High Level Session 2: Digital Public Goods and Global Digital Cooperation

Summary

This high-level session at the Internet Governance Forum focused on Digital Public Goods (DPGs) and Digital Cooperation, exploring how open-source digital solutions can advance sustainable development goals while ensuring privacy and security. The discussion was moderated by Thomas Davin from UNICEF Innovation and Liv Marte Nordhaug from the Digital Public Goods Alliance, featuring government ministers and senior officials from multiple countries and international organizations.

Digital Public Goods were defined as open-source digital solutions relevant to achieving SDGs, designed with “do no harm” principles and high privacy standards. Currently, approximately 200 DPGs are helping countries advance financial inclusion, healthcare delivery, crisis response, and public service efficiency. Norway’s Alten platform was highlighted as a successful example, used by 90% of citizens and nearly 100% of businesses, demonstrating how DPGs enable collaboration across municipalities while avoiding vendor lock-in.

The European Union’s Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen outlined the EU’s new international digital strategy, emphasizing three pillars: deepening digital partnerships with allies, deploying tech solutions to partner countries, and promoting a rules-based global digital order. She introduced the EU’s Open Internet Stack, a catalog of open-source digital components covering identity, trust, and cybersecurity.

Nandan Nilekani from India provided a compelling case study of how DPGs transformed Indian society through the Aadhaar digital ID system, enabling financial inclusion for 750 million people and creating the world’s largest digital payment system with UPI. This infrastructure processes 18 billion transactions monthly with no transaction fees, demonstrating the massive scale and impact possible with DPG approaches.

Ministers from Nigeria, Japan, and Brazil shared their countries’ experiences and commitments to DPGs. Nigeria’s Minister Bosun Tijani emphasized how DPGs address trust deficits between citizens and governments while enabling efficient resource use. Japan highlighted its digital ID adoption by 98 million citizens and international development cooperation through JICA. Brazil showcased its environmental monitoring system CAR and announced plans to make it available as a digital public good globally.

The UN’s Undersecretary General Amandeep Gill presented the Universal DPI Safeguards Framework, emphasizing that trust through safeguards is essential for adoption and impact. Audience polling revealed that collaboration was the most inspiring aspect of DPGs, with healthcare delivery and financial inclusion identified as priority service areas. The session concluded with the launch of a global survey on open-source policies, reflecting the growing momentum toward making DPGs the default approach for digital government solutions worldwide.

Keypoints

## Major Discussion Points:

– **Definition and Value of Digital Public Goods (DPGs)**: The discussion established DPGs as open source digital solutions that support sustainable development goals while adhering to “do no harm” principles and privacy best practices. Speakers emphasized that DPGs go beyond just open source code to include principles of interoperability, reusability, and trust-building in government services.

– **Real-world Implementation Examples**: Multiple countries shared concrete examples of successful DPG implementations, including Norway’s Alten platform (used by 90% of citizens), India’s Aadhaar digital ID system (serving 1.3-1.4 billion people), Brazil’s CAR environmental monitoring system, and Nigeria’s interbank settlement system that enabled fintech innovation.

– **International Cooperation and Collaboration**: Speakers consistently emphasized that no single country can lead technological transformation alone, highlighting the need for global partnerships, knowledge sharing, and collaborative development. The EU’s international digital strategy and Japan’s JICA development cooperation were presented as examples of cross-border collaboration.

– **Government Capacity and Policy Framework**: The discussion addressed the critical need for government capacity building, open-source-first procurement policies, and comprehensive digital governance frameworks. The UN’s Universal Safeguards Framework was presented as essential for building trust and ensuring safe adoption of DPIs.

– **Future Vision and Sustainability**: The conversation focused on the “15-5 campaign” goal of having 50 countries adopt DPGs within five years, emphasizing the integration of AI capabilities, climate action applications, and the need for sustainable financing models to support long-term development and maintenance of digital public infrastructure.

## Overall Purpose:

The discussion aimed to promote understanding and adoption of Digital Public Goods as essential tools for global digital cooperation, sustainable development, and inclusive digital transformation. The session sought to demonstrate practical benefits through country examples, build momentum for international collaboration, and establish policy frameworks for scaling DPG adoption globally.

## Overall Tone:

The discussion maintained a consistently positive, collaborative, and forward-looking tone throughout. Speakers demonstrated genuine enthusiasm for sharing their experiences and learning from others. The atmosphere was professional yet optimistic, with participants expressing strong commitment to cooperation and mutual support. The tone remained constructive and solution-oriented, with no significant conflicts or disagreements, reflecting the shared values and common goals among the international participants.

Speakers

**Speakers from the provided list:**

– **Thomas Davin** – Global Director for UNICEF Innovation, Session moderator

– **Liv Marte Nordhaug** – CEO of the Digital Public Good Alliance Secretariat, Co-moderator

– **Henna Virkkune** – Executive Vice President for Technology, Sovereignty, Security and Democracy in the EU Commission

– **Karianne Tung** – Minister for Digitalization and Public Governance for Norway

– **Nandan Nilekani** – Co-founder and chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited (participated online)

– **Bosun Tijani** – Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Nigeria

– **Takuo Imagawa** – Vice Minister for International Affairs of Japan

– **Luanna Roncaratti** – Digital Government Deputy Secretary of Brazil

– **Amandeep Singh Gill** – Undersecretary General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, United Nations

– **Session video** – Video presentation about Alten Studio (digital public good from Norway)

**Additional speakers:**

– **Tomas** – Individual invited to stage at the end (role/title not specified)

# Digital Public Goods and Digital Cooperation: A Comprehensive Report from the Internet Governance Forum

## Executive Summary

This high-level session at the Internet Governance Forum brought together government ministers, senior officials, and international organisation representatives to explore Digital Public Goods (DPGs) as catalysts for global digital cooperation and sustainable development. The discussion, moderated by Thomas Davin from UNICEF Innovation and Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO of the Digital Public Goods Alliance Secretariat, featured speakers from the European Union, Norway, India, Nigeria, Japan, Brazil, and the United Nations.

The session established DPGs as open-source digital solutions that advance Sustainable Development Goals whilst adhering to “do no harm” principles and high privacy standards. With approximately 200 DPGs currently in use helping countries across various sectors, the discussion focused on scaling adoption to reach 50 countries within five years through the ambitious “15-5 campaign.” Notably, DPGs are explicitly referenced in the Global Digital Compact adopted by UN Member States in 2024.

## Key Definitions and Framework

### Understanding Digital Public Goods

Thomas Davin opened the session by defining Digital Public Goods as “open source digital solutions that are relevant for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals” and adhere to “do no harm” principles whilst respecting privacy and other applicable laws. He emphasised that DPGs enable countries to “freely adopt and adapt” these solutions to build components of “safe, inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructures.”

Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, provided a crucial reframing that influenced the entire discussion. He argued that “we focus too much when we talk about DPG on the open source element” and risk forgetting that “true DPG is how we’re able to stick to the demands that we must be interoperable in the way we build, the trust that is required of digital technology solutions.” This shifted the conversation from technical specifications to systemic principles of collaboration and trust-building.

### The Trust Equation

Amandeep Singh Gill, UN Under-Secretary General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, introduced a central framework through his “trust equation”: “What drives adoption and impact is trust in those systems. So if we don’t have safeguards, then we don’t have the trust. And if we don’t have trust, we don’t have adoption. If we don’t have adoption, there’s no impact.” This connected abstract concepts of safeguards to concrete outcomes, establishing trust as the fundamental prerequisite for successful DPG implementation.

## National Success Stories and Implementation Models

### India’s Transformational Scale

Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, provided the most compelling case study of DPG impact at scale. He described India’s Aadhaar digital ID system, which serves 1.3-1.4 billion people and is used 80 million times daily. This infrastructure enabled the creation of the world’s largest digital payment system, UPI (Unified Payments Interface), which processes 18 billion transactions monthly with no transaction fees.

The transformational impact became evident during COVID-19, when India’s cash transfer system enabled emergency funding to reach 100 million people efficiently. Nilekani emphasised that this success was built on “open architecture for everyone to use” with interoperable components that enable innovation whilst maintaining systemic integrity.

Looking forward, Nilekani connected current DPG work to future AI development, arguing that “to build on AI, you have to have DPG first.” He advocated for “open-source AI building blocks” that would provide universal access to AI capabilities.

### Norway’s Collaborative Approach

The session featured a video presentation about Norway’s Alten Studio platform, which demonstrates remarkable adoption rates with 90% of citizens and nearly 100% of businesses using the system. Karianne Tung, Norway’s Minister for Digitalisation and Public Governance, explained that the platform enables collaboration across Norway’s 357 municipalities whilst avoiding vendor lock-in through open-source principles.

Minister Tung highlighted Norway’s institutional approach, noting that the country established a dedicated Ministry of Digitalisation to coordinate digitalisation policy. She emphasised that “open source and DPGs strengthen possibilities for safer and secure digital future through collaboration.”

### Brazil’s Environmental Innovation

Luanna Roncaratti, Brazil’s Digital Government Deputy Secretary, showcased the country’s CAR (Rural Environmental Registry) system as an example of DPGs addressing climate challenges. The system has registered 8 million properties and serves 10 million citizens, with the area registered corresponding to 5 million square kilometres, providing comprehensive environmental monitoring for deforestation and recovery efforts.

Significantly, Brazil announced its commitment to make the CAR system available as a digital public good globally. Roncaratti emphasised that “all data and personal information are protected by law” whilst demonstrating the system’s crisis response capabilities during the Rio Grande do Sul floods.

