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The world is being quietly rearranged by people who write very long documents.

World Bank · May 8, 2026
The title they went with Identification for Development (ID4D) : Building Statelessness-Sensitive ID Systems Noisy translates that to

The World Bank wants digital ID systems to stop excluding stateless people

What happened
The World Bank has issued a new "how-to" guide for countries building digital ID systems. It shifts the burden of proof onto governments: if you want World Bank backing for a national digital system, you have to prove it doesn't leave the 4.4 million stateless people globally behind.
Why it matters
Digital ID is the new gatekeeper for everything from bank accounts to vaccines. If you aren't in the system, you can’t get a SIM card, a bank account, or a vaccine. Historically, governments have used missing birth certificates as a bureaucratic wall to exclude certain groups. By making inclusion a funding requirement, the World Bank is treating "missing paperwork" as a technical problem to be solved rather than a legal excuse for exclusion.
The signal
Watch for "technical friction" in countries like Myanmar, India, or Kenya, where identity is used as a political gatekeeper. Our bet: governments will take the World Bank cash but build digital systems that still require legacy paperwork stateless groups don't have. If the Bank doesn't freeze a major project over this within the year, these guidelines have no teeth.
If you insist
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