actual death. In each district we visited we were told that the national ID had become the most important official identity document. One person told us that, “[The] government made it important to have and once it was the thing, you can’t refuse. They said if you do not have it, you will be left behind.” One man in Nebbi described the stakes of Ndaga Muntu, “It is like a key to my door; without it, I can’t enter. And sometimes when you cross to Congo, without the ID, they can beat you to death thinking you’re a rebel. It is needed for everything.” Different services have made use of different parts of the national ID system. In health care, the primary form of integration with the national ID system has focused on the physical card, with some uses as well for the national identity number. In this way, the digital components of Ndaga Muntu seem to play a minor role and the card functions much like any other form of documentary identification. Meanwhile, the Senior Citizens’ Grant (SCG) has made far more use of the digital aspects of the national ID system. Below, we will look at the following four dimensions of Ndaga Muntu to assess whether the national ID system has indeed fostered inclusion, especially for poor (pregnant) women and poor older persons in Uganda: • Registering and obtaining a national ID number (NIN) and national ID card (NIC). The national ID card project commenced in 2014 with a mass enrolment exercise which sought to collect the biographic and biometric information of all adults citizens in anticipation of the upcoming 2016 election. Using that information, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) issued two credentials– the Ndaga Muntu, or National ID Card (NIC) and the National ID Number (NIN)–and also built a central database, the National Identification Register (NIR). Long after the initial mass registration, people in Uganda continue to interact with NIRA to register; collect cards; replace lost, stolen, or damaged IDs; and correct errors. • Enrolling in and receiving the Senior Citizens’ Grant (SCG) for those over 80 years old. The SCG is one of the government programmes that has most deeply integrated the national ID system into its management processes. Most significantly, the Programme Management Unit (PMU) of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development’s (MGLSD) Expanding Social Protection Programme (ESP) uses data from the NIR to identify potential beneficiaries with no discretion afforded to local government or programme staff. They also verify the identity of individual beneficiaries using the Ndaga Muntu card and (before COVID-19) fingerprint scanners at different points in the registration, enrolment, and payment process. Older persons therefore must be included in the national ID system, with accurate details, if they want to access the SCG. Oftentimes, they must also have their NIN and NIC ready on payment days to enrol and to verify their identity. Moreover, the new Payment Service Provider (PSP), Centenary Bank, now requires each beneficiary to again present their national ID card and have their fingerprints captured to open a new bank account for them. How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 25