### Nigeria’s Financial Infrastructure Success

Minister Tijani shared Nigeria’s experience with building an interbank settlement system that enabled some of the fastest banking services globally and created conditions for fintech innovation, including fintech unicorns. In a spontaneous moment demonstrating the collaborative spirit, he announced: “I actually think our interbank settlement system should become open source. I think we should open source it because it’s one that works really well and can benefit so many other countries.”

### Japan’s Digital Identity and International Cooperation

Takuo Imagawa, Japan’s Vice Minister for International Affairs, highlighted Japan’s digital ID card adoption by 98 million people as evidence of strong public trust in digital governance. He emphasised that “open source technology enables secure data sharing and fosters transparency, innovation, and efficiency.”

Japan’s approach extends to international development cooperation through JICA, supporting DPI and DPG introduction in developing countries. Minister Imagawa stressed that addressing the digital divide for 2.6 billion people still unconnected requires collaborative approaches.

## Regional and International Cooperation Frameworks

### European Union’s Strategic Approach

Henna Virkkune, Executive Vice President for Technology, Sovereignty, Security and Democracy in the EU Commission, outlined the EU’s comprehensive international digital strategy built on three pillars: deepening digital partnerships, deploying technology solutions to partner countries, and promoting a rules-based global digital order.

The EU’s approach includes the Open Internet Stack, described as “a curated catalogue of open source components” covering identity, trust, and cybersecurity. These components are “anchored in open standards and interoperability whilst promoting EU tech solutions, regulatory approaches, standards, and values.” The EU plans to deploy this through the Global Gateway initiative.

Executive Vice President Virkkune positioned this work within broader geopolitical context: “In a world of rising digital fragmentation, supporting the Open Internet Stack is our way of defending a shared global infrastructure that serves the public good.”

### United Nations Safeguards Framework

Under-Secretary General Gill presented the Universal DPI Safeguards Framework as essential infrastructure for building trust in digital public systems. The framework incorporates “human rights, inclusion, safety, and sustainability perspectives” throughout the design and implementation of digital public infrastructure.

Gill emphasised that safeguards are foundational requirements, noting that “local innovators need access to high-quality, context-specific datasets through interoperable DPIs for AI development.” The UN plans a second DPI summit in South Africa to gather the community around DPI safeguards.

## Economic Impact and Community Priorities

The discussion revealed significant economic benefits from DPG implementations. Under-Secretary General Gill cited Brazil’s PIX payment system as generating $5.7 billion in savings from a $4 billion investment in a single year, while Estonia has achieved efficiency savings through digital government initiatives.

### Audience Engagement Results

Interactive polling revealed important community insights. When asked what was most inspiring about DPGs, “collaboration” emerged as the top response, reflecting the influence of discussions about interoperability and trust-building.

Regarding priority service areas for DPGs, healthcare delivery and financial inclusion ranked highest, followed by climate action and education. When asked about needs for unlocking DPG impact potential, government capacity and technical expertise ranked highly, indicating that successful implementation depends as much on institutional capabilities as on technical solutions.

## Key Areas of Consensus and Future Directions

### Strong Agreement Areas

The discussion revealed remarkable consensus across speakers from different regions:

– **Open Source and Collaboration**: All speakers emphasised that DPGs must be built on open-source principles and collaborative approaches, viewing these as enablers of sharing, reusability, and innovation

– **Interoperability as Essential**: Universal agreement that interoperability is crucial for DPGs to function effectively and avoid creating silos

– **Trust and Security as Foundational**: Consensus that trust and security are fundamental prerequisites, with speakers arguing that transparency and collaboration actually strengthen security rather than compromise it

– **International Cooperation Necessity**: Agreement that no single country can achieve digital transformation alone

### The 15-5 Campaign and Global Survey

The session reinforced commitment to bringing DPGs to 50 countries within five years, with 30 countries already using one or more DPG products. The Digital Public Goods Alliance announced the launch of a global survey on open-source policies and practices, conducted with 24 partners to map current adoption patterns and identify best practices.

### AI Integration and Future Innovation

The connection between current DPG work and future AI development emerged as critical. Speakers emphasised that DPGs provide the foundational infrastructure necessary for equitable AI development, ensuring that AI benefits are accessible globally rather than concentrated among those with massive resources.

## Challenges and Implementation Considerations

Despite strong consensus, several challenges remain:

– **Sustainable Financing Models**: While economic benefits were demonstrated, specific funding mechanisms for long-term development and maintenance require further development

– **Capacity Building Requirements**: The identification of government capacity as a top priority highlights that countries need institutional capabilities beyond technical solutions

– **Balancing Security and Openness**: The tension between national security concerns and open-source approaches requires ongoing dialogue and case-by-case solutions

## Conclusion

This session demonstrated the maturation of Digital Public Goods from theoretical framework to practical implementation strategy with concrete examples of transformational impact. The strong consensus among diverse stakeholders and spontaneous policy commitments—such as Nigeria’s offer to open-source its banking system and Brazil’s commitment to share its environmental monitoring platform globally—demonstrate the power of collaborative dialogue to generate concrete outcomes.

The combination of compelling success stories, clear economic benefits, and strong institutional commitments provides momentum for achieving the ambitious 15-5 campaign goal. Success will depend on sustained attention to capacity building, trust development, and the evolution of safeguards frameworks to address emerging challenges, particularly as AI capabilities integrate into digital public infrastructure.

The discussion elevated DPGs from technical solutions to tools of digital sovereignty and global governance, positioning them as essential infrastructure for addressing challenges from financial inclusion to climate action to equitable AI development. This broader framing suggests DPGs will play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of global digital cooperation and sustainable development.

Thomas Davin: Please welcome to the stage the session moderator, Mr. Thomas Davin. Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, distinguished guests, all protocol observed, warmest of welcome to this high-level session on Digital Public Goods and Digital Cooperation. My name is Thomas Davin, I’m the Global Director for UNICEF Innovation, and I’m joined with my co-moderator, Liv Marte Nordhaug. I’ve tried to say it in Norwegian, you can tell me if I said that right, who is the CEO of the Digital Public Good Alliance Secretariat. Wonderful to have you here. We’re going to speak together of Digital Public Goods and Digital Cooperation for about an hour and a half. We have the pleasure and the honour to be joined by a number of eminent and senior leaders of the world, of different institutions. We’ll have a few videos and we even are going to try to ask you for your lens and your views on some subjects. So we hope that the lunch was not too heavy and that you are going to be with us throughout this session. Warmest of welcome. So what are Digital Public Goods, DPGs, what are we really talking about? DPGs are defined as open source digital solutions that are relevant for the attainment of the sustainable development goals and that are designed as a do no harm and with the highest respect for privacy and applicable best practices. What this means in practice is that countries can freely adopt and adapt digital public goods and use them to build components of safe, inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructures according to their own priorities and context specific needs of course. At this stage we estimate there are about 200 DPGs currently in use that are helping countries advance financial inclusion, food security, crisis response, healthcare delivery and public service efficiencies. DPGs because of the power they offer in terms of government effectiveness and efficiency but also service to the people are explicitly referenced in the Global Digital Compact adopted by UN Member States in 2024 as key drivers of inclusive digital transformation and innovation and that includes a commitment to increase investment and funding towards their development. Of course when we talk about DPGs it includes digital collaboration. One comes with the other. It is really a way for a country, a community to develop a service, a solution that one other can build upon, can build further and develop a solution that is contextually more appropriate so that one doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time on similar services to the people or to government agencies. Part of what that means is that we need DPGs that can be shared, adopted and continually improved. From a UNICEF lens this means that we look at DPGs as a phenomenal pathway to growth in impact and service for the children that we serve. So of course it’s dear to our hearts and we hope by the end of this session it will be dear to all of you here and online. As we speak to intersections again of DPGs and digital collaboration and government services let’s hear from one of the examples that is happening here in Norway as a scene setting which is called Alten, I hope I’m again pronouncing it right, and I understand is used by about 100% of business and 90% of citizens in Norway. Let us hear from that experience so that we get you familiar with the setting and what that means here.

Session video: Alten Studio is a digital public good that makes it easy to develop and host digital public services and applications. This secure digital platform is maintained by DigDeer and was first launched in 2020. Today Alten is used by over 90% of citizens and almost 100% of businesses in Norway. Before Alten Studio Norwegian agencies and municipalities had no way to collaborate on creating common digital services causing fragmentation, lock-in and suboptimal user experiences. Now digital services can be shared and reused across 357 Norwegian municipalities. Since Alten Studio is open source and a digital public good it is easy for the community to contribute. One example is support for right-to-left languages contributed by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. Alten Studio is the first in a wave of new solutions maintained and open sourced by DigDeer. These solutions work great together making a complete set of digital building blocks for the future.

Thomas Davin: Fantastic example, not a surprise at all. Norway has been really at the forefront of digital public goods both at home and what it means to the world and really a proponent of DPGs becoming the norm around how we share, how we collaborate, how we connect with each other and how we build on another as we aim to service again the countries that we operate with and for or the people that we operate for. Let us dig deeper into maybe a wider perspective and one of the European Union I am delighted to invite Ms. Henna Virkkune, Executive Vice President for Technology, Sovereignty, Security and Democracy in the EU Commission to help us understand how the EU looks at this. Ms. Virkkune, warm welcome. Please, over to your keynote.

