Estonia eGovernance Academy joins the Secure Identity Alliance

Paris, October 18, 2016 – The Secure Identity Association (SIA), the global identity and secure eServices advisory body, today announces that Estonia e-Governance Academy (eGA) has joined the Association as an Advisory Observer.

As government’s around the world continue to wrestle with the considerable security, privacy and practical issues of delivering effective eService strategies, the need to share experiences and best practice is crucial to truly successful national outcomes.

Just as the SIA provides non-partisan guidance on the complex technical, interoperability and deployment issues of secure digital identity, the eGA focuses its enviable and complimentary work on the areas of e-governance, e-democracy, digital identity and national cyber security.

As an Advisory Observer of the SIA, the eGA will provide invaluable input into the SIA’s workgroups and publications. Together with the SIA’s growing number of government and non-government partners, it will play a key role in driving policy to develop frameworks and guidance to support the successful delivery of eService strategies around the world.

The SIA is delighted to welcome eGA’s Digital Identity Expert and Senior Consultant Ms Mari Pedak as the representative Observer. Ms Pedak has a remarkable expertise of planning and implementing e-government and e-identity programme activities, participating in related international projects and consulting governments in the fields of e-government and e-identity. Previously she was a leading civil servant in the Estonian government for 22 years, including as Director General of the Citizenship and Migration Board for many years. Under her leadership and participation Estonia’s identity and authentication policies were developed and a digital identity card was introduced in 2002. In 2007 the consolidation of the ICT services of the Ministry of the Interior was carried out and the largest ICT authority in the Estonian public sector – the ICT and Development Centre of the Ministry of the Interior – was created under her leadership.

Commenting on the news, Frédéric Trojani, President of the Secure Identity Alliance said: “Only by promoting consistency and best practice can we support the eService needs of governments across the world. We must learn from one another, and develop structures and frameworks that address the inherently complex financial, social, political and technical issues of eService provision. Ms Pedak’s contribution, and the eGA’s experience of working with some 50 countries, will be invaluable to this process. We look forward to a very successful working relationship.”

Commenting on the announcement, Mari Pedak, Digital Identity Expert, eGA said: “The secure digital identity is the one information society is based on and a key to public eServices. All governments in the world are looking for the best practice. We are glad to join Secure Identity Alliance to share Estonian expertise of digital identity development and provision of secure eServices for the citizens and e-residents.”