At a glance
- Digital public infrastructure (DPI) is a set of digital systems that enables countries to safely and efficiently provide economic opportunities and deliver social services.
- DPI spans the entire economy, connecting people, data, and money in much the same way that roads and railways connect people and goods.
- Countries that build safe and inclusive DPI can:
- Create a vibrant and competitive economy
- Foster trust between governments and citizens
- Deliver essential services and create economic opportunity across many sectors—including finance, health, and agriculture
- Safe and inclusive DPI can ultimately help advance progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure that everyone can prosper, especially women and people with the lowest incomes.
Our strategy
- Digital identity systems, which enable the creation, management, and authentication of unique identities for use in digital scenarios.
- Digital payment systems, which enable governments, businesses, and individuals to instantly send and receive money, regardless of who hosts the underlying accounts.
- Data exchange systems, which enable individuals, organizations, and governments to safely share digital information.
The foundation’s digital payments work is overseen by our Inclusive Financial Systems team, given that these payment systems are essential to increasing financial inclusion and access to bank accounts and other financial tools and services.
We also aim to explore several emerging DPI components, including:
- Consent, which involves a privacy-based mechanism for users to authorize the exchange of their digital information
- Credentials, which enable the sharing of government-issued and privately issued credentials, such as certificates, invoices, driver’s licenses, and passports
- Registries, to establish verifiable records of what people own, claim, or are entitled to
- Digital signatures, which are created, verified, and managed to ensure the legal validity of electronic documents and transactions.
By establishing open, standardized, and interoperable systems for performing these functions, DPI can enable more inclusive economic participation, more effective delivery of public services, and more open and competitive digital economies.
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Digital Public Infrastructure
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“Just as we built roads, highways, and airports in the 20th century, we must now build a digital infrastructure that is open, accessible, and empowers everyone.”
Why focus on digital public infrastructure?
But digital financial inclusion is not happening quickly enough. Many people in low- and middle-income countries, especially women, are still being left behind.
Countries that allow a laissez-faire market approach to digital services risk becoming dominated by monopolies that charge high fees or having multiple systems that don’t interact. People, businesses, and the government itself will be exposed to risks that include fraud, cyberattacks, and illicit financial flows if well-governed, high-quality safeguards are not put in place. And digital systems will only reinforce inequity if they aren’t designed to meet the needs of women and those with the least access to resources and opportunity.
Many countries are eager to build safe and inclusive digital public infrastructure and unlock the full benefits of DPI before it is too late.
Our partners
An organization that provides technical assistance to countries to help them establish instant and inclusive payment systems.
A resource mobilization platform that receives funds from multiple donors to support countries in building DPI.
A multi-stakeholder initiative to facilitate the discovery, development, use, and investment in digital public goods.
A provider of open-source software that lowers the cost of building, maintaining, and modifying inclusive instant payment systems to bring affordable, connected digital financial services to anyone with access to a mobile phone.
A provider of modular and open-source technology that enables countries to build and own their national identity systems.
Initiatives that provide technical assistance to countries and regions in adopting identification systems and government-to-people digital payments, respectively.
Related programs
This foundation team works to expand access to digital financial services so people in the lowest-income communities around the globe can build security and prosperity for themselves, their families, and their communities.
This foundation team works to harness the power of finance and economics to address poverty and inequality.
This foundation team works to reduce the gender gap in digital connectivity so women and girls can participate more fully and thrive in the economy.