Henna Virkkune: Thank you very much and good afternoon everybody. Many thanks to the organizers for convening this important panel on global digital cooperation and digital public goods and thank you for everybody who is present here during this very topical discussion we will have. The theme of this session is particularly relevant as we have just as a European Union we have just adopted our new international digital strategy for the European Union. The EU has a very long standing history of digital cooperation with countries worldwide we can say and this includes our engagement through trade and technology councils, also our digital partnerships and digital trade agreements with several partners and we are also advancing collaboration under the Global Gateway Initiative and also through new security and defense partnerships with our allies. As the technology revolution is reshaping now economies and societies and also as the global geopolitical landscape is more challenging than ever our new international digital strategy sends a very clear message that the EU is a stable and reliable partner open to digital cooperation with allies and partners. While we are now engaging in strong efforts to boost our competitiveness in the European Union in AI and also other key technologies in the EU we are also at the same time very determined to work with the partners around the world to support their and also our own digital transition. Because indeed we believe that no country or region can lead the technological revolution alone partners are needed here. So we also believe that AI is too fundamental for the future of humanity to be reduced to a guest of supremacy among advanced AI powers so everybody should have access to that kind of critical technology. This commission also re-arms EU commitment to building a rules-based global digital order in lines with our fundamental values. So the international digital strategy proposes working together at EU level around three lines of action. Our first pillar is about deepening and broadening our digital partnerships with more advanced tech allies so we will deepen the partnership we have with our allies such as Japan, also Canada, Singapore, India or South Korea and also with our neighbours. And we will also establish new partnerships and foster collaboration among them so that they can connect through a new digital partnership network. We see that these partnerships, they include shared work on digital public infrastructure such as open source digital identity solutions based on the EU Digital Identity Wallet which offer a model of privacy, preserving, secure and also interoperable public digital services. Our cooperation with partner countries will focus also on critical areas that are essential for robust, secure and human-centric digital future notably secure and trusted digital infrastructure, also emerging technologies, digital governance, cyber security, digital identities and digital public infrastructure, also online platforms. The aim is to boost EU’s and also our partners’ respective tech competitiveness and sovereignty. Innovation and Promote Regulatory Cooperation. But also, as our second pillar, we have been underlining that we will also deploy an EU tech business offer to partner countries, notably in Africa, also in Latin America or Asia. So we will do so by combining EU’s private and public sector investments, notably through Global Gateway. The aim is to support the digital transition of partner countries, incorporating components such as AI factories, investments in secure and trusted connectivity, digital public infrastructure or cybersecurity. This offer includes modular reusable building blocks, concrete digital public goods, tailored to local needs and also anchored in open standards and interoperability. So we will at the same time promote EU tech solutions, regulatory approach, standards and values. And then our third pillar is to promote a rules-based global digital order in line with our fundamental values. Because we will continue promoting this digital order in line with our values, and we see that it’s very important in these times that we have international cooperation in this very crucial area. We see that supporting tech competitiveness, economic security, security, defense, democracy and human rights, as well as values and interests of the European Union and our partners across cross-cutting priorities, are the cross-cutting priorities in all these actions. And the EU will also defend the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance, upholding human rights, openness and also universal connectivity. And we are actively engaged in the World Summit on the Information Society, WISIS plus 20 review, calling for meaningful participation of all stakeholders. We are also strongly supporting the Internet Governance Forum, advocating for its renewed and permanent mandate beyond this year, beyond 2025, as the essential forum for inclusive digital cooperation. So let me close by highlighting one of the key aspects of the strategy. The EU’s commitment to use as a part of our tech offer to third countries with what we call our Open Internet Stack. This is a curated catalog at open source digital components, covering identity, trust, also decentralized platforms, cybersecurity and interoperability. The goal is to offer secure, deployable digital solutions that can be adapted by users. As soon as the Open Internet Stack becomes operational, we will work with our partners to broaden its access to partner countries to meet also local needs there, enhancing trust, reducing costs, also avoiding vendor lock-in and enabling digital sovereignty while protecting privacy and security. In a world of rising digital fragmentation, supporting the Open Internet Stack is our way of defending a shared global infrastructure that serves the public good. In short, the EU is ready to work with partners to make the future Internet a better place, including also for our children. So I want to thank you everybody very much for participating in this event and I very much look forward to our discussion. Thank you.

Thomas Davin: Thank you. Thank you so much, EVP Virkonen. Can I invite you to stay with me for just a second? And we are delighted to be inviting as well Minister Tung, the Minister for Digitalization and Public Governance for Norway, who is our host. Please, warmest of welcome. Please join us. Please join us. We’re going to try to dig a little bit into the concepts that we’ve just opened together. If I may start with our host. First, thank you for having us, Minister. It’s such a wonderful event. Some are often questioning whether DPGs are just a fad, a fake thing and are not really real. They’re not adding value. Can you talk to what that means for you in Norway? We’ve heard a little bit about Aten, but can you maybe develop a little bit further into what that means in Norway?

Karianne Tung: Of course. And thank you. And thank you for being here and discussing and debating digital public goods. I think we need to get better at using our resources more efficiently and effectively. And more than ever, it’s important that we cooperate, that we help each other, that we share technology both nationally but also internationally. And the whole idea behind the digital public good is exactly this mindset about sharing both nationally and internationally. And we use it in Norway. I think it’s easiest to say if anyone else has developed this before, then you don’t need to do it again. That’s also the reason why we established the Ministry of Digitalization and Public Governance in Norway. Because we saw that we needed better coordination and steering of the digitalization policy. But also when we look at the different digital solutions. So by making a solution that is based on open source, on open data and open AI models and open standards that are within best practice. We do it possible for not only Norway but also other countries to use this solution. And we saw a short video here of Aten as well. And the Alten code, if anyone wants to use the Alten code, it’s possible to use that and to make also own solution on top of this one. So Norway has always been a frontrunner in digital public goods and we want to contribute to the work in the years to come as well.

Thomas Davin: Thank you so much. Might I move to you, EVP? That’s okay. Very powerful keynote. Thank you again. Lots of commitment, lots of desire to really be forceful around those commitments around digital public goods. What is your sense on maybe particularly the open source type of solutions that Minister Tung just noticed?

Henna Virkkune: This is of course a very important part of the European Union’s digital approach. Really also develop the innovations also and make sure that everybody can benefit. Because we see that also that kind of very important technologies and digital tools we are speaking about, they shouldn’t be limited only for those who have massive resources. So it’s very important that we are developing the technologies together. And of course open source ideas or solutions, they are very important basis for that, that we can develop. And also benefit together of new technologies and we can also work in a democratic manner.

Thomas Davin: Thank you so much indeed. And that’s very much what we also from a UNICEF lens look at these open source technologies as a way for others to really move forward. You’ve mentioned AI in particular and when we look at capabilities and skills of AI in the countries that UNICEF operates, they are very diverse set of capabilities and indeed one would hope that we can maybe leverage the kind of AI leadership in terms of skills and availability of technical capacities in countries so that others can benefit without having to pay the cost of the development which is becoming quite expensive indeed for AI capabilities. Thank you again. Minister Tung, can I go back to you if that’s okay? Again, when we think of digital public goods, some again query is that really aligned with national security, national sovereignty? Are we maybe putting one against the other? Can you maybe help us with your thoughts on this?

Karianne Tung: Thank you, moderator. I can understand why you are asking the question because I think it’s easy to think that digital public goods or common digital solutions is not safety or secure enough, but I don’t agree on that. We see many examples, for example the DHIS2 which is the largest health platform in the world. It is used in over 100 countries. It’s safe and secure, so I believe in a world where the pace of technology are running faster than ever, we all need to be a part of that and to collaborate and work together on the digital public goods. In a safe and secure way, I think that is the right solution that we have to do. And for Norway, we’ve always been putting safety and security first, also in our digital solution. It has been important before, now it is more important than ever. Of course, because we are living in the world we are living, but also because we need to keep trust in these different digital solutions. Because without trust, we don’t get the citizens to use the different digital public services and so forth. To keep the trust, it’s closely connected with security as well. And Alten, which we saw a good example of here, we are now using a lot of public funding to modernize Alten, to build these digital blocks, which everyone can use. And safety is in the first place. at the forefront and the front seat of doing this this work as well. So I really believe that the use of open source and digital public goods strengthen the possibilities for having a more safe and secure digital future as well.

Thomas Davin: Thank you so much. Indeed, sometimes, at least in the conversations that I have been having, interlocutors at times confuse open source with open air. That is, you know, it’s it’s out there and everybody can look into it and everybody can do whatever they want with your technology or your solution. And that’s not really what that means. What it means is really a code that everybody can build upon. But that is then nestled within a digital public infrastructure that you mentioned, if you can, and that is itself quite secure and safe for the users and for the states that they serve. I can see we are a little bit ahead of schedule, which is wonderful. So let me maybe offer any closing remarks. Mr. Tung, you want to start, please?

Karianne Tung: Yes, please. Thank you. Regarding the security of the different solutions as well, because when the technology runs so fast and things happen every day, every minute, every second, then it’s more important than ever to work together on the digital public goods as well to keep it safe and secure and that we are not doing one thing in Norway, another thing in the EU and the third thing in Africa, for instance, because we need kind of not to fight the pace of technology, but to keep up and then we have to work together, I believe.

Thomas Davin: Thank you so much. Please, if you can.

Henna Virkkune: Yes, European Union is known on that that we have been creating many rules when it comes to digital world, because we want to make sure also that our citizens, that they can trust the technologies. And at the same time, when we see that nowadays technologies, they have very much economic power and also power in our society. So for us, it’s very important that also that technologies, that they are respecting our rules and values and our democratic values. And also, for example, what is illegal in our societies, it’s also illegal Internet. So very much the same approach. But also now in the same time, when we see that the technology is developing very fast, I also want to underline the importance of investing in the skills of our citizens, especially when we are speaking about young generation. It’s very important priority also for us to protect our minors online, but also make sure that everybody is having the tools to operate in digital world. And this is something I think that also in the global scale, we have to work more together to make sure that all the citizens also all over the world, that they have also the digital skills, that they have also the possibility, of course, the benefits of the technologies and new digital services that nobody shouldn’t be left behind.

