Aid and ID: Making People Matter

Humanitarian aid is undergoing a profound transformation. As budgets shrink, institutions retreat, and digital systems take on ever greater responsibility, identity management has quietly become one of the defining infrastructures of contemporary humanitarianism. *Aid and ID* offers a timely, practitioner-led account of this transformation and its implications for the future of humanitarian action. Tracing historical shifts from paper records and indelible ink marks to biometrics and digital credentials, this collected volume reveals the political struggles embedded in the systems used to make crisis-affected groups legible. It asks whose interests these identification systems will serve as they persist long after the emergencies they were designed to address. Editor Margie Cheesman is the author of *When Blockchain Meets Aid: The Human Costs of Innovation* (Princeton University Press, 2026), a landmark study of a key financial technology experiment in humanitarian aid. The contributors are experienced international aid practitioners working at the intersection of humanitarian action and technological innovation: Karl Steinacker, Volker Schimmel, Ryan Beech, Tina George Karippacheril and Juul Pinxten, Amalraj Nallainathan, Joseph Oliveros, Jaki Mebur, Amos Doornbos, Melyn McKay, Sandra Hart, Bronwen Manby. This work was developed by the Digital Sovereignty Observatory, a project supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Designed by Edwin Mingard. Published by charity press Hafan Books. ISBN: 9781738404995 https://www.lulu.com/shop/margie-cheesman/aid-and-id-making-people-matter/paperback/product-v825gv9.html