I (LC1) chairperson to register at central points in their community. NIRA registration officers travelled to individual villages and registered people at locations such as schools, government headquarters, or trading centres. However, in the years since the initial efforts, NIRA has struggled to transition away from this campaign-based model (which is very expensive to administer) to a continuous service operating model.67 Today, those who missed out on a mass registration drive must either travel to registration points at NIRA’s newly established district offices (currently in 117 out of 146 districts in Uganda) or to NIRA headquarters in the capital of Kampala. Otherwise, they must wait until NIRA conducts one of its irregular mop-up drives—onetime registration or issuance exercises where NIRA staff travel to local communities to try and enrol those who have not yet signed up or to issue cards that have been printed. These usually occur at the sub-county level. Local government in Uganda68 UNIT LOCAL GOVERNMENT NOTES Village Local Council I The smallest administrative unit in Uganda. The Chairperson of the local council, often referred to as the LC1, is often the primary point of contact for members of the local community. There are currently 70,626 villages in Uganda. Parish Local Council II There are currently 10,595 parishes. Sub County Local Council III There are currently 2,184 sub-counties. County Local Council IV There are currently 312 counties. District Local Council V There are currently 146 districts in Uganda, plus the capital of Kampala. For some, the process of registering for the national ID was simple and straightforward; but for others—especially those who are extremely poor—the process was challenging. Part of the problem appears to be NIRA’s policy of relying on campaigns to both register and issue national ID cards. This meant that there was little flexibility in when and where individuals could come and register because they had to wait for NIRA to visit an accessible location. A participant in a focus group in Amudat told us, “If they said it’s time for this [registration], we would just leave everything; the goats, the children; there’s no eating that day.” A recent survey suggested that many people were able to register at the parish or village level,69 but we found many of the poorest had still been forced to travel significant distances to reach registration points where the registration staff actually showed up with their computers, cameras, and registration kits. Travel was especially difficult for older or disabled persons. One older person told us, “I am old and my bones are weak so I could not move to the place of registration.” For those who needed to travel to the registration point, this usually meant hiring a boda boda, a motorcycle taxi, which could cost anywhere between 4,000 and 24,000 UGX for a roundtrip.70 Even for those who were young and able-bodied, travelling could create unforeseen obstacles and significant costs. One woman told us that she was not allowed to register in the district in which she was working and was forced to return to her ‘home’ How a National Security Approach to Uganda’s National Digital ID Has Led to Wholesale Exclusion of Women and Older Persons 27