SECTION 1: WHY THIS RESEARCH AND WHY THIS FOCUS? Figure 1. Photos clockwise from top left: 1. An individual interview in Buliisa, 2. A focus group discussion in Nebbi, 3. An interview with a community development officer in Nebbi. 4. An ISER researcher, seated centre, observes the verification and enrolment process for the SCG in Namayingo. In 2020, the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative wrote in its annual report that: empirical research that rigorously evaluates the impact of ID systems on development outcomes and the effectiveness of strategies to mitigate risks has been limited. Building this evidence base is critical to advance global knowledge and improve policies and implementation for the increasing number of countries investing in new ID systems or reforming existing ones.58 We could not agree more. Empirical research on the exclusionary and human rights impact of national digital ID systems in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the Global South is still largely missing, despite the worldwide push in that direction. To us, this seems to be the exact opposite of evidence-based policymaking: international organizations and other powerful global players have first decided that national digital ID systems are the wave of the future and have started promoting them; only then is the question asked how this affects the poorest, who these systems are claimed to serve. When evidence of exclusion in Uganda started to emerge in the work of the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) and Unwanted Witness (UW),59 our three organizations decided collectively that it was time for more focused and in-depth research into this particular problem. What made this research relevant beyond Uganda, we believe, is not merely that it fills the above-identified gap in available evidence, but that Uganda has been held up internationally as having an ‘impressive’ track record on national ID. In How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 21