Description: "Digital public infrastructure" (DPI) is an approach or strategy for building large-scale networks, platforms or services to mediate key processes or functionality essential for operating in the digital economy. DPIs are transforming the global economy, impacting business practices and have altered relations between state, market and citizens. The emergence of DPIs like identity and authentication or interoperable payments systems have blurred the differences between public and private sector, traditional and new economies, tradable and non-tradable products, and between goods and services. They have created new avenues for the development of norms and standards for trust, security, and competition. Issues such as domestic and cross-border flows of data, intellectual property rights, data protection, digital security are being shaped and advanced through DPIs. The advancement of DPIs is happening even as legitimate concerns about their impact on trust, security and competition in the digital economy remain unexplored and unaddressed. Rapid development and deployment of DPIs also has profound implications in terms of disrupting traditional sectors and businesses. Another risk raised by DPIs which are rooted in digital sovereignty is that it could lead to fragmentation. Control of the institutional arrangements and technical architecture of DPIs, and its usage creates discrete spaces of data and transactions, which can encourage and enable governments to pursue a sovereignty based agenda. Delays in reform, and rise in protectionism could hinder the adoption and expansion of DPI and nationalistic policies, if embraced elsewhere, could encourage their replication and extension into new arenas. Given the economic, political, social impact of DPIs it is important to think through their development and create avenues for oversight. This workshop explores a robust governance approach for DPIs that goes beyond regulations and actively engages stakeholders to enhance the accountability and integrity of DPIs and the entities involved in their creation and utilization.
Open Zoom