Thomas Davin: Thank you so much. So indeed, an alignment within that notion of DPGs, there is very much a value based system, which is or was it very much at the birth of Internet and the governance of we are in the right space to discuss that. This is really the foundation of how the government was the government. The Internet was was created, was around us, sharing our skills, sharing of knowledge. And but it will take the next generations that ability to build the human capital from those skills. So digital literacy, AI literacy are going to be critical skill sets in in the education sectors of the future. I want to thank you both so very much for lending us your time, your wisdom and and your and the vision that your your respective institutions offer. And I understand there’s been a specific request to have a quick moment of photo that we we take the opportunity to have a quick photo together. The two of you, if I may. Thank you so much. And we have a quick photo. I understand there is a baby. Thank you so much. It’d be good. And Minister Tung, thank you. You can, of course, decide to stay, but I’m assuming you have a busy schedule. Thank you for your time.

Karianne Tung: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thomas Davin: And we were talking about really the the value systems, but also how we build institutions and societies. And that’s the perfect segue for us to move to another presentation, another keynote by somebody who really was at the heart of what India has built in terms of its own systems, architecture, the value systems and digital public infrastructure. I’m delighted to welcome and to introduce Mr. Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder and chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited to join us. Unfortunately, Mr. Nandan could not travel, but we’re delighted to have here him here online, live with us. Nandan, please. The floor is yours. Welcome for your keynote.

Nandan Nilekani: Thank you, Mr. Nandan, and it’s really a great honor and privilege to be speaking at the ITF 2025 in Norway, and I apologize for not being there personally. I think the whole plan and purpose of digital public goods is very important. And in India, we have over the last 15 years essentially led a social and digital transformation of the entire country. And it’s all founded on digital public goods and digital public infrastructure. For example, identity was a very important requirement in India because many people did not have a birth certificate or any proof of their existence. And India built a system called Aadhaar, which is the world’s largest digital ID program with about 1.3 to 1.4 billion people on it, used 80 million times a day today. It’s entirely built as an open architecture for everyone to use, and it’s something which was done by the government as a public utility for everyone to use. Using that and using the KYC of the ID, the Aadhaar system, the government was able to enable financial inclusion and Prime Minister Modi launched a program to give everyone a bank account using the Aadhaar KYC, which allowed you to open an account in one minute. And more than 750 million people got bank accounts open. The same Aadhaar KYC was used for the mobile network, which allowed everyone more than a billion mobile connections to be done. So within the span of seven to eight years, a billion people had the digital ID, more than 750 million people had a bank account and a billion people had a mobile phone. And then using the ID and the bank account, India built the world’s largest cash transfer system, which enabled to put money electronically into people’s bank accounts in real time without any loss of fraud. And this has been a huge boom in addressing social benefits, social security, creating a safety net for the vulnerable. And in times of crisis like COVID, when more than 100 million people got emergency funding, when they could not work and so on. So we created that. And on top of that was built a payment system called UPI, which is now the world’s largest digital payment system. That’s about 18 billion transactions a month, over 400 billion users, over 50 million merchants where you can make payment. And all these payments have no transaction fee. So you can have a lady selling vegetables and she can sell vegetables for 10 rupees and she will receive 10 rupees. And this has very popularized the whole payment system. There’s also a way of enabling people to use their own data. So we think that data empowerment is very important, where people can use their own data to get access to credit and so on. So this lady selling vegetables uses UPI payments and then there’s a track of her payment details, which she can then give to a lender to get credit. So it’s a complete system. And this has all been enabled by using the thinking of digital public infrastructure and using digital public goods, using open source components, making it low cost, frugal, high volume, low value and very inclusive. So this is the way we think that DPG should be used globally. And we think this is more than just technology. It’s about creating an inclusive society where everybody can participate and advance their lives and meet their aspirations. It’s about creating an opportunity economy, which allows everyone to meet their aspirations and improve their lives. So this is something we think that it’s very, very important for us. And India has shown the way. But now going forward, there’s a major initiative globally to take the DPI and DPG thinking globally. And many, many bodies have been set up. The DPG Alliance is one example. We have Codevelop, which is a set of philanthropists who are also supporting DPG. We have many organizations like NORAD and others supporting DPG and DPI. And today, many, many of the building blocks are being used globally. MOSIP, which is an ID system, which which was built as an open source ID system, has been used in 18 countries. Government to person payment system has been open source. It’s being used in multiple countries. Sunbird is an open source education stack being used in multiple countries and so on and so forth. So more and more of the building blocks of digital public goods are being made available. Minister Kang mentioned about DHS2, which is a very important piece of the digital public goods from from Norway. So, I think DPG now is becoming a global phenomenon and the goal is to take DPGs to 50 countries in five years and we already have about 30 countries using one or more of the DPG products that are there and we think this is absolutely critical because if we are going to modernize our societies, the only way to do that in a frugal way with all the budget constraints that countries have is to use a DPG approach to build open models, make them available to the world, create building blocks, and then make sure that societies can mix and match those building blocks to create interoperability. And the same philosophy can be applied to AI. If you want AI to be really useful and universal, we have to build open-source AI building blocks. In India, we are working on two or three of them. One is Indian language because India has 22 official languages and hundreds of other languages and how do you create a way to translate and use language as a way of communicating with the computer so that a person in Bihar can speak in Hindi to the computer and so on. So, language is one area. Education is another area where open-source AI is being created so that people can learn how to read and write and so on and do arithmetic and so on. And then agriculture, which is a huge need for millions of farmers around the world, AI is being applied to provide them the latest information that they want. So, I think AI will be, but to build on AI, you have to have DPG first. So, I think the right journey is to have countries have to have a strategy of having DPGs built on this philosophy of low-cost, interoperable, open-source, plug-and-play, stack orientation that we talked about. And then out of that, we can produce the AI modules, which run on top of that. And all this, by the way, is fully endorsing privacy, security, and all the other requirements that we need to have because inclusion is very important. So, we make sure that nobody is denied, nobody is left out, everybody has a path to join society. And that’s very, very important in many countries around the world where you need to make it inclusive and allow everyone to participate. So, I think this is a very important idea. I’m delighted to be here. I also want to record Norway’s enormous contribution to the whole idea of DPI and DPG. The Norwegian government has always been very supportive of these ideas, Minister Tung talked about it. Norway is also the home of the DPG Alliance, which is partnering on this program. NORAD, which is the aid agency of Norway, is very supportive of DPGs and DPI. And of course, Norway itself has produced a DPG like DHIS2, which is the most popular open-source health platform in the world. So, I think I’m delighted that this particular event is in Norway. And we do hope that all of us together can take the DPI-DPG story forward and meet our mission of having at least 50 countries in the world using DPI and DPG to actually make a difference to billions of people in their respective countries and bring about social change, bring about sustainable development goals, and bring about technology for good so that we actually make society better with DPI, DPG, and with AI. So, once again, thank you very much for this opportunity, and I wish this event all the very best. Over to you, Mr. Davin.

Thomas Davin: Thank you so much, Mr. Nilekani, for this powerful keynote. Mr. Nilekani has been rightfully at the heart of the incredible leadership offered by India on digital public infrastructure, and you’ve heard from him much better than I could ever tell the story of how impactful that is in billions of lives, not just in India, but around the world. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never opened a bank account in a minute, but certainly maybe more importantly, when we think of digital identity for children from a UNICEF lens, it means that we understand where children are, it means we understand whether they need to be vaccinated, whether they’re getting to school, whether they’re dropping out of school, whether they have issues of mental health, etc. There’s so many ramifications to these public infrastructures and what they offer to the world. But we will hear from many other world leaders on these specific issues of what that means, what that could mean, and how we build together, and maybe also around that notion of having 50 countries in five years becoming global champion of DPG by default. And for this, you will be led by my co-moderator, Liv. Liv, let me invite you back to take over from me. Warm welcome, Liv.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you, Thomas, for excellent co-moderation. I’m very pleased to be co-moderating the next session, which will be a panel, and can I start by please inviting on stage Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Nigeria. Can I please invite Dr. Takua Imagawa, Vice Minister for International Affairs of Japan. Can I please invite Ms. Luanna Roncaratti, Digital Government Deputy Secretary of Brazil. And last but not least, Mr. Amandeep Gill , Undersecretary General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, United Nations. So, we are indeed going to continue on the same topic. It’s a pleasure to have this geographical diversity, and to be able to start maybe by hearing from you, Minister Tijani. I know that digital cooperation is a top priority for Nigeria, and your country is doing a great deal to help advance it, including through your participation in the campaign that Mr. Nilekani mentioned, the 15-5 campaign, which aims to accelerate the adoption of safe, inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructure. But from your perspective, what role can the use of digital public goods play in supporting this kind of cooperation, both within Nigeria, but also across borders?

