Introduction

Over the past decade, our increasing reliance on digital systems has given rise to two parallel realizations: On one hand, digital solutions have incredible potential to power our economies and societies, but on the other, there is growing unease that our existing digital public infrastructure (DPI) is failing to deliver positive outcomes for all individuals due to a lack of sufficient accountability, accessibility, and security.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this duality, as digital solutions provided avenues for recovery and resilience, but also exacerbated economic and social inequality in places where people lacked access to digital tools and where public institutions lacked effective systems to deliver pandemic response. Concerns in the political and economic arenas—ranging from the harmful consequences of misinformation and disinformation to the misuse and commercial manipulation of individuals’ data—further underscore that our digital ecosystem requires urgent attention. These issues manifest uniquely in many countries around the world, regardless of their level of income or economic development.

In part, these challenges are a by-product of the way in which our digital systems developed. While many forms of physical infrastructure (such as roads, water, and electricity) exist thanks to public-private partnerships that built and facilitated safe, universal access over time, the same has not been true of the development, governance, and funding of our digital infrastructure. Although private-sector led technical development has catalyzed incredible innovation at lightning speed, several of the basic functions on which public and private services depend—such as verifying identity, making payments, and exchanging data—were not built into the rails of our existing networks. Technology companies have filled in those functional gaps with a patchwork of proprietary systems, some driven by extractive data monetization business models that are incompatible with healthy and open societies.

A growing movement of stakeholders across governments, international organizations, philanthropy, the international development community, and the private sector is exploring the need to define, identify, and invest in DPI. DPI refers to solutions and systems that enable the effective provision of essential society-wide functions and services in the public and private sectors. This includes but is not limited to:

• Digital forms of ID and identity verification;
• Civil registries;
• Payments, including digital transactions and money transfers;
• Data exchange; and
• Information systems.¹

To be of greatest use to the people and institutions both receiving and administering services, DPI should include digital platforms that are intended to:

• Reach population scale;
• Be replicable, interoperable, and adopted across organizations and jurisdictions,
• Facilitate cross-sector use cases; and
• Include a form of public accountability and governance to allow for greater transparency and oversight.

Essentially, DPI provides the foundation for public administration and economic activity for a diverse set of stakeholders, hardwired with accountability, effectiveness, equity, and security in order to provide better outcomes for individuals and societies. Just as roads, bridges, and other physical public infrastructure must be safe and easily accessible by everyone in society, so, too, should DPI.

One of the core value propositions of DPI is that it allows governments and organizations to develop replicable and open software solutions, share best practices, and promulgate applicable technical standards across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries. Rather than developing duplicative solutions to solve public challenges, stakeholders can collaborate to design and develop best-in-class solutions together and adapt them to meet local needs and use cases.

“Just as roads, bridges, and other physical public infrastructure must be safe and easily accessible by everyone in society, so, too, should DPI.”

It may be helpful to note that the lexicon is evolving to distinguish between DPI and the foundational components used to build DPI, known as digital public goods (DPGs) and building blocks. (For a more comprehensive explanation, see these definitions by the GovStack Community of Practice with the Digital Public Goods Alliance.)

Among several issues that will need to be addressed to unlock the emerging potential of DPI, this report is specifically focused on exploring how different actors could contribute and engage with a sustainable financing architecture. This analysis is timely, as momentum to institutionalize architecture for DPI has increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past year alone, global commitments include $295 million (USD) from multi-sector funders at the 2022 UN General Assembly to advance inclusive DPI,² consultations to promote a Digital Public Goods Charter,³ and ongoing work to support the Summit for Democracy’s Year of Action through institutional readiness and digital transformation efforts. With engagement on the rise, innovative approaches are needed now to align and coordinate stakeholders. The decisions made today will determine whether DPI is sustained through a secure, inclusive, participatory ecosystem, with long-term implications for the health and vibrancy of societies.

Looking toward the future, one actionable goal is elevating DPI development among the digital initiatives in which stakeholders invest. For example, the G7 Leaders Forum recently launched the Partnership for Global Infrastructure to mobilize $600 billion (USD) by 2027 for global infrastructure investments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including secure information and communications technology networks and infrastructure to power economic growth and facilitate open digital societies.⁴ If stakeholders create the architecture and incentives to invest a fraction of those funds into scalable DPI solutions, target countries could be better prepared to respond to sectoral challenges across the board.