Build a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)
Purpose of the chapter
This chapter is designed for government leaders and teams who are responsible for shaping their country’s digital future. Its purpose is to help understand what a “Digital Public Infrastructure” (DPI) is, why it matters for national development, and how specifically GovStack supports practical implementation of DPI when building or improving digital citizen services.
Digital Public Infrastructure: Foundations, Enablers, and National Assessment
The expression “Digital Public Infrastructure”, or in short DPI, refers to shared digital systems, standards, and governance frameworks which facilitate secure and trusted interactions across a society (UNDP, 2021).
DPI can thus be considered as a foundational layer, similar to a physical infrastructure that sustains the daily functioning of a society via roads, electricity, and water systems (CSIS, 2023) (c.f. YouTube video below). Similarly, DPI provides the key digital foundations on which both public and private services can operate. Its purpose is to facilitate that people, governments, and businesses can authenticate identities, exchange data in a safe manner, and conduct digital transactions at scale (G20, 2023).
In its most narrow definition, DPI is constructed around three interconnected components (Clark et al., 2025):
Digital identity: Allows both individuals and organizations to uniquely identify and authenticate themselves online, which includes digital IDs, e-signatures, as well as civil registration systems.
Digital payment infrastructure: Enables secure and interoperable financial transactions spread across the economy, ranging from government-to-person transfers to tax payments and subsidy distribution. (Note: This key payment DPI component differs from the GovStack Payments Building Block, which essentially functions as a gateway between banking systems and services, rather than as an inter-institution payment system.)
Data exchange & interoperable frameworks: Allows information to move in reliable manner between institutions all while maintaining privacy and security. Some examples include secure data-sharing platforms, consent systems, as well as trust frameworks.
More specifically, at the G20 Summit of August 2023, DPI was defined as “a set of shared digital systems that should be secure, interoperable, and can be built on open standards and specifications to deliver and provide equitable access to public and/or private services at societal scale(…)” (G20, 2023). It thus acknowledges that DPI is an “evolving concept” and states that it should be managed “by applicable legal frameworks and enabling rules” in order to support certain goals like development and human rights (G20 2023). Hence, despite being frequently linked to identity, data interchange, and payment systems, a broader perspective on DPI is more suitable in a global setting (ECDPM, 2025).
Furthermore, for DPI to function sustainably and safely, the implementing government must form a set of critical enabling conditions. These include, for instance, reliable connectivity, cloud and data-center infrastructure, strong cybersecurity, as well as sufficient digital skills, digital capabilities, and digital literacy across the population. But also legal and regulatory frameworks are critical to safeguard data, establish responsibilities, and enable interoperability. Furthermore, at the Institutional level, well set up coordination, accountability, and engagement with civil society will both enable and maintain trust, as well as long-term resilience. These elements put together are ultimately establishing the environment, required for a robust, scalable, as well as people centric DPI.
The four layers of the DPI enabling environment
Taken collectively, these prerequisites shape the enabling environment required for DPI to deliver its full value, which can be described across four mutually reinforcing layers:
1.Digital Infrastructure Readiness
This layer delineates the technical foundations, including:
Connectivity availability and affordability (UNDP, 2021); including access to fixed broadband (fiber/DSL/cable), mobile internet (3G/4G/5G), and public or satellite optionswhere relevant, and whether pricing and device costs make these services realistically usable for people and institutions.
Cloud infrastructure and data center capacity
Cybersecurity maturity and critical infrastructure resilience (OECD, 2024)
2.Policy, Legal, and Regulatory Frameworks
A complete DPI ecosystem necessitates layered policy instruments, which can be visualized through the legal framework pyramid (see figure below):
Soft law, including international standards, guidelines, and technical specifications such as ISO standards (e.g. ISO 27001), ICAO guidelines, and ETSI standards
Regional/ International law, such as the eIDAS 2.0 Regulation, GDPR, the Digital Markets Act, and the Digital Services Act.
National law that is defining mandates, data rights, procurement rules, liability, standards compliance, and institutional responsibilities.
These layers together build the normative foundation for DPI.
3.Governance and Institutional Arrangements
Effective DPI also requires clear governance structures to ensure coordination, accountability, and long-term sustainability. These structures are reflected in models such as the GovStack’s government architecture framework (PAERA https://govstack.gitbook.io/paera) (see figure below) and typically include:
Inter-ministerial governance bodies that coordinate national DPI priorities, its rollout and evaluation.
Clear operator mandates defining who runs which components and under what authority.
Decision-making architecture that clarifies roles, responsibilities, and escalation plans.
Accountability mechanisms for security, privacy, and standards compliance.
These governance pillars are showcasing how organizational and policy layers must align for DPI in order to scale effectively and operate in a secure and trusted manner.
4.People-Centric Systems & Inclusion
Finally, DPI must include safeguards as well as inclusion principles, illustrated in the “Foundational and Operational DPI Safeguards Principle” graphic below and aligned with the UN’s Universal DPI Safeguards Framework UN Universal Safeguards for Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure. These emphasize the need to ensure:
data is not neutral and requires responsible stewardship,
technological design must avoid embedding or amplifying bias,
power asymmetries must be actively managed through transparent governance,
infrastructure choices inevitably have uneven impacts, making it essential to design systems that minimize disparities and promote equitable access.
Together, these principles ensure that DPI supports a safe, inclusive, and rights-preserving digital society.
What is not DPI?
An identity and authentication system restricted to a selected sub-group of a state’s population
A payment infrastructure restricted to only private sector actors and its customers
A data exchange restricted to only inner government data sharing
How countries should assess DPI
Additionally, a practical DPI assessment must be conducted by every country aiming to engage in DPI activities, and it should examine the following:
Whether core DPI components exist and if they are functional
Whether the DPI components are interoperable across ministries
Whether governance, standards, and legal frameworks are in place
Whether institutions utilize shared components or maintain separate, siloed systems
DPI and GovStack
GovStack is a global initiative that empowers governments to design and build sovereign, interoperable and citizen-centric digital public sector services and infrastructure. For a more in-depth explanation of how GovStack is enabling this by defining a government architecture and its reusable Building Blocks while avoiding fragmentation and vendor lock-in, please refer to the Implementation Playbook section: Introduction to GovStack.
GovStack’s technical specifications support the practical implementation of DPI, recognising that DPI may be defined narrowly as foundational service-enabling systems (e.g. identity and data exchange) or more broadly include the government systems and digital services that build on these foundations. GovStack’s specifications describe implementations of DPI which are A) owned (or strictly regulated) by the public sector and B) used by the public sector or those shared between the public and private sectors. They do not define any components used exclusively by the private sector.
Following a narrow definition of DPI, GovStack offers a technical blueprint to build identity (“Identity Building Block”) and data exchange (“Information Mediator Building Block”) systems, which are considered core DPI components. The technical blueprint is being completed by GovStack guidance on governance, policy and domain-specific aspects: General guidance on interoperability and Building Block-specific implementation guides.
Following a wide definition of DPI, GovStack’s full scope of a government architecture can be considered DPI. GovStack places citizens and businesses (the users) at the centre of digital transformation of government services. Therefore, the primary collective objective of all GovStack Building Blocks and entirety of a government’s system is to provide citizens with services. A wide definition of DPI includes these services and with that the whole of GovStack’s technical specifications. Why government-provided services are essential to DPI is explained below under “Why Services Matter for DPI”.
What does GovStack not offer?
Digital payment infrastructure: What is usually described as “Digital Payment Infrastructure” in narrow definitions of DPI differs from the GovStack Payments Building Block, which primarily functions as a gateway between government-operated services and existing banking or payment systems, rather than serving as an inter-institutional payment platform.
Physical Infrastructure: GovStack does not address the development of physical connectivity infrastructure, such as fibre-optic networks, mobile connectivity, or hardware provisioning, which are prerequisites for digital service delivery.
Policy and governance for private sector integration: While the GovStack architecture anticipates interoperability with private sector solutions at the technical level, it does not currently provide guidance on policy or governance arrangements for integrating private sector actors.
GovStack’s Design principles for interoperable and inclusive digital public infrastructure
GovStack is guided by human-centred design principles, placing the needs, capabilities, and rights of users at the centre of digital public infrastructure. This includes ensuring that digital services are intuitive, accessible, and inclusive by design.
To support this, the framework emphasises designing for interoperability from the outset, using open standards and open APIs to ensure flexibility, and embedding privacy and security directly into systems architecture. Modularity and reusability are key principles to help countries avoid vendor lock-in and to enable systems to evolve over time.
These principles are further reinforced through our alignment with the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) and the DPI Safeguards stewarded by the UN ODET and UNDP, which emphasise openness, trust, accountability, and the protection of users’ rights across the design and implementation of digital public infrastructure.
How DPI Unlocks Scalable and Inclusive E-Government Services
Why Services Matter for DPI
While the underlying digital rails are provided by DPI, its full potential is only realized when it is applied to deliver specific services that institutions and citizens depend on. In fact, e-government services operationalize DPI’s capabilities and convert them into useful results. Without DPI, digital services can still exist, but they remain siloed, hard to scale, and expensive to maintain.
Thus, e-government services are filling this absence by integrating DPI’s core components, namely, digital identity, payment mechanisms, and data exchange into daily interactions.
Some examples:
A digital identity system achieves its full potential when it facilitates a citizen’s ability to register a birth, renew a driver’s license, or access health records (CSIS, 2023).
Payment infrastructure proves its value by enabling welfare transfers, tax collection, and government disbursements with enhanced speed and transparency (CSIS, 2023).
Data exchange platforms are generating impact by supporting health information systems, property registration, or business licensing (CSIS, 2023).
In addition to operationalizing DPI, e-government services also propel user adoption and drive public trust. When services are particularly well-designed and reliable they enhance confidence in the underlying digital infrastructure and simultaneously drive citizen’s digital engagement. Moreover, services that are based on a shared infrastructure drive interoperability across government institutions, as they help ministries to adopt standards, reduce duplication, streamline operations, and provide coherent services across multiple sectors.
Ultimately, DPI-enabled services yield both efficiency gains, as well as societal benefits. By reusing shared digital components, costs can be reduced, implementation timelines shortened, and service quality tremendously improved (Clark et al., 2025). Additionally, digital services that are assembled on strong DPI foundations can enhance access to key services, lower administrative burdens, and foster inclusion, especially for underserved populations. Hence, e-government services serve as a key driver to modernizing the public sector, as well as the broader digital development.
This means that whenever digital services are being built by governments, DPI principles must be followed (interoperability, reusability, shared infrastructure) – enabling that the services can scale across ministries and truly support national digital development.
How DPI Powers Different Types of E-Government Services
A wide range of e-government services tremendously depend on the specific capabilities that are being provided by the DPI – including digital identity, and authentication, secure digital payments, consent and authorization mechanisms, interoperable data exchange, and core registries that enable services to reliably access and verify information.
These services can be broken down into three broader categories:
1.Identity-enabled Services
The first category depicts identity-enabled services (See figure below), just as civil registration, driver’s licensing, voter enrollment, access to health or education portals, as well as enrollment in social protection schemes. These services tremendously rely on secure identification and authentication in order to verify eligibility, enable accuracy, and enhance access to sensitive information.
2.Payment-enabled Services
The second category contains payment-enabled services (See figure below), i.e. services like welfare transfer, tax or free payments, subsidy distribution, insurance contributions, and government transactions with suppliers or citizens. Payment rails enable processes to be faster, more transparent, and less prone to leakage or fraud.
3.Data-driven Services
The third category encompasses relevant data-driven services (See figure below), e.g., electronic health records, land and property registration, business licensing systems, and agricultural advisory platforms. These specific services heavily rely on secure data exchange and consistent registries in order to supply precise and timely information.
However, across all categories cross-cutting digital services are actively reinforcing both the functionality and integrity of e-government services. These can consist of, for example, digital signatures, digital wallets, e-KYC mechanisms, and secure messaging services. Together, these specific services demonstrate how DPI actively supports diverse cases via shared, reusable foundational capabilities.
Key Activities for Governments to Enhance Their DPI Development
Run a DPI and digital services baseline assessment
Map existing national digital system and identify emerging gaps
Conduct a prioritization on which DPI components require investment or modernization
Detect high-impact services that are depending on DPI
Align ministries around shared components as well as technical standards
Develop governance and operational models in order to manage a shared national infrastructure
Deliverables/ Success Criteria for Countries' DPI Development
DPI assessment report and maturity overview
Gap analysis of foundational systems, as well as enabling conditions
List of prioritized of DPI-enabled services to build or revamp
Draft of a national DPI architecture that is aligned with the GovStack Building Blocks
Implementation roadmap that includes roles and responsibilities, timelines, governance and standards (see "Digital Strategy chapter” for an in-depth Implementation roadmap).
While national DPI systems form the backbone of digital service delivery, their transformative potential fully unfolds only when they are designed to operate across borders. Building on this foundation, the following subchapter examines cross-border DPI in the East African Community, focusing on how interoperability, regional governance, and shared infrastructure enable digital integration at scale.
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