Bosun Tijani: Thank you so much, and good afternoon everyone. Permit me to start by framing in my perspective, and through the work we do, what we consider DPG to be. And for me, I’ll start by saying, if you take digital public infrastructure itself as a set of principles or framework, you can look at DPG as the tool, right, or set of tools that form what you may consider social infrastructure. And that this set of social infrastructure is actually how we offer things around modular, open, interoperable foundation for innovation to thrive in the public sector. I think it’s important to take that framing into consideration. And it’s extremely important for those of us who work in the public sector, because when you look at countries all over the world, you see massive trust deficit, where citizens are asking questions to their government. You know, a young person who wants to go to university is seeking support, and they want that journey to be simple. A young couple that is giving birth to a child, they want to be able to register their kids seamlessly. The example that I was giving of India, where vulnerable people expect support from their government, they want government to be able to support them through this critical event, which, you know, if you go to Finland, they will call life events, right. And this is what we’re saying, that government is struggling to be able to meet these demands, but these citizens are demanding, and that’s creating unique gap. But we’ve also seen that historically, technology can support government to provide these services much more faster, better, seamlessly, and cheaper. But what we’ve seen with e-government is the creation of so many silos in government in trying to spend on technology. I think this is the principle and the beauty of DPI that I always like for us to take into consideration when we’re having this conversation, that DPI is not just another set of e-government thinking, that DPI is how we get better with our spending on technology, right. And what that does is that there are certain principles that we’re expected to take into consideration, and if we’re not taking them into consideration, then it’s not DPI, then we’re missing the opportunity, and that’s where DPG comes to play. I think we focus too much when we talk about DPG on the open source element, we actually forget the fact that true DPG is how we’re able to stick to the demands that we must be interoperable in the way we build, the trust that is required of digital technology solutions, because these are critical solutions, right. It’s true DPG that we can ensure that we can accelerate this. It’s true DPG that we can ensure also reuse as well, that the silos that we’re trying to move away from, that we actually move away from them, because if we don’t, you end up seeing what we call DPI solutions that are repeating the same silos that we’ve been preaching again. , and the DPG. So for me, I believe that at scale, DPG is how we truly enshrine the DPI principles and framework in government. It’s how we meet the demands of society. And in the case of Africa, where our focus is on preaching the fact that we’re a single market, you know, over 1.2 billion people across the continent, you see people building start-ups and technology companies that are open to scale across the continent, you see government trying to integrate services, DPG principles is how we ensure that the solutions that we actually call DPI solutions, they meet that requirement. It’s how we scale, it’s how we use our resources effectively, and it’s how we ensure that that trust deficit that exists in society, that we can start to bridge that gap.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you for those comments, and I appreciate what you said about, you know, open source is an important part, but there’s other aspects, including the reusability, the trust, but, of course, the transparency that allows for some of that trust. So thank you for those observations, and I love the silo perspectives, because that’s what we want to avoid. Can I go to you now, Imagawa? Can I ask you to share some of Japan’s priorities when it comes to advancing safe and inclusive digital public infrastructure, and how can we promote digital cooperation globally?

Takuo Imagawa: Thank you, chair. It’s a great honor for me to express my sincere appreciation to the government of Norway, the UNIGF Secretariat, and all stakeholders for organizing this event. My name is Imagawa Takuo, and my initials are IT, so that’s why I’m here. I’m the director of the UNIGF Secretariat, and I’m the director of the UNIGF Secretariat for Information Technologies. Despite significant progress in the digital innovation, 2.6 billion people around the world remain still unconnected to the Internet, and many students are unable to fully reap the benefits of digital technologies. To bridge this divide, accelerating international collaboration in the digital domain is essential. By working in conjunction with DPGs, DPI is expected to develop and utilize in an inclusive and secure manner. It’s essential to establishing a solid foundation for global digital cooperation. Particularly, digital government services, especially those built on inclusive and secure DPI, can be powerful tools for advancing a digital transformation. In Japan, more than 98 million people have adopted a digital ID card, a milestone that reflects strong public trust in digital governance. This ID is linked to the e-commerce platform. This ID is linked to the e-commerce platform, provided by the digital agency, enabling secure and seamless identification for a wide range of services. The agency is now working to integrate both driver’s licenses and health insurance cards into this single ID card. The integration will unlock new capabilities, such as connecting individuals to their medical and prescription histories, making public services more user-friendly. The integration will unlock new capabilities, such as connecting individuals to their medical and prescription histories, making public services more user-friendly and responsive to real needs. To maximize the impact of this transformation, the government is also advancing partnerships with the private sector. By working together, we can enhance the value of these services and accelerate progress toward a smarter, more connected society. As we advance DPI, open source technology plays a critical role. It enables data to be shared securely and used effectively across sectors. In addition, we are fostering transparency, innovation, and efficiency. Japan brings valuable experience to this space. Japan’s development agency, called JICA, has developed deep expertise in open data exchange and is actively applying this knowledge through international development cooperation. JICA is actively supporting the introduction of DPI and DPGs in developing countries. This includes assistance in establishing digital ID systems, e-government platforms, and mobile payment services, contributing to solutions in areas such as education, health care, climate change, and disaster resilience. Furthermore, under the theme of building DPGs, JICA is working in partnership with external stakeholders to develop digital transformation models. These models aim to enhance social infrastructure by leveraging technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud computing. From the perspectives of global digital cooperation, JICA is committed to building the future of the world. From the perspectives of global digital cooperation, Japan welcomes the GDC. I believe that ensuring effective follow-up on this compact is essential to turning its vision into meaningful action. It demands active collaboration across all sectors, industry, academia, civil society, and tech community. This kind of inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is indispensable to promoting DPI and DPGs as well. JICA is committed to building the future of the world. From the perspective of global digital cooperation, JICA is committed to building the future of the world. This kind of inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is essential to promoting DPI and DPGs as well. From the perspective of global digital cooperation, Japan welcomes the GDC. It demands active collaboration across all sectors, industry, and tech community. This kind of inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is essential to promoting DPI and DPGs as well. From the perspective of global digital cooperation, JICA is committed to building the future of the world. It demands active collaboration across all sectors, industry, and tech community. This kind of inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is essential to promoting DPI and DPGs as well. From the perspective of global digital cooperation, Japan welcomes the GDC. It demands active collaboration across all sectors, industry, and tech community. This kind of inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is essential to promoting DPI and DPGs as well. From the perspective of global digital cooperation, Japan welcomes the GDC. This kind of inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is essential to promoting DPI and DPGs as well.

Luanna Roncaratti: I have two questions to make me feel safe but not comprehensive. As an environmental protector my role here is to have tools to deal with climate and environmental issues and promote effective public policies which improve peoples’ lives. Which helps managing policies without airport information is like putting is here together a puzzle. It is like a flashlight that we light to review and connect the rural mosaic in Brazil. Rural properties, their owners, areas of non-existent or preserved vegetation. And based on this vision, we can carry out and improve public policies to meet environmental preservation commitments. CAR has 8 million registered properties and 10 million citizens. The area registered in CAR corresponds to 5 million square kilometers. Roughly equivalent to the territory of India and Greenland combined. Farmers have registered their farm polygons, watercourses, mountains, and areas which have been converted or that are covered with forests. All of this information builds a robust database for environmental and economic planning, monitoring, and combating deforestation in Brazil. CAR has become a strategic tool for combating deforestation and promoting environmental recovery as well as for ensuring access to fundamental rights to traditional people and communities. Soon, it will be an instrument for implementing the environmental policies. In strengthening CAR and advancing the environmental regulation of rural properties are common objectives of the Brazilian federal and state governments. To meet these objectives, the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services has carried out important actions in recent years, such as improvements in the infrastructure of the system that supports car users and the provision of data interoperability mechanisms and federative cooperation actions to increase the competencies of public managers in the analysis for environmental regulation of properties. The federal government is working to make CAR available as a digital public good to share with the world a solution that allows the construction of a robust and complete environmental database in other countries. In this context, digital public goods play a relevant role in delivering reusable and accessible data and technologies that enhance verticality, sustainability and safety and promote people and communities regulatory independence. We are also deliver opening technology that can be adapted locally to accelerate sustainable solutions. Another point worth highlighting is the Federal Digital Government Strategy, which seeks to increase efficiency and improve the Federal Government’s digital governance. It has principles and initiatives that align with the concepts of digital public good and digital public infrastructure. We believe that this sharing and technological reuse make the global journey of environmental preservation more effective and strengthen the collective capacity to understand and protect ecosystems. Brazil’s experience shows that digital public goods can be a powerful tool for reducing inequality, promoting environmental sustainability and improving our citizens’ lives. Thank you.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you so much. And before we prolong that applause, I want to pull out something that was just said, and that is that CAR is being available as a digital public good, which is a wonderful commitment by the government of Brazil to share deforestation or technology that can be used for many purposes, including in the fight against tropical deforestation. So that is a terrific contribution, and thank you so much for that. Let’s have a round of applause for that. Undersecretary General, let’s turn to you. You have been working a lot on the framework. Can you share a little bit more? I’m sure you’ve been working on many frameworks, but there’s one in particular around the adoption of the Universal Safeguards Framework. Can you share how the UN is promoting and driving this around the world?

