The jargon problem keeping public participation out of DPI design

In Malawi, many people lacked the connectivity or devices to use their digital ID. The fix was an offline digital ID, a QR code that lets them securely access public services even without online access. 

Ethiopia was one of the world’s first countries to extend its national digital ID, Fayda, to refugees through its national ID programme's collaboration between the federal government agency managing refugees and an UN organisation. 

Neither story was told in the language of “digital public infrastructure (DPI)," a term commonly used by governments and technologists to describe shared digital systems that enable societal inclusion. 

These systems include digital ID, digital payments, and data exchange. 

“If you don’t see yourself as a DPI or a digital organisation, and the communications only revolve

around ‘let’s come and talk about DPI,' they won’t come to the table, and we will be missing a lot of value,” said Natalia Carfi, executive director of the Open Data Charter (a global non-profit advocating for open data). 

Citing healthcare systems interoperability as an example, it makes sense to engage with healthcare organisations, including non-digital ones, to assess the impact of data sharing on users. 

She was speaking in the webinar titled "DPI: How Can Open Government Help?" on October 15, alongside DPI and inclusion experts, organised by the Open Government Partnership (OGP) (a voluntary global initiative working with governments to promote transparency).

The speakers made a call for DPI implementors to make clear the opportunities for public participation, and leverage this participation to meet the very goal of DPI systems. 

DPI as a term built for implementers 

Research done by Carfi’s organisation and partners found that civil society groups across Latin America are familiar with using the digital ID and digital payment systems. 

What’s missing was clarity on where, and how, the public could take part in the design and rollout of these systems.  

“It’s not that nothing has been done before,” she said. “Maybe it wasn’t called DPI.” 

While governments have these infrastructure and policies in place, people often don’t know about them, citing data protection policies as an example, said Naveen Varshan, UNDP’s Global DPI Specialist. 

He highlighted the lack of policy awareness and communication as an issue raised by civil society groups across the applications submitted for UNDP’s DPI Safeguards Accelerator. 

Varshan noted that many countries are still early in their DPI rollout, so feedback and grievance redress channels may not exist yet. 

As governments are now focused on the technical rollout and hitting launch targets, they may not see what outside groups could add.  

While the accelerator showed clear opportunities for public participation in DPI, the challenge was convincing governments to see its value and move from consultation to long-term partnership with the public. 

Co-Develop (a global non-profit fund focused on DPI)'s Director for Inclusion, Safety & Civil Society Engagement, Matthew McNaughton, who moderated the webinar, relayed an audience member's comment that DPI tends to be seen as “the preserve of government”, with little shared

about safeguards and system design.  

While spaces for participation are growing, they are sometimes not well communicated, he said. 

How 'public' in DPI looks like in practice 

Nigeria offered an example of what a collaborative process between government and civil society looks like in practice.  

In its latest OGP action plan, which runs to 2029, the Nigerian government has included a commitment on DPI. 

Uchenna Arisukwu, civil society advisor in Nigeria, said that Nigeria’s focus on DPI grew out of the government's concern that people would be excluded as the public sector digitalises its services. 

The new DPI commitment is now being driven by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), alongside civil society groups. 

Oluseyi Olufemi, country director of the Dataphyte Foundation (the non-profit arm of a Nigerian civic tech company), co-chairs OGP's digital governance group, which works closely with NITDA on OGP's commitments.  

He said that its members span different professionals (lawyers, academics, regulators, the central bank, and media) across public and private sectors, working together to develop standards and build in measures to make DPI more accessible for less-advantaged populations. 

These included rural, non-literate, non-English-speaking and visually impaired users. 

The group planned to pilot the standards with 10 federal agencies, then extend to states and local governments, within the next two years. 

Invite stakeholders on the problem 

The speakers shared some practical steps to start and sustain a collaboration between governments and the public on DPI. 

Firstly, know what the conversation is for. Participation without a clear endpoint can backfire, Carfi said.  

She advised governments to "understand the question before we open up the door to a participatory process.”  

Secondly, layer the conversations from bigger themes around what the "public" means in DPI to sector-specific conversations. 

Thirdly, invite people on the problem they care about. McNaughton said that consultations work best when there is “a clear sense that we can create value to solve this problem that affects all of us”.  

In Brazil, the central bank worked with a consumer protection group, Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor (IDEC), to design a redress mechanism for people defrauded on Pix, the digital payment platform. 

Finally, build the relationships before the hard decisions. At the UNDP, Varshan's work starts with an assessment that brings government, civil society, and the private sector together. 

The prioritisation exercise is where the relationships go to the next level, he said. 

At the assessment stage, stakeholders tend to not suspect each other's intention of influencing one another, he noted. 

"By the time we get to design, we are usually in a good place where the stakeholders have some form of trust to start working on building a coalition together," he shared, highlighting the success story of Dominican Republic.  

Since 2024 until now, the government engaged in a process with UNDP, from committing to a plan to design DPI safeguards, assessing and prioritising areas to work on with other stakeholders across government, civil society and private sector, developing an action plan, measuring milestones, and sustaining progress.