The Global DPI Summit: reframing the debate from a Global South perspective
This November, the Global DPI Summit will bring together powerful actors to champion Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as an opportunity for development, which demands critical thinking and not only a promotional approach. Organized by Co-Develop, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Office of Digital and Emerging Technologies, and […]
This November, the Global DPI Summit will bring together powerful actors to champion Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as an opportunity for development, which demands critical thinking and not only a promotional approach. Organized by Co-Develop, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Office of Digital and Emerging Technologies, and the World Bank, their pitch is familiar: with the right “rails,” everything from financial inclusion to social protection will fall neatly into place. But for those of us in the Global South, DPI is not a neutral technical fix. It is the very infrastructure that defines how people access healthcare, education, and even basic citizenship rights. In this sense, moments and events like the DPI Summit are crucial to engage stakeholders on the need for public infrastructure and its governance.
The risks are real. Public–private partnerships, the backbone of most DPI projects, hand enormous influence to corporations over systems that should be treated as public goods. In too many countries, this leads to corporate capture of essential services. As discussions on digital sovereignty advance internationally in forums such as the BRICS, it is necessary to consider how aspects related to infrastructure, governance, capacity and data can be designed to benefit and protect citizens. DPIs can generate problems of accountability and corruption. Therefore, it is extremely important to build a theory of “public interest” and to expand participatory rights of citizens regarding DPI projects.
DPIs are built on data, therefore a data justice approach is necessary to ensure that the design, use, and governance of data address underlying asymmetries of power and social inequalities. By emphasizing that both personal and non-personal data must be managed in ways that consider risks, benefits, and societal disparities, data justice helps safeguard against harms such as fraud, privacy violations, and exploitative practices; pushing for a fair information ecosystem. Anchoring DPI in data justice thus strengthens protections for citizens, supports equitable access, promotes digital sovereignty and fair development.
The Global South Alliance (GSA) will engage at the DPI Summit to ensure these issues remain central to the discussions. Our message is for DPI to be accountable to the people it aims to serve. That requires centering rights, strengthening oversight, and questioning the concentration of power in private actors.
We are also interested in the role of the UN’s Office of Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET) in advancing the DPI agenda, and how this intersects with the implementation of the Global Digital Compact (GDC). Since the joint contributions for the GDC, the Global South Alliance is pushing for developing countries’ voices not just to be invited, but to be actively central to the design and governance of these infrastructures.
Members of the Global South Alliance have been documenting DPI projects in countries like Kenya, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Chile, Uganda, and others. We need more comparative research between civil society organizations on what is working and what is not working in DPI projects based on a fundamental rights perspective.
The DPI Summit is a key moment to reframe the debate and demand infrastructures that serve people, not private interests. The Global South Alliance will closely follow this and related processes, pushing for DPI grounded in data justice, digital sovereignty, and accountable governance.
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