Amandeep Singh Gill: Thank you very much, Liv. We’ve been looking at the adoption of digital public infrastructure, digital public goods around the world. It’s useful to remember that the concept itself came out of the work of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. Minister Nikolai Astrup was a member there. In fact, we share a common DNA, the work that I do at the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, and the work you lead at the DPG. So I just want to remember that and celebrate that. The framework that you mentioned, that flows from a fundamental understanding that we have of the DPI-DPG experience around the world. Whether you take PIX in Brazil, a $4 billion investment that in a single year led to savings of $5.7 billion, or you look at the Estonia example, 2% of GDP saving in terms of efficiency, documentation, processes. What drives adoption and impact is trust in those systems. So if we don’t have safeguards, then we don’t have the trust. And if we don’t have trust, we don’t have adoption. If we don’t have adoption, there’s no impact. So that’s the operating equation for us and the motivation for the development of the DPI safeguards framework, the universal DPI safeguards framework that we released last year in September. And we are working, for example, with the DPGA, so that the 15-5 strategy and the safeguards adoption go together. We’ve looked at experiences from around the world in DPI development, DPI adoption, and incorporated the best practices, some of the lessons that we’ve learned, into an organic evolving framework because tomorrow’s challenges won’t be the same as yesterday’s challenges. As AI integrates into DPIs, we may face new risks, of course, opportunities, but there may be some new challenges. So it’s an evolving framework based on best practices, experiences, and it allows users to take on the persona of either a DPI developer or a government servant or a civil society activist to see what needs to be done in a particular context. So it’s a helpful tool, it’s a practical tool, it’s not just a report. And it allows us to anchor human rights perspectives, inclusion perspectives, safety perspectives, and sustainability perspectives into thinking about DPIs throughout the design, development, adoption, and readaptation cycle of DPIs. So that’s the framework. And going forward, there is an implementation aspect, but there’s also a global adoption mainstreaming aspect, and I see the CEO of Codevelop is in the room, so working with them, with the Gates Foundation, with other partners, the second DPI summit in Africa later this year in November, South Africa, would allow us to kind of gather a community not only around DPIs in general, but also the specific aspects of DPI safeguards. And this community’s active role will be important as we go forward. Open source was mentioned, the minister mentioned the role that plays, and he was there at the open source week last week within which we had the DPI day, and I see DPGs as the middleware that connects open source to DPIs. I think as we look at digital sovereignty, digital resilience going forward, all of us would need to think about this kind of an approach where you broaden the open source community, you take it into directions like data commons where the traditional open source community has not been active, then you build the useful DPGs on top, whether it’s in the environmental arena, the health arena, DHS2 was mentioned, and then where you can, you architect into the DPI’s vision, whether it’s India, Estonia, Brazil, Japan, and elsewhere. So we are very excited about this, looking forward to working with all the partners on stage and in the room to take this forward.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you so much, Undersecretary General, and I like the term that you used, and also for highlighting all of the different countries and parts of the world that are coming together here, and how we are building different bits of a puzzle together in a way. I would now actually like to tap into the audience a bit, but for that I’m going to invite my co-moderator, Thomas, to come up on stage to do an experiment.

Thomas Davin: Thank you. So we’re talking about values quite a bit and the value of the open source community, the GitLab, and we’re going to try to draw into this and the values of the internet as well, and trying to be respectful to that notion of being connected and really building on one another. That is the lens and what we’re hoping to do right now. We’re going to try to bring your views, your insights, and your sentiment around some of these connections on the DPGs so that the panel can then build upon as they close. And so we’d like to do that, and we’re going to use a technology which is called Mentimeter. For those of you who may not be familiar, it means you’re going to need to use your phone. And then we’re going to use a QR code, which I hope should be on the screen. I hope that’s this one, but I’m not certain. I think it’s going to come soon. Oh, that’s this one. So please use your phone, take a quick photo that should take you to a Mentimeter, menti.com, and we’re going to go through with you that should also be on your screen. For those of you in line, we’re going to go through essentially three quick questions. We would have wanted to do a little bit more, but there is no time. So we’ll try to go through a quick question and hear from you, really. As we anticipate the broadening of these DPGs, those goods, as they come nestled into those digital public infrastructures, what service really should we prioritize? Mentioned by the minister from Nigeria, this is about service to the people in their life moments. What do we prioritize? What should we prioritize as development and as we share with one another? So I can see you’ve been fast. This is, you can see live as they come. We’re going to give us a few seconds and you essentially, in terms of services, you have financial inclusion, healthcare delivery, climate action, agriculture, humanitarian response, education, local entrepreneurship, and communication and social media. So healthcare delivery and education seem to, oh, no, financial inclusion, healthcare delivery, that speaks to what the minister from Nigeria was really mentioning. It’s those moments, those key moments, how you also have financial inclusion, the story that India was really telling us. But agriculture is also there and climate action really resonates with a lot of us. Let’s give it another 10 seconds. And maybe asking panelists to have a quick look because we’re going to come back to you all after that to hear also from you whether those resonate with you or whether you’re feeling maybe we are missing even a category here that you feel should have been there. All right, should we close this round and go to question number two, which is actually an open question. When you think of Digital Public Good, what are you most excited, what do you think is the most inspiring part that Digital Public Good really should revolve around? You can use any word or expression, but you should only have one answer. And finally, I would like to thank all of you for joining us for this event. This is one entry in principle. So I understand some are always trying to game the game and have several entries. Let’s see whether some of you may do that. So collaboration, very much at the heart of that. In the open source community, that sense of collaboration, of building on one another, on really using what others have built to really move forward and further. And it’s been so powerfully told as a story both by the keynote speakers, by Minister Tung and by all panelists. That really is that strong sense of value setting around the collaboration as the heart of this notion and this concept. Public interest, equality, interoperability, inclusion. As Amandeep, the Undersecretary General, was also building that sense of inclusion is going to be critical to those digital public infrastructure, transparency to build trust. And again, back to trust and public interest. It has to resonate really with individuals and people’s life-defining moments. What do we see that maybe we haven’t talked about? Fairness is a key point. Accessibility is a key one as well. All right, thank you so much. Let’s close this one and bring to the third question. What do you believe is, and of course I should have said panelists are welcome to vote as well, but maybe I said it too late, I’m sorry. What do you believe is needed most to unlock the impact potential of DPGs, of digital public good? What do you feel is the most important? International collaboration mechanism. So the structures that we’ve mentioned on the Global Digital Compact, for instance, or the framework that Amandeep just mentioned. Commercial investments, open source first policies and procurement practices. Some of that is behind the 15-5 kind of campaign by the Digital Public Good Alliance. Applying safeguards and inclusion principles and implementation. Grant and social impact funding, that notion that they should be really financing behind this. Local vendor capacity, government capacity, whole of government digital approaches. Estonia being one, of course, case in mind, and maybe others. So government capacity and technical expertise. We’ve heard quite a lot of the examples in Brazil, in Japan, in Nigeria, but also of course in Norway. We’ve mentioned Estonia is maybe one of the most known, but India is, of course, one of the largest, certainly, developers. And it looks like the numbers are only slowly moving, so we’ll give it another three seconds. And with that, back to you, Liv, and the panel. Thank you so much.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you, Thomas. Thank you to everyone for filling this out. We’re going to use this. It’s a unique opportunity for us to hear, not only from those that are with us in person, but also from everyone online. And this is shaping the way we are working at the Digital Public Goods Alliance moving forward. And I wanted, before I invite some reflections from the panelists, I wanted to pick up on the word cloud. Because I really loved, and I was almost about to steal Minister Tijani’s glasses, because I couldn’t see that screen, so I had to bend over backwards. But I really loved that collaboration was the word that stood out the most. Because, again, going back to your point, Minister, that Digital Public Goods, like the open source element is important, but it’s more than everything around it. And one of the most important aspects is the collaboration, the trust, the transparency, the opportunity to build on something that someone else has built, but also to share something that others can build on. And there is something that is uniquely needed here, more than ever. And where I think there is a very, very powerful momentum now to really leverage the collaboration potential. And I’m really glad to see that in the word cloud and that that’s what stands out the most. But what did you think, Minister?

Bosun Tijani: I think you picked on what I thought was intriguing about what was in the word cloud as well. Because the word collaboration at the middle is truly what we can consider to be the reason why we have a successful example of DPG in Nigeria. And this is one that people don’t talk about often enough. Again, maybe because it’s not necessarily open source. And it’s the Nigerian interbank settlement system. I think many people don’t talk about this. It’s a fantastic success story that has not only transformed financial inclusion in Nigeria, but it’s also led to economic benefits as well. So if you talk to folks within the technology ecosystem in Africa, they will tell you today Nigeria has the highest number of unicorns. And all of these unicorns are fintechs. And the reason why we have them is because we have the interbank settlement system. So they’re able to build on that innovation. And we came about this interbank settlement system because of collaboration. It came to being when government decided to participate and collaborate with the biggest banks in the country. So all the banks came together and they said, you know what, we need a system that will allow us to speak to ourselves. Which is why today Nigeria has banking services that are probably even way faster and more efficient than, say, the U.S. or some European countries. It’s why today, you know, if I need to pay you money in Nigeria, I can transfer money into your bank account. And you’re rest assured that in one second you’re going to see the money in your bank account. So that’s led to innovation that we’ve seen across board. And it’s the lesson that I think we also need to learn. When I talk about DPI in Nigeria, I always allude to the fact that if we’re able to repeat what we’ve done in the financial services space, where everyone comes together, we build our data exchange system like we have in the interbank settlement system. Once we make interoperability the focus, I think we’ll start to see similar growth and innovation in healthcare, for instance, where we have tremendous needs. If we can get stakeholders within that sector to collaborate and partner with government and build systems that speak to one another, I think we’re going to get to a point where we’re solving health issues faster. And not only solving this issue faster, we’re going to be able to enable innovation, drive more investment from the private sector, and see more unicorns in the healthcare space. It’s the same for education, it’s the same for agriculture. What’s always missing in how we use technology to cause positive change in those key sectors is that collaboration. We’ve seen a capacity and understanding of government to be able to enable it, which is why the third point is also important. If you look at our point, the highest one was government capacity. Towards the last, when you look at the graph, the question you asked the audience, I think is extremely important. Of course, for me, this is the true example of how we can drive DPG for good in societies across the world.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you, Minister. If there are any open source components that come out of your work, we welcome that they are shared with us.

Bosun Tijani: I actually think our interbank settlement system should become open source. I think we should open source it because it’s one that works really well and can benefit so many other countries.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: We’ll be in touch.

Bosun Tijani: Thank you.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Vice Minister Imagawa, what did you think when you saw these results?

Takuo Imagawa: Thank you. I was inspired by the outcomes from the audience. We care much about trust, inclusion, collaboration, and all those things. We are promoting the international collaboration in terms of the DPI and the DPG. For example, we are sharing the best practices with the other countries. We often study a lot from our partners. This kind of collaboration is very important, I think. I was very much inspired by that. Thank you.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you. Just to pick up on, because JICA and the work that’s happening on international digital cooperation, JICA is really leading on one of the digital public infrastructure layers that is still evolving the most, which is on secure data exchange. JICA has done a lot of very impressive work. It’s something that is really contributing to the digital public infrastructure agenda.

