The World Bank Group has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest for a consulting assignment titled “Assessment of ASEAN Member States’ Readiness for Cross-Border Digital Identity and Verifiable Credentials.” The opportunity appears in the World Bank’s RFxNow system under ID 0002018938 and in its Administrative Procurement listings. The assignment was posted on November 11, 2025, with today marked as the closing date. It will be financed from the Bank’s internal budget and the Identification for Development trust fund.
The assignment’s core objective is to evaluate how prepared ASEAN Member States are for cross-border interoperability of digital identity systems and verifiable credentials. The World Bank specifies that the selected consulting firm will map and analyze national digital identity ecosystems and governance arrangements across 11 ASEAN Member States, explicitly including Timor-Leste. The scope is not limited to technology but extends to institutional roles, operating models, and the way identity schemes are governed in each jurisdiction. The Bank has been actively supporting national digital ID programs globally, including Nigeria’s expanded 180 million enrollment target and Indonesia’s digital identity infrastructure.
A substantial component of the work is a legal and policy review. The terms call for an examination of laws, regulations, and policies related to digital identity, electronic authentication, data protection, and cross-border data flows in each participating country. The goal is to determine how far current legal frameworks already support cross-border recognition of digital identities and verifiable credentials, and to identify gaps or inconsistencies that might hinder interoperability. On the technical side, the firm will be expected to assess standards, trust frameworks, and other technical aspects of interoperability readiness, including the maturity of existing infrastructures to support cross-border exchange and verification of digital identity data and credentials. The World Bank categorizes this as an ICT services assignment for firms working on operational projects, underscoring both its technological and policy-sensitive character.
Deliverables include evidence-based recommendations and a high-level roadmap to support ASEAN-wide interoperability. In practice, the Bank is seeking a comparative regional view that shows where each Member State stands and outlines steps for moving toward a harmonized framework, analogous in concept to other cross-border digital identity initiatives but tailored to ASEAN’s institutional and technical context. The work is described as primarily desk-based, with virtual consultations in each ASEAN Member State rather than on-site missions, implying structured engagement with ministries, regulators, and other key stakeholders such as national digital identity providers or central banks.
Multiple tender aggregators, including GlobalTenders, SingaporeTenders, and TendersOnTime, mirror the World Bank notice. They consistently describe the assignment as a World Bank financed consulting tender focused on assessing ASEAN’s readiness for cross-border digital identity and verifiable credentials, confirm the November 18, 2025 deadline, and reference the same World Bank tender identifier. These secondary sources do not add substantive technical details beyond the official advertisement but corroborate the timing and basic parameters of the opportunity.
Sources: World Bank RFxNow; World Bank Administrative Procurement listing; GlobalTenders
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By Cass Kennedy
