Representing the Registration Problem: A Critical Policy Analysis of Somalia’s Federal CRVS Architecture Using Bacchi’s WPR Approach
This paper applies Carol Bacchi's WPR approach to Somalia's federal CRVS policy documents to argue that framing registration as a technical capacity gap depoliticizes identity governance, prioritizes donor-legible digital metrics over the needs of marginalized communities, and constructs a "biometric subject" whose rights are contingent on digital compliance.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In the modern world, a piece of paper or a digital record proving who you are is often the key to a life. It is the ticket to opening a bank account, receiving government aid, voting in an election, or simply proving you exist to a doctor or a teacher. For decades, international organizations have pushed for a system where every person on Earth has this kind of official legal identity. The goal is noble: to ensure that no one is invisible to the state and that everyone can participate fully in society. This effort is often treated as a technical challenge, a puzzle of missing files, broken computers, or a lack of trained staff. The assumption is that if governments simply build better databases and install more fingerprint scanners, the problem of being "unregistered" will disappear.
However, in places where the government's authority is weak or contested, the reality is far more complex. In Somalia, a nation that has spent decades rebuilding after the collapse of its central state, nearly all of its people lack formal legal identification. Estimates suggest that 97 percent of the population has no official birth certificate or ID card. While international partners and the Somali government have launched ambitious plans to fix this using high-tech digital systems, a new analysis suggests that the way they are trying to solve the problem might actually be making it worse for the most vulnerable people. The issue is not just about technology; it is about how the problem is defined in the first place. If a government treats a deep political struggle over who belongs as a simple technical glitch, the solution it builds may work for some while leaving others behind.
A researcher named Mohamoud Said has taken a close look at the official documents that guide Somalia's new identity system. Instead of asking whether the new computers are working fast enough, he asked a different question: how do the people writing these policies describe the problem they are trying to solve? He used a method that treats policy documents like a map, looking not just at what is drawn on the map, but at what is missing from the picture. By examining nine key documents written between 2016 and 2023, including laws and strategic plans, he found that the government and its international partners are framing the crisis of missing IDs as a purely technical failure. They describe the situation as a gap in data, a lack of infrastructure, or a need for better statistics. This framing suggests that the solution is simply to build a faster, more modern digital system.
This approach, however, ignores the way identity actually works in Somalia. For generations, and especially during the years when the central government was absent, Somalis have relied on a different system. People prove who they are through their clan, their family, and their community. Elders and local leaders vouch for individuals, and this social recognition is the real foundation of belonging. The new federal policies, however, do not mention this system at all. The official documents act as if the only way to be a citizen is to be registered by the central state in a digital database. By ignoring the existing social reality, the new system creates a new kind of citizen, one whose legal existence depends entirely on their ability to enroll in a digital registry.
The study finds that this shift creates a specific and dangerous category of people, which the researcher calls the "biometric subject." This is a person whose rights to food, money, or safety are now tied to their digital data. If they cannot get their fingerprints scanned or their face recorded, they are effectively cut off from the state. This is particularly devastating for the millions of people who have been forced to leave their homes due to conflict and are living as displaced persons. In their new locations, they often cannot find the clan elders who used to vouch for them, and they may not have the physical access to reach a registration office. The policy treats their lack of an ID as a personal failure to register, rather than a structural barrier built into the system itself.
The analysis also reveals that the drive to build this system is heavily influenced by the needs of international donors. The documents are written to satisfy the metrics and standards of foreign organizations that provide funding. These partners want to see digital progress and clean data that can be counted. Consequently, the Somali government is performing a kind of "ceremonial statehood," projecting an image of a modern, functioning state to the outside world while the complex political negotiations needed to make the system work for its own people are left undone. The focus is on showing that the technology is in place, rather than on ensuring that the people can actually use it.
The researcher argues that this is not a mistake in the technology, but a mistake in the thinking. By treating the lack of IDs as a technical problem, the policy makers have removed the political question of who gets to decide who belongs. They have assumed that a machine is more trustworthy than a community elder, and that a digital record is the only valid proof of life. This creates a system that might successfully register people in the cities who can easily access the technology, but it systematically excludes the nomadic, the displaced, and those without strong urban connections. The result is a system that looks successful on paper because it meets international targets, but which deepens the inequality for those who need help the most.
The paper concludes that for legal identity to truly work in Somalia, the definition of the problem must change. It cannot be solved by simply installing more scanners. It requires acknowledging the role of clans and local leaders, and creating a system that allows people to prove who they are even if they cannot reach a central office. It suggests that the government should accept community verification as a valid step toward registration, rather than demanding a digital ID as the only way to exist. Without these changes, the new system risks becoming a tool that sorts people into the included and the excluded, turning the promise of universal identity into a new form of digital invisibility for the most vulnerable.
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