On May 7, 2009 the Moscow office of the World Bank hosted the international videoseminar "Service Delivery & Electronic Identification (eID). How National ID Cards and Other eID Applications can Improve Service Delivery and Governance?", organized by the Institute of the Information Society jointly with the E-Development Thematic Group of the World Bank and Global Development Learning Network (GDLN).

The event was held within the framework of the Government Transformation Initiative – a common initiative of the World Bank and a number of private corporations, the main goal of which is advanced training of senior managerial staff of the state agencies in ICT use.

The goal of the seminar – exchange experience in use of ID cards and other identification technologies for increasing efficiency of public management and providing services in such spheres as social protection and healthcare.

The video-seminar consisted of two sessions: local (Russian) and global (international).

Local session in Moscow was devoted to discussion of issues related to use of electronic identification technologies being implemented nowadays in Russia and their impact upon quality of service delivery and public management in general.

Representatives of key federal and Moscow government agencies, which are responsible for ICT development and use thereof by the public authorities and taking part  in development of policies and projects implementation  in this field, as well as representatives of leading IT-companies and business community took part in the event.

The Russian session was opened by Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors, who highlighted key points of discussion in his opening speech.

The following reports have been heard during the local session:

• "All-Russia State Information Center for Providing Public Services" (V.Golobokov, Head of the Department of Registries of the Digital Signature Keys’ Certificates for Public Services Administration of the Federal Agency on Information Technologies)
• "Identification system of the All-Russia State Information Center. general  Approaches" (D.Dunaev, Director of the All-Russia Research Institute of Computation and Informatization Problems)
• "Personal E-Identifier based on Microcontroller of the Smart Card" (N.Zyrin, Director of “ProgramPark” LTD).

At the end of the Russian session of the seminar participants in discussion mode answered questions raised by the E-Development Thematic Group of the World Bank before global audience:

• What are the eID applications developed so far in your country and what has been their development impact (e.g. in terms of efficiency, service delivery and governance) and lessons learned?
• What are the promising areas for future work?
• What kind of support is needed from international organizations like the World Bank to make progress in this area?
• Where should eID function be located organizationally?
• How could governments ensure security and privacy of citizen data in eID applications?
• What are the applicable global standards to be followed?

Having discussed Russian experts formulated summaries, which were presented to the global audience in the course of the second session of the seminar. For example, in the course of discussion participants concluded that for increasing efficiency of management and providing services with the help of e-identification it is necessary to use Russian scientific and technological potential, while using international experience and taking into consideration national peculiarities, and that outdated legal framework is hampering compliance of the e-identification technologies with Russian legislation. Additionally, participants discussed problems and achievements in security enhancement in the course of the services’ provision.

Videoconference of the global session of the seminar connected Russian audience with the World Bank in Washington and specialists from a number of countries of the South-Eastern Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Overview of international experience and key lessons were represented within the framework of the plenary session based on specific examples of solutions from Pakistan, Estonia and Belgium.

In the course of the final session of the international part of the seminar participants discussed further steps for e-identification implementation as a tool of social and economic development. Each country delivered a short concluding presentation in regard to the key goals of e-identification in national context.

The event was broadcasted in real-time mode through the Internet at the World Bank’s website. All additional materials of the seminar are available at: http://go.worldbank.org/WUG3K3VHL0.