Digital solutions to the ID gap for stateless people These solutions are all fundamentally analog: independent of the technology used for registration of identity. However, there are some digital solutions that could potentially assist stateless persons, especially in the realm of functional ID. Designing ICT pathways to prompt solutions The establishment of new software platforms for the management of identification provides opportunities to prompt resolution rather than rejection of applications for identity documents by those without the “feeder” documents generally required for registration in the new system. Decision pathways could ensure that a file cannot be closed until these processes are completed, could enable reasons for decisions to be recorded at each stage, and could prompt referrals to legal assistance or administrative review. The system should enable statistics to be generated on the reasons for lack of initial acceptance of an application and how it was resolved. Digital wallets “Digital wallets” enable a person to reveal only those elements of an identity that are relevant to the specific task in hand, whether age, educational or professional qualifications, vaccination status, or employment, thus avoiding the need for an identity document that records nationality where that is not relevant. Digital versions of functional ID systems are increasingly designed to sidestep lack of existing proof of legal identity, for example, to support direct cash transfers during the COVID pandemic27 and to provide other forms of assistance to displaced persons and migrants.28 Nonetheless, such technological advances do not necessarily escape existing institutional patterns of inclusion and exclusion.29 Digital wallets are helpful only for those in possession of a smartphone30; in practice, access may in fact be restricted to those who already have a government-recognized legal status.31 27 Uña et al., “Digital Solutions for Direct Cash Transfers in the COVID-19 Crisis”; Ugo, “Cash Transfers in Pandemic Times.” 28 IFRC, Digital Identity: Enabling Dignified Access to Humanitarian Services in Migration; IFRC, Digital Identity: An Analysis for the Humanitarian Sector. 29 Schoemaker et al., “Digital Identity and Inclusion.” 30 However, there are some interesting experiments to avoid such barriers. For example, in a pilot project by the Red Cross in Kenya, those without a smartphone are issued a printed QR code that can be used to withdraw cash. DIGID Consortium, “Digital Wallet.” 31 Weitzberg, “The Digital Identity Wallet.” Statelessness and digital identity 11