UN’s 50-in-5 DPI campaign welcomes new members

The UN’s 50-in-5 campaign has signed up 6 new countries to its goal to speed up digital public infrastructure (DPI) deployment across the globe. Brazil, Cambodia, France, Nigeria, Ukraine and Uruguay are now a part of the initiative which aims to achieve safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure in 50 countries within five years.

“The expansion of the 50-in-5 campaign brings us closer to UNICEF’s commitment to growing the digital public goods ecosystem,” says Thomas Davin, director of the UNICEF Office of Innovation.

The initiative was launched in November 2023 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank and a coalition of civil society, industry and government partners. Its goal is to help countries design, launch, and scale components of their digital public infrastructure by 2028. The campaign was initially joined by 11 members, including Bangladesh, Estonia, Norway and Singapore.

The announcement of the new members and the overview of the 50-in-5 campaign’s progress was presented on Monday on the sidelines of the UN’s Summit of the Future in New York.

The high-level summit presented UN chief António Guterres’ ambitious Pact for the Future, a document containing 56 action points, covering everything from managing AI and climate change to UN Security Council reforms. The Pact also pledged to support the development of digital public infrastructure, including financial investments.

Another UN initiative born out of the drive is the Global Digital Compact, a set of proposals focused on the responsible use of digital technologies, bridging the digital divide, digital cooperation and AI governance. During a session on Monday discussing eliminating digital divides, the governments of Albania, Bhutan, Brazil and the Dominican Republic presented their own solutions in digital public infrastructure, including digital ID.

Bhutan boasted the establishment of the first legal framework for self-sovereign identity and the adoption of a national digital strategy, while Brazil explained how its United Registry for social policies and digital ID played a crucial role during this year’s Rio Grande do Sul floods which resulted in over 180 fatalities. The Dominican Republic presented on digitizing services while Albania’s government announced that 95 percent of its services are now online.

Governments, organizations and private actors are also preparing to exchange ideas on digital public infrastructure at the upcoming Global DPI Summit in Cairo, Egypt which will be held from October 1st to 3rd.

Article Topics

50-in-5  |  digital ID  |  digital public goods  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Global Digital Compact  |  UNDP  |  UNICEF  |  United Nations