In this Policy Note, we focus on identity-related barriers preventing Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), including refugees, from accessing mobile connectivity and mobile financial services (MFS). This Note offers several considerations for host-country governments and regulators on how to potentially address such barriers, being mindful that the responsibility for issuing identification credentials to FDPs is usually born by different entities depending on the circumstances relating to a person’s forced displacement status (e.g. whether someone is an asylum seeker, refugee, stateless person, internally displaced person etc.) Finally, the Note outlines several benefits to host countries, local communities and the humanitarian aid sector, where mobile services – including mobile money accounts – are readily accessible by FDPs.