Takuo Imagawa: Thank you for the introduction of JICA’s efforts. We are, of course, assisting JICA’s promotion of the DPI and DPG to developing countries. I would like to continue this kind of effort with JICA together.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you. Under-Secretary General Gill, what were your reflections, and what would you have answered?

Amandeep Singh Gill: I think cooperation, collaboration, that’s a no-brainer. In fact, the term digital cooperation is our guiding mantra. It’s not only digital cooperation across boundaries, across countries, but also across stakeholder categories, governments, businesses, tech communities, civil society, and academia. In terms of the use cases that were reflected on by the audience, there is a pattern, there is a common element, which is what’s already working. So you see some of these successful examples on financial inclusion, health, education, none that mentioned the Sunbird platform. So that is partly reflected, but also our understanding of where the gaps are in our analog world. We have a huge last mile gap in health care delivery, in diagnostics equity, education. and Arun Kumar. So, in terms of education, again, there’s a huge gap in terms of literacy skills, retention of children as you go up the years, and also what’s needed for the future. So the audience is reflecting our hope that digital and emerging technologies would be increasingly applied in those areas where the gaps are. But this is not going to happen automatically. So we need to be very, very careful about what we’re doing, and we need to be very, very careful about what we’re doing in the data set, in the data environment, in data sets, in shareable open use cases through the DPGA, for example, and in public sector capacity, government capacity to strategize, to come up with the right policies to allow those innovation ecosystems to flourish, to address those gaps. So, I think, you know, we’ve not explored the potential. For instance, intra-regional trade. The Minister knows, you know, we had this conversation last week in New York on the opportunity in Africa, where intra-regional trade is, among African countries, lower than their trade with European Union countries. So that’s a huge untapped potential for the African economy to grow, and interoperable DPIs, DPGs that could be critical for the future of the AI, and that could be critical for the future of the AI, and, you know, if we do not have DPIs that connect businesses together, that allow entrepreneurs to get to scale with their innovations, they’ll be critical, they could be critical drivers of economic growth and employment. And then, lastly, I think these approaches are critical for the AI future. So, you know, if we don’t have DPIs that are interoperable, if we don’t have DPIs that are in a concentrated form in key areas, like health, education, et cetera, then local innovators cannot build AI models on top. So they need access to those high-quality, context-specific data sets, which DPIs can facilitate. So I can foresee over the next two to three years, you know, our work is obviously these trends and, you know, we need to be paying attention to these additional opportunities coming from DPIs and DPGs.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you, Undersecretary Gill. Deputy Secretary Veronica M. Nduva, in our first audience poll question, we asked about where there was most impact potential for digital public goods, and one of the alternatives was financial inclusion, another one was climate action, and as part of Brazil’s G20 presidency last year, Brazil was really highlighting and bringing global awareness around the potential for connecting the digital public infrastructure agenda, like building out digital identity and payment systems, to climate action. Can you share some examples of how Brazil is working now to bridge these two agendas?

Luanna Roncaratti: Yes. Well, in Brazilian government, we have sought a deep reflection on this agenda, and aimed at innovative solutions to make our society less unequal and more sustainable. We’ve been working with the concepts of digital public infrastructure, and also digital public goods, to advance the structure and cross-cutting solutions that help us to deal with these challenges. A striking example of DPI in Brazil is the National Identity Card, also the PICs that the Undersecretary mentioned, but I would like to stress and highlight the National Identity Card here. It provides each citizen in Brazil with a unique identification number and serves as a gateway to access public policies in general. This initiative also contributes to the reduction of transaction costs for individuals, companies, and governments across the country. Another pivotal initiative is the GovBI platform, which has already 170 million digital accounts, which covers 80 per cent of our population, and offers access to more than 4,000 public services on a single portal. It provides digital identity, which is connected to the new identity, to the new National Identity Card, and a digital signature without cost for users in Brazil. All data and personal information are protected by law in this process as well. Another example is that in 2024, the Brazilian digital public infrastructure proved to be indispensable also to respond to a diverse situation. In May 2024, the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil faced the greatest flood in Brazil’s history. The proportions of this disaster surpassed that of any other hurricane that hit New Orleans in the United States. The floods in Rio Grande do Sul affected more than 2 million people, who were able to apply for the reconstruction aid using the digital identity available through GovBI accounts. The crossing of different databases was essential for the benefit to reach those who needed it rapidly. But those who already had access to the data were not able to recover the identity in a few hours, and access the benefit even faster. This example, along with CAR, and others that we have mentioned here, such as PIX, which is our electronic payment system, shows that digital transition must be inserted in the discussion about development, inclusion, and sustainability. We have no doubt that the digital transition must be inserted in the discussion about development, inclusion, and sustainability. We have no doubt that the future is already digital, but we do believe it needs to be green and inclusive, too. Thank you.

Liv Marte Nordhaug: Thank you so much. Let’s have a round of applause for the panel. I’ll let you leave, because we’re going to do one other Thank you so much. Thank you. As you have heard today, digital public goods are essential to global digital cooperation and for attainment of the sustainable development goals. And we therefore need to create an enabling environment for these technologies to be developed and shared in the first place, and for their maintenance and evolution over time. Procurement and grant financing processes play a huge role in ensuring financial sustainability, and in the Digital Public Goods Alliance, we are therefore very excited to have open-source-first policies for what they buy and what they fund. We want to help grow this momentum by ensuring that there is a better understanding of which policies already exist and are being used. And I would therefore like to take the opportunity here in the end to introduce an open-source policy survey that we are conducting. Because if you really think about it, open-source policy is not just a policy. It is an open-source policy survey that we are conducting. Because if you remember, when we asked the question to the audience about what is most needed to help advance digital public goods, the first answer was government capacity building. The second ranking answer that came out was open-source-first policies. So therefore, we have, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, has in coordination with 24 partners launched a global open-source policies and practices survey to map the current use of open-source-first approaches across governments and other relevant organizations. For instance, UN entities, international financing institutions, and regional entities. The survey is open to anyone working in this organization, so you can speak to the current state of open-source policy adoption, even when these policies do not currently exist. So therefore, we would love to invite you to participate in the survey. We would also love to invite you to help us build a more complete picture of the global open-source policy landscape by taking or also sharing this survey today. So please take some time to scan the QR code, to pass it on. It is a comprehensive survey, so it takes some time to fill it out, but this is findings that, again, will be used to advance the work that we are doing at the Digital Public Goods Alliance.

Thomas Davin: So please take the effort if you’re working in the relevant field. And as we’re doing that, and as you’re getting that QR code logged, shared, you don’t have to fill it out right on the spot. I would like to invite Tomas to come up on stage. Tomas, please come up to the stage. Thank you. So I would like to thank everyone who has joined us here today, the speakers, the audience, both in person, everyone who has joined us remotely, and the Government of Norway as the host, and the Internet Governance Forum for being here with us today. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Agreement points

Open source and collaboration as fundamental principles of DPGs

Speakers

– Thomas Davin
– Bosun Tijani
– Henna Virkkune
– Nandan Nilekani
– Takuo Imagawa
– Liv Marte Nordhaug

Arguments

DPGs are open source digital solutions relevant for SDGs with do no harm principles and privacy respect

DPGs serve as tools forming social infrastructure for modular, open, interoperable foundation for innovation

EU’s Open Internet Stack offers curated catalog of open source components for secure, deployable digital solutions

Open-source AI building blocks needed for universal AI access, including language, education, and agriculture modules

Open source technology enables secure data sharing and fosters transparency, innovation, and efficiency

Collaboration emerged as top priority in audience feedback for DPG success

Summary

All speakers consistently emphasized that Digital Public Goods must be built on open source principles and collaborative approaches. They agreed that open source enables sharing, reusability, and innovation while fostering transparency and avoiding vendor lock-in.

Topics

Infrastructure | Development | Legal and regulatory

Interoperability as essential requirement for effective DPGs

Speakers

– Thomas Davin
– Bosun Tijani
– Henna Virkkune
– Nandan Nilekani
– Amandeep Singh Gill

Arguments

Countries can freely adopt and adapt DPGs to build components of safe, inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructures

DPGs must stick to interoperability demands and trust requirements to truly enshrine DPI principles

Components are anchored in open standards and interoperability while promoting EU tech solutions, regulatory approaches, standards, and values

India built systems using open architecture for everyone to use with interoperable components

Local innovators need access to high-quality, context-specific datasets through interoperable DPIs for AI development

Summary

Speakers universally agreed that interoperability is crucial for DPGs to function effectively and avoid creating silos. They emphasized that without interoperability, DPGs cannot achieve their potential for collaboration and reuse across different systems and contexts.

Topics

Infrastructure | Development

Trust and security as foundational elements for DPG adoption

Speakers

– Karianne Tung
– Henna Virkkune
– Amandeep Singh Gill
– Luanna Roncaratti

Arguments

Open source and DPGs strengthen possibilities for safer and secure digital future through collaboration

Investment in citizen digital skills especially for young generation is critical priority

Security and trust are foundational – without trust there’s no adoption, without adoption there’s no impact

All data and personal information are protected by law in Brazil’s digital infrastructure processes

Summary

All speakers agreed that trust and security are fundamental prerequisites for successful DPG implementation. They emphasized that without public trust in digital systems, there can be no meaningful adoption or impact.

