RefuPass - Privacy Wallet for Refugees

Privacy-first digital ID wallet for refugees to access aid safely. Enables offline eligibility verification, protects sensitive data, prevents duplication, and ensures inclusion via grievance support.

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Idea Submission

Sector: :Refugee Services, Humanitarian Aid Delivery, Digital Identity, Citizen Access to Public Services

Title: RefuProof: Privacy-Preserving Offline Digital ID for Refugee Aid Eligibility

Problem Statement

Across Africa, over 45 million people are forcibly displaced, including more than 7 million refugees in Eastern Africa alone, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[1] Refugees must repeatedly register with multiple humanitarian agencies to access food, healthcare, and financial aid, exposing sensitive personal and biometric data. Fragmented identity systems and limited internet connectivity lead to duplicate records, delays, and exclusion from essential services. Existing digital ID solutions rely on centralized databases or constant connectivity, making them unsuitable for low-resource environments. Refugees need a secure, privacy-preserving, and offline way to verify aid eligibility without repeatedly exposing their identity.

Proposed Solution

To address the urgent crisis of forced displacement across Africa, where over 45 million people are internally displaced, refugees, or asylum seekers and displacement continues to rise due to conflict, climate shocks, and economic instability [1]. We propose a Privacy-First Refugee Entitlement Wallet (REW) that leverages Digital ID principles to radically improve access to humanitarian aid and essential services.

The Refugee Entitlement Wallet is a secure, portable, privacy-preserving digital credential and entitlement system designed specifically for displaced Africans. It works offline or online, requires minimal connectivity, and protects personal identity while enabling trusted verification of entitlements for food rations, medical care, cash transfers, shelter support, and other basic services.

Instead of building a new centralized identity system, the REW adds on top of existing national or humanitarian Digital ID systems where they exist or uses a minimal on-device credential that can be verified without exposing sensitive identity data.

A Little Story:

Imagine Amina, a 32-year-old displaced mother in northern Uganda. To receive food aid, she registers with NGO A and provides her name, fingerprint, and family information. Two months later, she moves to a different camp and must register again with NGO B, repeating the same process.

When she arrives at a food distribution center, internet connectivity is down. Staff cannot verify her eligibility in the central database. She waits for hours and may be turned away.

With the Refugee Entitlement Wallet, Amina shows a single QR code stored on her phone or smartcard. The field worker scans it offline. Her food eligibility is verified instantly without revealing her biometric data. She receives aid in minutes instead of hours, with dignity and privacy preserved.

How It Uses Digital ID

Credential Issuance.

When a refugee or displaced person engages with an NGO or government aid entity, they receive a digital entitlement token linked to:

  • verified eligibility for food, shelter, cash aid, or health support
  • authorization period such as monthly ration eligibility
  • minimal identity attributes required for verification
  • This token can be stored in a secure wallet on a basic smartphone or smartcard.

Offline Verification Protocol.

The system uses encrypted QR codes or short-range NFC on smartcards that field workers can scan to verify entitlements without requiring internet access. This is critical in rural and low-resource environments where internet penetration averages 27 percent and mobile penetration around 44 percent across sub-Saharan Africa.[2]

Selective Disclosure and Privacy.

Refugees share only verifiable entitlements such as eligibility for food aid until a certain date, rather than full identity or biometric data. This preserves privacy and protects vulnerable people from exploitation.

Secure Audit Trail and Grievance Handling.

Transactions are logged in a tamper-evident record so displaced persons can prove they attempted to access services. Aid organizations can track delivery efficiency.

Expected Impact (Numbers)

  • Reducing repeated registration with multiple NGOs could cut duplicate registrations by up to 60 percent, saving millions of hours of administrative work and reducing exclusion due to documentation delays.[4] This enables millions more to access aid even in offline and low-connectivity settings where conventional digital verification fails.

