Lisa Garcia, Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA)
Serene Lim, KRYSS Network
Neha Gauchan, Body & Data
Shambhawi Paudel, Body & Data

E-governance initiatives are more than ever, becoming a national priority for many governments in the Asia-Pacific region. Adoption of e-governance is often conflated with “progress” and considered “good governance”; the same is not the case as the efforts to over-amplify tech solutions have brought more harm than “good”. Such initiatives often collect/process and share unique bodily data for verification and authentication that contribute to existing social inequities, especially among women and marginalized populations. Through this panel on “Digitisation of Identities in the Asia-Pacific through a Data Justice Lens”, we want to re-think of various e-governance initiatives by the states and discuss shared experiences and differences in their implementation in countries within the region. We will discuss the themes of efforts, diverse identities’ experiences with the initiatives and the effects of such programs on their lived realities.