is why AI should not become the final decision-maker in sensitive humanitarian situations.
There should be clear ways for people to challenge decisions, correct inaccurate information, and speak to a human when necessary.
Technology should make humanitarian systems easier to access—not create another barrier.
The Risk of Leaving People Behind
Digital solutions can also unintentionally create exclusion.
Not every displaced person has a smartphone.
Not everyone has reliable internet access.
Some people may have limited digital literacy. Others may speak languages that are not supported by the technology.
People with disabilities may also face accessibility barriers.
If humanitarian organizations move too quickly toward digital-only services, the people most in need could potentially be excluded.
That is why digital infrastructure should complement traditional humanitarian support rather than completely replace it.
A person should not lose access to essential assistance simply because they cannot use a particular digital platform.
Could This Reduce the Burden on NGOs?
One potential advantage of better digital infrastructure is reducing repetitive administrative work.
NGO staff often spend considerable time managing records, entering data, checking documents, preparing reports, and coordinating information between teams.
If some of these processes can be made faster and more reliable, staff may have more time for activities that require human interaction.
That could mean more time in communities, more communication with beneficiaries, stronger monitoring, and better program planning.
But technology should be introduced based on actual needs.
An NGO does not necessarily need an AI system for every process.
Sometimes a well-designed database or simple digital workflow can solve a problem more effectively than an advanced AI application.
Smaller NGOs Could Benefit Too
Large international organizations often have access to technical teams and significant technology budgets.
Smaller grassroots NGOs may not have those resources.
Open-source infrastructure could potentially help narrow this gap by giving smaller organizations access to technology that they can adapt rather than requiring them to build everything themselves.
This could be particularly useful for local organizations working directly with displaced communities.
Local NGOs often have a deeper understanding of the people they serve and the challenges those communities face.
Combining that local knowledge with appropriate technology could create stronger humanitarian solutions.
The Technology Must Be Designed Around People
One of the biggest lessons from this initiative is that technology should not become the center of humanitarian work.
People should.
A digital identity system may be technically impressive, but if beneficiaries find it confusing, inaccessible, or unsafe, it has failed to solve the problem.
The technology needs to fit the environment in which people actually live.
That means considering language, connectivity, literacy, disability, culture, trust, cost, and local infrastructure.
It also means involving communities in the design process.
People affected by displacement should have a voice in decisions about systems that will manage information about them.
Potential Long-Term Impact
If the project succeeds, its impact could extend beyond the initial focus on documentation barriers.
The infrastructure could potentially provide a foundation for other digital humanitarian services.
For example, secure digital records could eventually support connections between healthcare, education, employment, financial services, and humanitarian assistance.
That does not mean all these systems should automatically be connected.
Data sharing must always have a legitimate purpose and appropriate safeguards.
But the possibility of better-connected services could be significant for people who have been forced to navigate fragmented systems for years.
What NGOs Can Learn From This Development
There is a broader lesson here for NGOs thinking about AI.
The future of AI in the nonprofit sector will not necessarily be about creating the most sophisticated chatbot or generating the most impressive content.
It may be about building better systems behind the scenes.
AI can potentially help organizations manage information, identify patterns, automate repetitive processes, and improve access to services.
But those benefits depend on strong foundations.
Organizations need reliable data.
They need clear policies.
They need cybersecurity.
They need trained staff.
And they need strong human oversight.
Without these foundations, AI can create as many problems as it solves.
The Bigger Conversation Around AI and Humanitarian Work
This donation from The Gates Foundation to Civitas ID couldn’t be more timely, with the humanitarian sector looking at technology in more detail than ever before. We’re in a world where demands on humanitarians are becoming greater with dwindling resources and increasing complex crises with coordination required among organizations.
This could potentially be solved with the help of technology, but humanitarian organizations also can’t risk experimenting with new technology on those most vulnerable. We all need to ask ourselves a very simple question about any new technological innovation: Is it making it better to be you in those difficult circumstances, or is it making it riskier? If we can answer that with “yes,” then maybe the technology is worth serious consideration. If the answer is “I’m not sure,” take a step back and learn about the problem before scaling it out.
Final Thoughts
What is so interesting about Civitas ID recently receiving a $500K grant from the Gates Foundation? For me, it lies in the burgeoning confluence of AI and digital identity applied to the humanitarian tech space and NPOs.
For individuals who are displaced, lack of documentation means more than just red tape; in fact, a lack of papers can very often determine whether they are eligible for necessary care in their new homes. This often extends beyond medical and educational benefits, impacting access to banking, jobs, and employment opportunities.
It would be nice, one would hope, if the creation of an open-source-based digital identity system could begin to address these obstacles by lowering many barriers and allowing the coordination of assistance programs. However, tech will by no means represent a panacea solution, however useful tech may be and will be to assist displaced populations. Privacy protections, strong security practices, oversight of AI decisions, and system accessibility without reliance on a stable connection and sufficient tech resources will also be critical components for this type of project, as it must preserve some control of personal data for displaced individuals.
Ultimately the opportunity will lie less in creating a “digital version” of a humanitarian world; rather, it will reside in offering people access, community connections, and a system focused squarely on their needs and wants in a crisis. Should Civitas ID prove successful in demonstrating to global NPOs and their partners in global development how their use of AI and the open-source infrastructure they work with is a good “poster boy” or model, the idea that AI may empower displaced peoples by allowing individuals to spend less time navigating systems with which they may have little technical familiarity and more time to rebuild their lives can, one hopes, gain ground for those working within this critical humanitarian realm.
