Digital identity development in the Caribbean: a comparative analysis of five island nations

This working paper examines the progress, challenges, and future prospects of digital identity systems in five Caribbean nations: Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Antigua & Barbuda. The objective is to provide a comprehensive overview in several ways. First, it benchmarks each of the five nations against the World Bank’s ten guidelines for identity systems. Second, it constructs a detailed chronological journey map outlining the progress toward digital ID in each country. Using a structured analysis framework, the paper evaluates how these initiatives align with the World Bank’s Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development and highlights key milestones, gaps, and potential areas for further research and development. Additionally, actor networks are mapped. The analysis reveals sustainable development risks related to exclusion, misuse, and waste, along with three dimensions of precarity: resilience, external influence, and migration. Lastly, utilizing a digital ID progress stage model, the assessment categorizes the five nations as being in the early stage of development. This paper is based on open-source articles, policy documents, press releases, and news articles.