Every person has the right to participate fully in their society and economy and to be recognized as a person before the law.1 Yet, as many as 1 billion people across the world do not have basic proof of identity, which is essential for protecting their rights and enabling access to services and opportunities.2 Many more have forms of identification that are insecure or untrusted by service providers, or live in countries where identification systems are weak and unsuited for the digital era, or fail to safeguard people’s rights and data. Addressing this “identification gap”—by improving the coverage, quality, and governance of identification systems that protect rights and facilitate access to services—is, therefore, critical to the development agenda. The organizations endorsing these Principles are committed to a shared set of values, with the goal of ensuring that identification systems are inclusive, protective of individuals’ data and rights, and designed to support development outcomes. Building on existing international norms,3 the Principles were first developed and published in 2017 by a group of organizations committed to supporting the development of identification systems that are inclusive, trusted, accountable, and used to enhance people’s lives and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given the quickly evolving nature of the identification sector, the original signatories to the Principles committed to revisiting them to incorporate new perspectives and lessons learned. This second edition reflects inputs from this process and from broader public consultations. The endorsing organizations—consistent with their respective mandates, operational policies, and rules—use these Principles to promote a common understanding of key issues and good practices; improve stakeholder alignment; guide support and funding decisions; facilitate discussions at country, regional, and/or global levels; and work together to support identification systems that advance economic and social development, protect individual and human rights, and leave no one behind. We hope that a progressively wider range of stakeholders—including governments, intergovernmental organizations, development partners, local and international civil society and nongovernmental organizations, and private sector actors—will join us in endorsing the Principles and putting them into practice. 1 The right to recognition before the law is enshrined in Article 6 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 16 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The right to birth registration is enshrined in several international conventions, including Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 2 Estimates from the 2018 World Bank Global ID4D Dataset are available at http://id4d.worldbank.org/ glo al-dataset 3 This includes, among others, the UN Principles and recommendations on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS), international norms on data protection (such as the European General Data Protection Regulation and Council of Europe Convention 108+), global and regional standards and trust frameworks for identification, and the Principles on Digital Development. Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development 3