Sanjay Dharwadker | Digital ID Consultant
United Nations and World Bank

Sanjay Dharwadker is an expert on digital identity, ID documents, biometrics, cybersecurity and fintech. He works of global identity standards with ISO and ICAO (travel documents) among others. His current focus areas include digital identity in the humanitarian and developmental space, civil registration, evidence of identity and data protection. Sanjay Dharwadker has over 3 decades of experience in the field, having worked in Asia (1989 - 2004), Africa (2004 - 2014) and Europe (2014 - 2025) for leading technological companies, national governments as well as the United Nations and the World Bank. He has recently retired from UNHCR as a senior digital identity officer and continues to consult on the subject. He is a participant at the Hague Colloquium on the future of legal identity (Bhalisa) and writes regularly on the subject. Sanjay Dharwadker is a member of the Crime Writer's Association (CWA) of the UK, published his first crime thriller "Diamond in my Palm" in 2019 and in 2025 released his second novel "Forbundsby" in chapters on substack. He lives in South Africa and divides his time between Johannesburg and Cape Town.