Defining and building digital public infrastructure for all

Global communications networks are increasingly multi-layered. Alongside hard infrastructure like cables, towers, data centres, and satellites, every country needs a multiplicity of systems, institutions, and human skills to function as a digital economy and society.

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) and digital public goods (DPGs) are relatively new concepts. These terms emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments recognized digital capabilities as more than just a “nice to have”.

Countries with elements of DPI in place before the pandemic managed to keep more services functioning via online channels.

Since then, the DPI approach has gained traction through the G20, particularly under India’s presidency of the group in 2023, which produced the first multilateral consensus on why DPI matters for successful socio-economic development.

United Nations agencies have embraced these concepts as a promising avenue for sustainable development impact.

“Systems like digital ID, payments, and trusted data sharing – whether for public- or private-sector transactions – have become integral to the world’s multi-layered digital infrastructure,” says Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). “Such platforms are essential to give citizens fast, easy access to services, and this fosters local innovation.”

The Global Digital Compact, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 22 September considers DPI and DPGs to be key drivers of inclusive digital transformation and innovation.

DPI goes global

The Global DPI Summit in Cairo, Egypt, on 1-3 October, attracted about 730 government, industry and civil-society delegates from over 100 countries, confirming DPI and DPGs as more than an emerging trend.

Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology hosted the discussions in Cairo’s New Administrative Capital district with prominent international support.

ITU – the UN agency for digital technologies and a summit co-host – emphasized the need for standardized, shareable, and open-source software to ensure secure and sustainable access to public and private services for everyone.

But what does it mean, really?

Explaining DPI and DPGs precisely can be a challenge, with several summit speakers acknowledging that common definitions remain elusive. In relatively simple terms, DPI provides the physical, institutional and regulatory foundation for online applications to deliver public services by digital channels. Those services are DPGs.

Proponents regard DPGs as autonomous socio-economic “building blocks” that are flexible and reusable in different sectors and uses. Furthermore, DPGs should be widely interoperable, not just across the public and private sectors but even across borders.

DPI can be illustrated with some successful real-world examples: India’s Aadhar (digital identity), Brazil’s Pix (payments), and Estonia’s X-Road (data exchange) all operate successfully at societal scale.

Technological innovations, policy frameworks, and implementation models based on open access and digital delivery are reshaping public infrastructure worldwide.

ITU sessions at the summit, for example, spotlighted the new African DPI Blueprint Initiative, DPI for education, and open standards for DPI interoperability and digital wallets.

Accelerating Africa’s digital transformation

The African Digital Public Infrastructure Blueprint aims to provide a platform for sharing case studies, lessons learned, and references to help countries develop their digital infrastructure.

ITU is spearheading the initiative alongside the United Nations (UN) Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and the African Union Commission.

“The blueprint can support countries with developing digital access across horizontals that are going to be scalable, instead of in the usual, more restricted, vertical manner,” said ITU’s Regional Director for Africa, Emmanuel Manasseh.

Interoperable DPI could also help in activating the African Digital Single Market, intended to create a secure continent-wide digital space where people and businesses can obtain or sell digital goods and services without barriers. It all hinges on establishing harmonized payment regulations.

Beyond online learning

Giga, the ITU-UNICEF initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet by 2030, is exploring how DPI could improve education and stimulate transformative lifelong learning.

India has progressed the furthest so far with “soft infrastructure” for DPGs in education.

Some 11,000 organizations and individuals have developed 365,000 pieces of content in 34 languages across the country, said Shankar Maruwada, co-founder and CEO of Ekstep Foundation and co-chair at the Centre for Open Societal Systems.

India’s autonomous states have each contributed to their customized digital learning programmes. “The foundation layer allows for the upper layers to be customized,” Maruwada said.

All this depends on school connectivity – with DPI enhancing Giga’s drive to bring digital access both to schools and their surrounding communities.

Giga’s new DPI Education Accelerator – announced at the Cairo summit – aims to stimulate global discussions and drive forward scalable solutions for digital education.

Founding the future on DPI interoperability

Standards set by ITU help various players exchange data of all kinds reliably, with interoperability driving economic inclusion, sustainable development and efficient public service delivery.

Along with open DPI standards, people and businesses need secure and interoperable “digital wallets” that work internationally.

Common standards also reassure investors about the viability of DPI and DPGs. Keeping standards simple reduces costs, panellists at the interoperability session said.

Making digital wallets work worldwide

ITU and the Linux Foundation are promoting DPI through their joint OpenWallet Forum, bringing governments and the private sector together to discuss the policy and standards required for digital wallets.

“Ultimately citizens are going to interact with the DPI using digital wallets,” said Venkatesen Mauree, Programme Coordinator at ITU. “Hence the importance of cross-border interoperability for digital wallets and the need to support different content credentials, not only for identity and payments but other content, like health certificates, educational qualifications and travel documents.”

The UN International Computing Centre (UNICC) and the Government of Switzerland also support the recently launched initiative, with multistakeholder collaboration meetings set to start next year.

ITU’s membership – encompassing 194 member states and over 1000 companies and research institutes – can, together with the UNICC community, help promote and disseminate OpenWallet software access worldwide.

The Global DPI Summit was hosted by Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and co-hosted by global non-profit Co-Develop, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank.