OECD urges mandatory use of shared infrastructure to scale DPI adoption

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has recommended that in order for countries to broaden the use of foundational digital public infrastructure (DPI) and achieve transformational impact, they must introduce certain mandatory measures to propel the shift from just rollout to widespread adoption.

The call is made in the intergovernmental policy organization’s Digital Government Outlook 2026 report, which contains results from the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) and the Open, Useful and Re-usable Data Index (OURdata). It gauges the digital transformation progress recorded by OECD member countries as well as accession countries over the last few years. In body has made advocacy for resilient DPI in the past

One key recommendation in the 2026 report is the mandatory use of shared infrastructure, and that governments must move away from siloed agency projects by legally requiring or strongly incentivizing ministries and other public entities to use common building blocks that deliver services better to the public.

Ensuring widespread, integrated use

Per the report, many countries have successfully built the foundations of DPI, but the major challenge they now face is translating these tools into widespread and integrated use. This reflection is vital, especially at a time when many governments are increasingly engaging in DPI projects which they tout as the architecture needed to transform how they engage with citizens in terms of service delivery.

This aspect also underpinned conversations at this year’s ID4Africa AGM in Abidjan where the focus was on how countries can move from just building DPI to concretely making sure these infrastructures serve tangible purposes in citizens’ daily lives.

The OECD publication notes that while 74 percent of core DPI components such as digital identity, data-sharing platforms, and single digital gateways, are available across member nations, actual adoption remains uneven. It points out that on average, only 63 percent of public institutions are actively sharing data through their national interoperability systems, leaving many services trapped in a fragmented project-based past.

According to the report, successful digital government models like Estonia’s X-tee data exchange layer and Finland’s Suomi.fi data exchange layer demonstrate that when shared systems are mandated, together with strong data protection safeguards, they create a joined-up government by default.

Shifting funding and governance models

To make this work, the OECD report asserts that governments must trigger a fundamental shift in funding and governance.

At the moment, most current DPI funding models focus on the initial “build” phase of a project, but the report recommends lifecycle funding that covers ongoing maintenance, updates, and expansion to guarantee sustainability.

In order to avoid fragmented DPI implementation and broaden adoption, the publication also calls on countries to empower a single central institution with the mandate to drive DPI uptake across all levels of government.

With regard to data use, the report highlights the “once-only” principle as a critical lever. It notes that while this principle, where government collects information from a user once and reuses it subsequently, is widely recognized in strategy documents, it has yet to translate into routine practice in most countries. One of the ways of scaling this, according to the report, is to shift data use from high-level planning to frontline service delivery, ensuring that real-time information can automatically verify eligibility or pre-fill forms.

DPI, AI connection in government

Other proposals on driving DPI adoption as outlined in the OECD report include making the systems trustworthy and inclusive such as through digital identity wallets which can allow citizens to selectively share verified credentials, and ensuring that countries complete the “end-to-end” digital portfolio in order to make sure users don’t switch back to physical channels and break the digital chain.,

The report also makes a vital connection between DPI and AI, explaining that strong DPI is a mandatory precondition for scaling Artificial Intelligence in government because without interoperable data and trusted identity frameworks, AI will remain confined to isolated pilots rather than government-wide implementation.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  OECD  |  OECD DGI