Digital public infrastructure and public value: What is 'public' about DPI?

This paper examines the concept of ‘publicness’ in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). It argues that this concept isn’t neutral and requires explicit consideration of underlying values and governance. The paper proposes a ‘common good’ framework to strengthen DPI’s value creation, emphasizing both technical attributes and functional purposes.

Key Insights

Principle 1: Setting Directionality

DPI, like traditional infrastructure, possesses a direction, so the nature of that direction should be made explicit and prioritised. Explicit normative public values should support DPI creation and the use of digital identity should consider priority use cases without losing sight of broader applicability.

Principle 2: Co-creation and Participation

The effort that co-creation requires cannot be downplayed, but it will likely significantly impact the chances for long-term policy success. In the early stages of DPI conceptualisation, the state creates the institutional mechanisms for collaboration and finds a role for different societal actors to contribute ex-ante, not ex-post. “Pix Forum had more than 130 members, including the most obvious (such as credit card operators, banks and fintechs), but also civil society organisations and small business associations.”

Principle 3: Collective Learning and Knowledge-Sharing

A genuinely collective value creation process requires that actors involved in the implementation learn from each other’s successes and failures, and evolve in their innovation process. Innovative institutional examples may be a vehicle for collective learning.

Principle 4: Access for all and reward-sharing

This pillar, if an infrastructure is directed towards collective benefits, it must be universally accessible and its rewards must be shared with society. Bangladesh has expanded DPI to include an additional ‘access layer’, which turns DPI into ‘phygital public infrastructure’ (Chowdhury 2023). The access layer encompasses physical locations and call centres, improving DPI’s accessibility for individuals with disabilities and those in underserved communities in remote rural areas.

Principle 5: Transparency and accountability

Data consent and audit, a public-interest entity, and accessible and transparent decisions can enhance transparency and accountability. “One well-known example is Estonia’s e-health portal, which allows citizens to see who has accessed their data and when.”

Key Statistics & Data

• The UNDP (2023) estimates that by 2030, a DPI approach could lead to a 20-33% potential growth acceleration through financial DPI.
• The UNDP (2023) estimates that by 2030, a DPI approach could lead to a circa 4% carbon emissions reduction through carbon trading DPI.
• The UNDP (2023) estimates that by 2030, a DPI approach could lead to a 28-42% increase in access to justice as DPI facilitates faster case management and reliable open dispute resolution (ODR).
• Because merchants transfer their fees to retail prices, the indirect ‘credit card tax’ is estimated to reduce annual consumer and total welfare by $7billionand$10 billion, respectively (Wang 2023).

Methodology

This paper reviews the literature on traditional infrastructure and digital transformation processes, identifies two high-level frames for value creation (attributes and functional perspectives), and applies them to the DPI context. It introduces the notion of ‘common good’ and explores its relevance for DPI governance.

Implications and Conclusions

The paper concludes that DPI’s value creation potential is significant, but it requires a focus on explicit public values, governance aligned with the common good, and a prominent role for the state. It calls for further research on specific policy tools and management mechanisms to apply a common good governance framework to DPI.