A mobile-first digital identity layer that lets citizens use their phone-based national credentials to access government services across borders is scaling to 12 countries in Latin America, backed by a five-million-dollar commitment from Google.org.
The system, called IdLAC, functions as a digital identity broker connecting national identity providers with public and private services that require cross-border user verification. Rather than transferring biometric or personal data between jurisdictions, IdLAC relies on cryptographic assertions from each nation’s identity provider to confirm a user’s verified status, allowing authentication to happen on the user’s mobile device through their home country’s digital credential.
IdLAC launched in October 2025 with a pilot enabling foreign visitors to Chile to complete immigration processes using Chile’s ClaveUnica digital identity system. The platform is now expanding to support transactions across 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with planned use cases including cross-border tax filing, healthcare access, and migration procedures.
The Google.org funding, announced during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., will flow through Co-Develop, a nonprofit fund that finances digital public infrastructure development in low- and middle-income countries. The initiative is part of a broader partnership between Google and the Inter-American Development Bank aimed at accelerating government digital modernization across the region.
The Co-Develop fund, established with backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the IDB, and reportedly also supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, finances open-source digital public goods that governments can adopt and customize for national use. The fund prioritizes interoperable systems designed to avoid vendor lock-in and ensure long-term governmental control over critical infrastructure.
For mobile users across the region, IdLAC represents a shift toward portable digital identity: rather than creating new accounts or carrying physical documents when crossing borders, residents can authenticate through the credential already on their phone. The interoperable design means a single mobile identity app issued by one country can serve as a verified login across participating nations.
As part of the partnership with the IDB, Google is also offering free artificial intelligence training courses for government officials across the region, aimed at building technical capacity within the public institutions that will manage and operate the new digital systems.
Sources: Google Blog, World Bank
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By the Mobile ID World Editorial Team
