The Foundation

The standards layer, kept in the public interest.

The Civic Anchor Foundation is an independent body that authors and stewards the open specifications for cross-border digital identity. Its independence from the operating company is exactly what lets those standards be adopted and cited royalty-free.

Visit civicanchor.org

Why independent

Standards only hold if they’re not captured.

A standard owned by a single company is a product, not a standard. The Foundation is structurally separate from Civic Anchor Group — with its own governance — so the specifications can be trusted by regulators, competitors, and member states alike.

Governed independently

The Foundation operates under its own board and counsel, separate from the operating company — the firewall that keeps the public-interest layer credible.

Open and royalty-free

The schemas, the resolver protocol, and the digital-trade-identity standard are published for anyone to adopt — the implementation captures value, not the spec.

The work

The specifications the regulation can cite.

When a framework is named in regulation, interoperability runs through it. These are the standards the Foundation authors and contributes to.

AfCFTA digital trade-identity standard

An open specification for trusted trader identity across the continental free-trade area — authored to be adopted and cited royalty-free.

African Union digital-ID reference

A reference implementation member states can point to when they ask the Union for guidance on interoperable digital identity.

Regional trust-service status

Designated trust-service provider status, sought per regional bloc, so recognition runs through a published, auditable framework.

Global standards participation

Contributing membership in the international identity-standards bodies, ensuring African-context requirements are upstream, not retrofitted.

The Foundation has its own home.

Governance, the published specifications, and the standards roadmap live at civicanchor.org — independent of this corporate site by design.

civicanchor.org

Contribute to the standards.

Standards bodies, regulators, and academic partners who want to shape cross-border digital identity for Africa — we want your inputs upstream, not retrofitted.