Linking Digital Identification to Social Protection in Kenya

This project examines the process of linking digital biometric identification to the social protection system in Kenya. Through a pilot, I will partner with the Kenyan ICT Ministry to evaluate two interventions in the context of an anti-poverty cash transfer program. First, we will assess the impact of replacing existing forms of beneficiary authentication with a new digital ID on access and exclusion across beneficiary types. Second, we will measure how the capability of the digital ID to facilitate the transfer of benefits to mobile money wallets – which reduces the transaction costs of access but also the strength of a status quo savings default – affects beneficiary outcomes. The pilot will provide an opportunity to fine-tune intervention design, with the goal of informing a larger randomized evaluation in advance of broader planned rollout.