Cape Verde commissions Izertis for the first digital health credential in Africa
Our company has been awarded the tender summoned by the Cape Verde Government and the World Bank to create Decentralised Digital Identifiers (DID), to include comprehensive healthcare information about national and foreign patients in the country. The project will be implemented thanks to blockchain technology, allowing individuals to hold their own "unique and unchangeable" data.
It is a project funded by the World Bank within the Cape Verde Sustainable Development Strategic Plan, and with which the international body intends to transform the country into one of the key operational hubs on the continent, stimulating economic development “through a business setting based on information and communication technologies, and research development”.
The project, whose production will commence over the coming days, will implement an issuing system of verifiable credentials -digital health certificates- with internationally unique features. It will gather the clinical data of both inhabitants and visitors to the country, unifying the documents on an unique system for all administrations.
The paradigm of personal data ownership will therefore shift to become the individual property of each user, enabling users to manage their own credentials easily from a mobile device. Thereby, it puts Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) into practice, avoiding dependency upon third parties when accessing our own information.
“The implementation of a digital platform like this is a huge step forward for Cape Verde, because it allows us to save millions of dollars on an administrative level, and it will facilitate the work of everyone involved in the different processes, making administrative work in our country infinitely more straightforward within the healthcare setting in our country”, as they comment from the government of Cape Verde.
The use of blockchain technology will give all the parts involved instant access to the data registered in it. Institutions and healthcare entities alike will be able to verify the documentation provided by users in real time. All this will take place within the European blockchain network of Alastria and its Digital Identification System (IDI), with an SSI system. In turn, it will integrate with the Cape Verde Government’s data exchange platform. The aim is to streamline the processes and significantly reduce the time and administrative workload associated with these kind of procedures. The implementation performed will guarantee and control the cyber-safe use and exchange of data on this interoperability platform.
“This project could be the starting signal for these kind of solutions on an international level, as they are enabling us to sow the seed for standardising administrations and significantly streamlining information, not just within the healthcare sphere, but also as a starting point for implementation in an important number of administrations. The project will allow Cape Verde to become an international benchmark”, ensures Urko Larrañaga, Izertis Blockchain manager.