Location: India

In December of 2023, India passed the baton of the G20 presidency to Brazil after a record year of elevating the importance of digital public infrastructure (DPI)—an approach to designing and governing foundational systems to maximize inclusion, innovation, and availability of digital capabilities. This expert comment explores Brazil’s opportunity to advance that momentum – and ensure digital technology and data sharing effectively meet the needs of the Global South.

Digital public infrastructure was a niche term just a year or two ago. Today, it’s a globally recognized driver of economic development. This is in large part thanks to the efforts of the G20 this year.

In order to understand the reality on the ground, the Digital Impact Alliance has produced three mini-briefs based on initiatives in mostly developing countries that seek to reach and provide highly localized digital products and services for digitally marginalized populations through a human-centered approach to data governance.

As we collectively face extraordinary and unprecedented challenges, we need technology to work for us in advancing, not undermining, our goals.

As governments build out identity, payment, civil registration, and other foundational layers of digital public infrastructure, civil society organizations, privacy advocates, and others are understandably raising concerns over surveillance and privacy.