Uruguay and Brazil are collaborating to launch a digital ID broker system by the end of this year, aiming to advance cross-border digital identification and integration in Latin America. The initial deployment will connect Uruguay’s ID Uruguay system with Brazil’s GOV.br platform, allowing citizens to access digital public services beyond their national borders.
The initiative builds on progress achieved last October, when an early integration allowed Brazilian citizens to use their national digital IDs to access around 40 services in Uruguay. While some sources cite 40 services, official figures from the Inter-American Development Bank list 39, indicating minor discrepancies in service counts across different reports.
Juan Pablo García Cairello, Digital Signature and Identification Manager at AGESIC, Uruguay’s Govtech agency, noted that the team is working toward implementing the model broker in select countries by the end of the year, integrating it with both ID Uruguay and GOV.br for relevant use cases. He emphasized that this broker would help unify digital identification at a regional level and enable smoother interactions between national systems.
The digital ID broker is designed to separate national and international digital identity ecosystems while handling data transformations and verifications required for cross-border services. This architecture ensures that national identity systems remain autonomous but can interoperate through standardized protocols when citizens need to access services outside their home country. According to GovInsider, the broker’s design is intended to enhance cybersecurity, support decentralized identity systems, and integrate emerging standards like Open ID Connect for Verifiable Credentials (OIDC4VC). The platform will also produce extensive statistical data to guide policy-making and support open-data initiatives across the region.
The development of the broker system has attracted significant international backing. Organizations including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Organisation of American States (OAS), the World Bank, and Co-Develop are providing technical and financial support. The GEALC Network, a group focused on advancing e-government initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean, is actively contributing to the system’s development.
The Center for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI) and the Digital Public Goods Alliance have also expressed interest in the project, with the Digital Public Goods Alliance indicating plans to accredit the broker once it is completed. The 50 in 5 coalition has also publicly endorsed the initiative, viewing it as a significant step toward regional digital integration.
A key advantage of the broker model is its scalability. The system has been designed to accommodate additional countries in the future and to support multiple public and private digital identity providers within each participating nation, ensuring that both government services and private-sector applications can benefit from cross-border digital identity interoperability.
As Latin American governments increasingly pursue digital transformation, the Uruguay-Brazil broker project could become a template for broader regional cooperation.
Sources: GovInsider
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By Ji-seo Kim
