South Sudan: In the World’s Youngest Nation, How Do You Prove You Exist?

What if you had no way to prove who you are? No document, no record, no recognition.

In South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, this is not hypothetical. It is the daily reality for a mother trying to enroll her child in secondary school, a young man seeking his first job, or one of the more than 1.3 million people who have crossed into South Sudan since the 2023 outbreak of conflict in Sudan—most of them returnees arriving with little more than what they could carry, and no documentation to prove who they are or where they belong—attempting to access food assistance. Without proof of identity, formal employers cannot legally hire, pay, or register workers for tax and social security purposes, leaving millions of South Sudanese, particularly youth, locked out of the formal labor market and confined to informal, insecure, and often exploitative work.

According to the World Bank’s newly published Identification for Development (ID4D) Country Diagnostic for South Sudan, nearly 90% of South Sudan’s population lacks any form of government-recognized identification. Women, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, refugees, and other vulnerable groups are disproportionately excluded.

Inclusive and trusted ID systems are critical enablers of sustainable development, as they strengthen government capacity, expand access to public and private services, support financial inclusion and private sector growth, and facilitate regional and global integration.

Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan, home to approximately 12.2 million people, has been shaped by cycles of conflict that have significantly constrained its development trajectory. These prolonged crises, combined with economic hardship, have limited institutional capacity, reducing the government’s ability to deliver basic services. Poverty remains widespread, with an estimated 92% of the population living below the national poverty line.

The Country Diagnostic highlights how these broader challenges are reflected in the country’s identity ecosystem. Civil registration systems remain largely non-operational, with only limited birth notifications issued through a small number of health facilities, despite the majority of births taking place outside formal health systems. Low awareness, limited incentives among health workers, and logistical barriers further constrain registration, resulting in approximately 90% of births going unrecorded.

South Sudan relies on a dual credential system comprising the Nationality Certificate (NC) and the National Identity Card (NIC). The NC, which establishes nationality, is a prerequisite for obtaining the NIC, the credential intended to serve as the primary proof of identity for transactions and access to services. However, acquiring an NC is a burdensome and costly process. In the absence of birth certificates, applicants must undergo costly age assessments or blood tests, travel long distances to centralized offices, and navigate complex and inconsistently applied procedures. These barriers disproportionately affect those who are already at risk of exclusion, including women, displaced populations, and residents of remote areas. As a result, most individuals do not proceed to obtain a NIC, nor, in many cases, any credential at all.

While large numbers of citizens—over 10 million require humanitarian support, according to UNOCHA—depend on external assistance, weak registration and identification systems limit the government’s ability to reliably target, deliver, and monitor benefits. By the end of 2025, the country hosted over 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers. In addition, renewed violence in South Sudan since February 2025 has triggered large-scale displacement, forcing around 164,000 people to flee to neighboring countries and leaving 1.4 million people internally displaced. For returnees and displaced populations, the lack of documentation is a barrier not only to humanitarian aid but to economic reintegration. Many donor-funded livelihoods programs, cash-for-work initiatives, and vocational training schemes also require some form of identity verification for enrollment, meaning undocumented returnees are often excluded from precisely the programs designed to help them rebuild their livelihoods.