Civitas ID Receives $500,000 Grant to Build Open-Source Digital Public Infrastructure Closing the Documentation Gap

• $500,000 two-year grant from the Gates Foundation to advance open-source Digital Public Infrastructure designed for people excluded from formal systems due to documentation gaps
• Advances open-source technology leveraging open standards and artificial intelligence
• Addresses the documentation gap that prevents nearly a billion people from fully participating in the global economy, initially focused on displaced populations where the barrier is most acute

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Civitas ID, a US-based nonprofit building open-source digital identity infrastructure, today announced a two-year, $500,000 grant from the Gates Foundation. The funding continues the development of a resilient Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) specifically designed to close the documentation gap that prevents nearly a billion people worldwide from fully participating in the global economy. Civitas is initially focused on displaced populations where the barrier is most acute, with technology built to serve the wider population over time.

A barrier keeping people around the world from formal work, banking, healthcare, and education is not poverty alone. It is the inability to prove who they are and what they have done in a way institutions recognize. Civitas is developing three components to close that gap: verifiable digital credentials that institutions issue and verify, a wallet where individuals hold and control their own credentials, and a platform that helps people navigate the services and aid available to them. Together they are designed to be durable, adopted by governments and multilateral institutions, and adapted by partners. Civitas is actively developing partnerships and pilot programs in Colombia and Kenya to close the documentation gap.

"Nearly a billion people lack documentation institutions will trust," said Colin Walsh, Founder and Board Chair, Civitas ID. "Civitas is initially focused on the 117.8 million forcibly displaced, where the barrier is most acute. They carry skills, ambitions, and the will to build stable lives. This funding from the Gates Foundation lets us build the digital public infrastructure to address the problem at scale and shift the paradigm from aid to self-reliance."

The architecture is open-source and inspectable, built on W3C Verifiable Credentials, Decentralized Identifiers, and open protocols. The credentials are designed for institutional recognition across governments, banks, employers, healthcare providers, and schools.

Human-centered design research led by IDEO.org has anchored the technology development in the actual needs of the people it serves. The objective is that people own their identities and use verifiable credentials to unlock opportunity, stability, and long-term mobility, wherever they are.

ABOUT CIVITAS ID
Civitas ID is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN 39-2324240) building open-source digital identity infrastructure. Civitas ID's mission is to turn documentation from an economic barrier into an institutionally recognized bridge to opportunity and integration. The organization's vision is a world where everyone can prove who they are and what they have done, wherever they are. Civitas ID has assembled a global ecosystem of humanitarian, academic, financial, technology, and legal partners across deployment corridors in Colombia and Kenya. Learn more at civitasid.org.

SOURCE Civitas ID