  • Offline eligibility checks reduce turnaround time at distribution points by up to 40 percent, allowing humanitarian teams to serve more people per day.[5]

  • By minimizing sensitive data exchange, the REW reduces exposure risks for vulnerable individuals, especially women and children, who make up an estimated 80 percent of displaced populations in regions like West and Central Africa. [3]

  • The solution reduces costs related to duplicate registrations, data reconciliation, and manual verification, potentially saving NGOs and governments millions annually.

  • Built-in grievance mechanisms ensure that beneficiaries have recourse if their entitlements are denied, improving trust and reducing silent exclusion.

Novelty

The Refugee Entitlement Wallet (REW) is unique because it combines privacy-first design, offline functionality, and integration with existing humanitarian Digital ID systems. Unlike traditional solutions that rely on centralized identity databases, REW allows refugees to prove eligibility without exposing full personal or biometric data, drastically reducing privacy and security risks. Most current digital ID projects focus on creating new identity infrastructures, which are costly, slow to deploy, and often inaccessible in low-connectivity areas. Our solution is portable, lightweight, and works on basic devices, enabling immediate adoption in rural and displaced settings across Africa.

Additionally, REW incorporates tamper-evident transaction logs and built-in grievance mechanisms, giving refugees and aid providers accountability and transparency. By prioritizing dignity, safety, and usability in challenging African contexts, REW offers a practical, inclusive, and scalable alternative to conventional humanitarian identity systems.

Feasibility

The REW is technically feasible using existing mobile and smartcard technology, lightweight encryption for offline verification, and integration with NGO or government Digital ID systems. Implementation costs are minimized by leveraging open-source frameworks and devices already in use by aid agencies. User adoption is supported through simple QR-code or smartcard interfaces, low-literacy-friendly prompts, and offline functionality. Legally, the system aligns with African data protection standards, including Nigeria’s NDPR and Kenya’s Data Protection Act, and avoids sensitive biometric storage to reduce compliance risks.[4]

Potential challenges such as device loss or connectivity gaps will be mitigated via offline backup tokens, encrypted synchronization when internet is available, and local training for field staff. Early pilot programs can target high-displacement regions to iteratively refine usability and scalability. With minimal infrastructure requirements, the REW can be deployed rapidly and expand across multiple African countries while maintaining security, privacy, and reliability.

Impact

The Refugee Entitlement Wallet can transform aid access for over 45 million displaced Africans, starting with high-displacement regions in Eastern Africa such as Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia. By enabling offline verification, privacy protection, and tamper-evident records, it reduces exclusion, speeds aid delivery by up to 40%, and cuts duplicate registrations by 60%. Scalable across NGOs, governments, and humanitarian platforms, the solution can expand regionally without building new infrastructure. By improving efficiency, accountability, and trust, it directly supports the hackathon’s goals of leveraging Digital ID to enhance inclusive, secure, and practical solutions for vulnerable populations across Africa.[5]

References

  1. Number of forcibly displaced people in Africa ○ UNHCR. Africa: Forced Displacement Overview. 2025. ○ https://www.unhcr.org/africa/news/press-releases/unhcr-highlights-forced-displacement-trends-protection-risks-and-solutions-west

  2. Mobile and internet penetration in sub-Saharan Africa ○ Brookings Institution. Accelerating digital inclusion in Africa. 2023. ○ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/accelerating-digital-inclusion-in-africa/

  3. Percentage of women and children among displaced populations in Africa ○ UNHCR. Global Trends in Forced Displacement. 2024. ○ https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2024/

  4. Data protection regulations in Africa ○ Nigeria: National Information Technology Development Agency. Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). 2019. ○ https://nitda.gov.ng/nigerian-data-protection-regulation/ ○ Kenya: Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Data Protection Act 2019. ○ https://www.odpc.go.ke/data-protection-act/

  5. Digital ID and humanitarian applications ○ Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Africa’s displacement crisis and digital solutions. 2023. ○ https://africacenter.org/spotlight/africa-conflicts-compound-forced-displacement/

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