In recent years, digital public infrastructure (DPI) has gained enormous traction from countries across the world – and for good reason. As an approach to building the foundational infrastructure that underpins modern digital economies, DPI is designed for modularity and interoperability – working across sectors, departments, and use-cases. When done right, the whole is more than the sum of its parts, promoting inclusion, socio-economic growth, and gender equity.
On the other hand, when digital systems are labeled DPI but are implemented in isolation and without proper safeguards in place, these systems can present very real risks to both governments and people – wasting money and undermining public trust, for example the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s recent canceled ID system. That’s why, as the digital development community works to advance safe, equitable, and inclusive digital systems, we must ensure that robust and effective safeguards are maintained throughout the entire lifecycle – from the design, delivery, and ultimately, ongoing governance.
While the discussion around safeguards is still in the early stages, the Universal DPI Safeguards Framework offers a welcome step forward.
Through a series of consultations and discussions among global experts from the private, public, and civil society sectors, the UN’s Universal DPI Safeguards Initiative established a framework of the necessary principles and processes for national implementation of DPI that prioritizes people’s rights and wellbeing. As chair of the initiative’s Governance Working Group, I was pleased to be among those contributing to this critical, collaborative effort.
Yesterday, the initiative released the final version of its framework, with an overview of the why, who, when, and how of implementing DPI safeguards. In particular, the how section outlines a series of clear principles, actions, and recommendations for countries and ecosystem actors that can assure the safety and inclusion of people through all phases of digital project implementation.
This actionable set of guidance is a good starting point – in particular, we know that shared principles provide a strategic foundation to guide technology design, delivery, and governance. Importantly, they also form a shared vocabulary to foster common understanding of concepts, which in turn enables continuous collaboration.
As the stewards of the Principles for Digital Development (or Digital Principles), we are encouraged to see that the DPI Safeguards Framework builds on these 9 foundational principles, which mark their 10-year anniversary this year. With over 300 endorsing organizations and growing, and with their inclusion in other important frameworks such as the Donor Principles for Human Rights in the Digital Age, the Digital Principles remain an essential compass to guide sustainable and inclusive development.
There are several common themes set forth by the principles in the DPI Safeguards Framework and echoed by the Digital Principles, which we believe are critical to building safe, trusted and inclusive DPI:
Protecting people. Good design starts and ends with people that will manage, use, and ideally benefit from a given digital initiative. Providing sufficient opportunities for the broad community of stakeholders to participate and feed into design processes is essential. This inclusive process ensures DPI is being built with the needs and considerations of as many diverse groups as possible. Only by considering the full range of human diversity, can we maximize impact and avoid perpetuating harm.
Considering context. As countries are developing their DPI, they do so in vastly different circumstances and with a different landscape of enablers and liabilities. The risks identified in the framework must be proactively managed in the context of each specific sociopolitical environment.
Maintaining openness. To establish and maintain trust in the digital ecosystem, people need to have confidence in digital policies, services, and systems. This confidence is nurtured through open and transparent practices, which in turn foster accountability. The framework suggests DPI can be made transparent and accountable through public oversight, free and open markets, and using open assets like digital public goods.
While the framework is a good start, our work is just beginning.
I firmly believe the DPI Safeguards Framework is an important milestone for bringing together the global community to align our understanding of risks and the need for safeguards. It provides a strong schema for understanding different risk mitigation strategies for national DPI implementation.
Yet, while normalizing – and building upon – the framework is the first step, it is crucial to avoid global fragmentation as we do so. For example, international trade requires confidence in interoperable systems and harmonized data protections. Regional preparedness for disease outbreak requires confidence in how data is exchanged and for what purpose. And, job creation for migrants can be enhanced with trusted, verifiable credentials that are accepted across borders. In short, our interconnected world rests on trusted connections and governance of digital systems.
As DPI adoption has rapidly increased worldwide, with particularly increased growth in countries like Africa and Asia, the need for coordinated international efforts has become even more pressing. This global expansion of DPI underscores the urgency for countries to come together and continue the development of robust safeguards and standards. Countries need to work together in multinational forums, such as the G20, to develop a robust system of safeguards that ensure safety, interoperability, and ethical practices across borders – and operational guides on how to apply them. It’s crucial to recognize that no single country can set global standards alone; international collaboration is essential.
This collaboration should include establishing global or regional standards for technical interoperability, cross-border data sharing, and data protections. To support these efforts, international bodies (such as ITU for technical standards and BIS for financial aspects) could create standardized audit processes for DPI practices and facilitate regular reporting and compliance with minimum standards across countries. While there is a growing library of frameworks and toolkits focused on building and operating DPI, the global community needs more ways to identify and understand the impact of new technologies that significantly shape societies and economies to anticipate and proactively mitigate risks.
We have much further to go to in promoting globally relevant safeguards that advance solid governance of and trust in DPI. That’s why, in support of this vision, my team and I are focusing on the following efforts:
- Defining and measuring the impact of DPI. To realize DPI’s full positive potential, establishing benchmarks and impact metrics is key. We believe there is a need to collectively develop a blueprint and implementation roadmap to accurately gauge how DPI is benefiting people and communities across the world. Our team is undertaking collaborative research to do just that.
- Understanding best practices for online dispute resolution. The design and development of digital payments, digital identity, and data exchange as part of a DPI approach has already increased the number and range of people connected to widespread digital services where there is a risk of loss and harm if the service does not function as intended. Effective and efficient dispute resolution is needed to ensure that users are fairly treated – without user trust in the systems, they will not achieve large scale. Our team is leading a series of learning sessions to surface the most promising ways to ensure that accessible, secure, and fair online dispute resolution is embedded throughout DPI.
- Continuing our stewardship of the Principles for Digital Development, with further effort to galvanize the diverse community of endorsers to produce and share resources that can help others implement the principles. Just this week, we hosted a community call to showcase organizations putting the Digital Principles into practice and foster broader ownership and collaboration.
It is within our collective power to ensure that DPI is safe, trusted, and beneficial for all.
The UN’s new Universal DPI Safeguards Framework is an important milestone, and we remain optimistic as we look to continue this essential safeguards work into the future.
With a shared understanding of the DPI approach – and clear principles and recommendations to guide the way – we must now establish the standards, norms, and mechanisms that will steer international governance, build public trust, and protect people.
To develop and support trust in DPI, it’s essential that we involve as many voices as possible. You can help. We are curating a library of resources and guides from across the digital development community – all with the aim of sharing and reusing existing resources.
Do you have something you think the community might find helpful when it comes to people-centered digital transformation? Get in touch to contribute – email us at info@dial.global
