Knowledge-sharing crucial as the world looks to the future of DPI

As the global conversation about why DPI is important advances, so is that about how to implement them. A panel of experts during a recent webinar organized by the Center for Strategic and Internation Studies (CSIS) shared tips for successfully implementing DPI, and one of the issues that came out strongly is the imperative nature of knowledge-sharing with countries executing similar projects.

Speakers during the webinar were experts from Brazil, India, Ukraine, and Zambia. They each described the progress made by these countries in building their DPI ecosystems, the challenges they encountered, the lessons learnt and the perspectives and plans for the future.

Fabro Steibel, executive director of the Institute for Technology and Society (ITS) who spoke about the Brazil situation, said the country has made significant progress in its DPI journey thanks to the collaborative frameworks it has built over the years with different partners, especially those in the private sector.

He recommended such collaboration to other countries and insisted that “it should happen more at the level of governance.” Steibel also discouraged the adoption of locked in technologies, and advised that countries go for open-source software such as MOSIP. Brazil recently introduced a legislation that makes DPI a core component of its digital government strategy.

To Shatakratu Sahu, Research analyst and co-convenor of the Global Technology Summit, from Carnegie India, countries must be clear about why they are establishing DPI, so as to build context-specific solutions. He said already a model in DPI, the country is now looking to share more of its experience, and advance its global collaboration and partnerships network. India’s G20 Task Force recently launched a report that proposes guidelines to aid global DPI efforts.

Sahu added that it is also important to close the digital divide through expanding connectivity, and increasing digital literacy levels in order to make people understand the importance of those digital building blocks and how to use them.

On her part, Gulsanna Mamediieva, adviser to the Vice Prime Minister for Innovations, Development of Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, emphasized that DPI must be inclusive. “We must think of the vulnerable groups and make the system inclusive and easy to use by everyone,” she mentioned.

With her country now ravaged by war, she wondered how things would be like if Ukraine had no DPI before the invasion. She confessed that it would have been difficult to get the country going after the invasion if a solid DPI was not in place. “Thanks to Diia, people have had several war-related services,” she mentioned.

Diia, which went open-source a few months ago, is a one-stop-shop digital government application which facilitates access to different types of services in Ukraine, said Mamediieva.

It has become so popular that at least 17 official document types can now be carried on the app, eliminating the need for paper or plastic documentation. The app has all components of DPI, she says, as it contains a digital ID, digital payments and data exchange features.

In his own view, Robert Karanja, senior director for Africa at Co-Develop, reiterated that DPI are an excellent way to enable people have access to the services they need. This, among other things, requires “significant investment, inclusivity and safeguards,” he noted.

He spoke about Zambia’s efforts in building DPI and that one of the things the country is currently engaged in is legislative reforms to tie with the government’s ambitions. “Zambia is also looking at a data sharing and digital government infrastructure by setting up a platform ZamPortal which enables citizens to access different services from either a mobile device or a web platform,” said Karanja.

Article Topics

CSIS  |  digital identity  |  digital inclusion  |  digital public infrastructure  |  government services  |  open source  |  vendor lock-in