Identosphere 171: Digital Public Infrastructure (Global) for May/June

(This week from DWeb Camp) Good news I have found a pathway forward for the newsletter and will be getting this new system working in the coming weeks. We will return to “weekly” updates soon. For the next 10 newsletters we will catch up in time with curated sets of links on particular themes.

This special thematic issue collects captures how nations and institutions are building, governing, and debating the digital rails that underpin public life — from India’s DPI@2047 vision to Africa’s smartphone affordability crisis, from small island states to global procurement standards.

Technical standards are never neutral — they encode the priorities of powerful actors and create structural disadvantages for less-resourced participants.

A periodic-table visualization mapping 116 elements of the DPI ecosystem — a useful reference for understanding the full scope of what “digital public infrastructure” encompasses.

India’s Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker as a foundation for self-sovereign identity at scale — and what the world can learn from the approach.

Digital transformation in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) has progressed significantly over the past decade, with expanding connectivity, growing digital strategies, and increasing experimentation in public services. Despite these advances, the true benefits of digital transformation remain constrained by fragmented data ecosystems, weak coordination, and critical gaps in implementation capacity, compounded by escalating cyber risks. This brief highlights that the next phase of progress requires moving beyond connectivity towards holistically designed digital ecosystems that deliver trusted, practical “digital utility” for all citizens.

Stakeholder participation and resilience matter more than speed — a principles-based framework for getting DPI governance right.

New procurement frameworks from the World Bank emphasizing vendor lock-in prevention and interoperability as non-negotiable requirements for DPI investments.

The Digital Impact Alliance has updated its DPI Roadmap Playbook with practical implementation guidance for countries at every stage of their DPI journey.

A governance framework centering Indigenous data sovereignty — a critical reminder that digital infrastructure must respect distinct data governance traditions, not override them.

The next Global DPI Summit will be held in Bali in March 2027 — the first time the summit convenes in Asia.

The architects of India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI), Nandan Nilekani and Pramod Varma, are now attempting their next leap: building a universal, open digital fabric to power global commerce, financial assets, and programmable value flows in an AI-driven world.

India’s DPI@2047 is a state-capacity initiative to embed governance within digital public infrastructure — not merely a technology plan but a reimagining of how the state delivers at scale.

ASEAN governments are adopting digital wallets that go well beyond payments, signaling a regional shift toward verifiable credentials as core public infrastructure.
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The $40 smartphone is only one layer of the problem. Five underfunded infrastructure layers must be addressed for genuine digital inclusion across the continent.
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A strong start for South Africa’s regulatory framework, but the draft needs stronger biometric assurance provisions to defend against AI-generated fraud.

A regular digest of African digital identity developments — useful for tracking the continent’s rapidly evolving ID landscape.

Addresses the “missing middle” problem in African digital infrastructure — the gap between high-level connectivity targets and on-the-ground implementation capacity.

The delayed $1 billion geothermal-powered data center project in Kenya highlights the friction between global tech investment ambitions and local implementation realities.

A foundational reframing: DPI was designed to make institutions legible to individuals, not the other way around. When that orientation flips, inclusion erodes.

The move to digital wallets could create new exclusionary systems unless governance and regulation keep pace with the technology shift.

Small Island Developing States face unique digital transformation constraints — priorities for nations where the scale assumptions of mainstream DPI thinking do not apply.

First national plan putting agentic AI at the center of government with €425M in projected savings and sovereign compute by 2027. Summarizes the next report

Estonia’s vision for the digital society in 2035 is to become the leading AI-powered state in the free world, built on resilience – where efficient public administration, forward-looking and ambitious modernisation of the legal space and technologies, and comprehensive cyber resilience support human well-being and rapid economic development, while ensuring the functioning of the digital state in all circumstances.

Why Europe must act now on agentic AI in government — the window for shaping digital public infrastructure is closing.

Case study of how the UK’s Government Digital Service developed modular digital infrastructure across fragmented government.

On 4, 5 and 6 June, PublicSpaces and Waag Futurelab organised the sixth edition of the PublicSpaces conference ‘Technology for Democracy’. Through a packed programme featuring keynotes, workshops, round-table sessions, art, culture, panels, an unconference, a bazaar, networking drinks and an awards show, we discussed how we can make technology work for us again – and for our democracy.

Approaches to building national ID systems that don’t depend on external vendors or platforms.

A DDG City Leadership Community is being established to ensure a DDG global framework will ultimately succeed locally. The groundwork has been laid.

Trust-native digital identity and DPI spending analysis.

Recruiting Knowledge Fellows for the Digital Watch Observatory.