Topics

Cybersecurity | Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

International cooperation essential for DPG success

Speakers

– Henna Virkkune
– Nandan Nilekani
– Takuo Imagawa
– Luanna Roncaratti
– Amandeep Singh Gill

Arguments

EU’s international digital strategy promotes stable partnerships while boosting competitiveness in AI and key technologies

DPGs enable 50 countries in five years goal through global collaboration

Japan supports DPI and DPG introduction in developing countries through JICA development cooperation

Brazil making CAR available as digital public good to share environmental database solutions globally

DPI safeguards framework incorporates human rights, inclusion, safety, and sustainability perspectives

Summary

Speakers consistently emphasized that no single country can achieve digital transformation alone and that international cooperation is essential for scaling DPGs globally. They agreed on the need for collaborative frameworks and shared standards.

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | International cooperation

Similar viewpoints

All three speakers from major developing economies shared successful examples of how national digital infrastructure systems have transformed financial inclusion and government service delivery, demonstrating the practical impact of DPGs at scale.

Speakers

– Nandan Nilekani
– Bosun Tijani
– Luanna Roncaratti

Arguments

India’s UPI payment system processes 18 billion transactions monthly with no transaction fees

Nigeria’s interbank settlement system enabled fastest banking services and created fintech unicorns

Brazil’s digital infrastructure proved essential during Rio Grande do Sul floods for emergency aid distribution

Topics

Economic | Infrastructure | Development

Representatives from developed economies and international organizations shared a commitment to supporting developing countries in DPG adoption through structured cooperation programs and safeguards frameworks.

Speakers

– Henna Virkkune
– Takuo Imagawa
– Amandeep Singh Gill

Arguments

EU will deploy tech business offer to partner countries through Global Gateway combining public-private investments

Japan supports DPI and DPG introduction in developing countries through JICA development cooperation

DPI safeguards framework incorporates human rights, inclusion, safety, and sustainability perspectives

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | International cooperation

These speakers shared a forward-looking perspective on how DPGs must evolve to support AI development and ensure that AI benefits are accessible globally, not just to those with massive resources.

Speakers

– Nandan Nilekani
– Amandeep Singh Gill
– Henna Virkkune

Arguments

Open-source AI building blocks needed for universal AI access, including language, education, and agriculture modules

Local innovators need access to high-quality, context-specific datasets through interoperable DPIs for AI development

Investment in citizen digital skills especially for young generation is critical priority

Topics

Infrastructure | Development | Sociocultural

Unexpected consensus

Security enhancement through open source rather than compromise

Speakers

– Karianne Tung
– Takuo Imagawa
– Amandeep Singh Gill

Arguments

Open source and DPGs strengthen possibilities for safer and secure digital future through collaboration

Open source technology enables secure data sharing and fosters transparency, innovation, and efficiency

Security and trust are foundational – without trust there’s no adoption, without adoption there’s no impact

Explanation

It was unexpected to find such strong consensus that open source approaches actually enhance security rather than compromise it. This challenges common misconceptions that open source means less secure, with speakers arguing that transparency and collaboration actually strengthen security.

Topics

Cybersecurity | Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Environmental applications as priority use case for DPGs

Speakers

– Luanna Roncaratti
– Audience survey results

Arguments

Brazil’s CAR system registered 8 million properties covering 5 million square kilometers for environmental monitoring

Climate action ranked highly in audience survey for DPG priority services

Explanation

The strong emphasis on environmental and climate applications for DPGs was somewhat unexpected, as these discussions often focus primarily on identity, payments, and basic government services. The consensus around environmental use cases suggests growing recognition of DPGs’ role in addressing climate challenges.

Topics

Development | Environmental | Sustainable development

Government capacity as top implementation priority

Speakers

– Thomas Davin
– Bosun Tijani
– Audience survey results

Arguments

Government capacity and technical expertise ranked highly in audience survey as implementation need

Nigeria’s interbank settlement system enabled fastest banking services and created fintech unicorns

Collaboration between government and major banks was essential for success

Explanation

The strong consensus that government capacity building is the top priority for DPG implementation was unexpected, as technical discussions often focus more on technology solutions rather than institutional capacity. This suggests recognition that successful DPG adoption is more about governance and institutions than just technology.

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | Capacity development

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion revealed remarkably strong consensus across speakers from different regions and sectors on fundamental DPG principles including open source approaches, interoperability requirements, trust and security foundations, and the necessity of international cooperation. There was also unexpected agreement on security benefits of open source, environmental applications, and government capacity as the top implementation priority.

Consensus level

Very high level of consensus with no significant disagreements identified. This strong alignment suggests the DPG concept has matured to a point where core principles are widely accepted across different stakeholders. The implications are positive for global DPG adoption, as the shared understanding of principles, challenges, and solutions creates a solid foundation for coordinated international action and the ambitious goal of reaching 50 countries in 5 years.

Different viewpoints

Definition and scope of Digital Public Goods

Speakers

– Thomas Davin
– Bosun Tijani

Arguments

DPGs are open source digital solutions relevant for SDGs with do no harm principles and privacy respect

DPGs serve as tools forming social infrastructure for modular, open, interoperable foundation for innovation

Summary

While both speakers support DPGs, Thomas Davin provides a more technical, standards-based definition focusing on open source nature and SDG relevance, while Bosun Tijani emphasizes DPGs as social infrastructure tools that enable innovation in the public sector. Tijani also warns against focusing too much on the open source element at the expense of other critical aspects like interoperability and trust.

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Unexpected differences

Open source versus proprietary solutions debate absence

Speakers

– All speakers

Arguments

Various arguments supporting open source approaches

Explanation

Unexpectedly, there was no significant debate about the merits of open source versus proprietary solutions, despite this being a common point of contention in technology policy discussions. All speakers uniformly supported open source approaches, which is unusual for such a diverse group of stakeholders from different regions and institutions.

Topics

Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory | Development

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion showed remarkably high consensus among speakers from different regions and institutions. The main areas of variation were in implementation approaches and emphasis rather than fundamental disagreements about goals or principles.

Disagreement level

Very low level of disagreement. The consensus was so strong that it may indicate either a very well-aligned group of speakers or potentially limited representation of dissenting viewpoints. This high level of agreement could facilitate implementation but might also suggest that important challenges or alternative perspectives were not adequately represented in the discussion.

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

All three speakers from major developing economies shared successful examples of how national digital infrastructure systems have transformed financial inclusion and government service delivery, demonstrating the practical impact of DPGs at scale.

Speakers

– Nandan Nilekani
– Bosun Tijani
– Luanna Roncaratti

Arguments

India’s UPI payment system processes 18 billion transactions monthly with no transaction fees

Nigeria’s interbank settlement system enabled fastest banking services and created fintech unicorns

Brazil’s digital infrastructure proved essential during Rio Grande do Sul floods for emergency aid distribution

Topics

Economic | Infrastructure | Development

Representatives from developed economies and international organizations shared a commitment to supporting developing countries in DPG adoption through structured cooperation programs and safeguards frameworks.

Speakers

– Henna Virkkune
– Takuo Imagawa
– Amandeep Singh Gill

Arguments

EU will deploy tech business offer to partner countries through Global Gateway combining public-private investments

Japan supports DPI and DPG introduction in developing countries through JICA development cooperation

DPI safeguards framework incorporates human rights, inclusion, safety, and sustainability perspectives

Topics

Development | Infrastructure | International cooperation

These speakers shared a forward-looking perspective on how DPGs must evolve to support AI development and ensure that AI benefits are accessible globally, not just to those with massive resources.

Speakers

– Nandan Nilekani
– Amandeep Singh Gill
– Henna Virkkune

Arguments

Open-source AI building blocks needed for universal AI access, including language, education, and agriculture modules

Local innovators need access to high-quality, context-specific datasets through interoperable DPIs for AI development

Investment in citizen digital skills especially for young generation is critical priority

Topics

Infrastructure | Development | Sociocultural

Key takeaways

Digital Public Goods (DPGs) are essential for global digital cooperation and achieving Sustainable Development Goals, serving as open source solutions that enable countries to build safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure

Successful DPG implementation requires collaboration, trust, and interoperability as foundational principles, with open source being important but not the only critical element

Multiple countries have demonstrated significant impact through DPG approaches: Norway’s Alten (90% citizen adoption), India’s Aadhaar and UPI systems (billions of users), Brazil’s PIX and CAR systems, and Nigeria’s interbank settlement system

Government capacity building and open-source-first policies are the most critical needs for unlocking DPG impact potential, as identified through audience polling

Digital public infrastructure must incorporate safeguards frameworks that ensure human rights, inclusion, safety, and sustainability throughout design and implementation

DPGs enable significant economic benefits, with examples like Brazil’s PIX generating $5.7 billion in savings from a $4 billion investment and Estonia achieving 2% GDP savings in efficiency

International cooperation is essential as no single country can lead technological revolution alone, requiring partnerships across governments, private sector, civil society, and tech communities

DPGs are particularly valuable for addressing critical gaps in healthcare delivery, education, financial inclusion, and climate action, with potential for AI integration requiring interoperable DPI foundations

Resolutions and action items

EU committed to deploying Open Internet Stack as curated catalog of open source digital components for partner countries

Brazil committed to making CAR (environmental monitoring system) available as a digital public good for global use

Digital Public Goods Alliance launched global open-source policies and practices survey with 24 partners to map current adoption

15-5 campaign goal established to bring DPGs to 50 countries in 5 years, with 30 countries already using one or more DPG products

UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies to continue implementing Universal DPI Safeguards Framework with partners

Second DPI summit planned for Africa in November in South Africa to gather community around DPI safeguards

Nigeria’s Minister suggested their interbank settlement system should become open source for global benefit

Unresolved issues

Specific funding mechanisms and sustainable financing models for DPG development and maintenance were discussed but not fully resolved

How to balance national security and sovereignty concerns with open source approaches remains an ongoing challenge requiring case-by-case solutions

Technical capacity building needs vary significantly across countries, requiring tailored approaches that weren’t fully detailed

Integration of AI into DPIs presents new risks and challenges that the safeguards framework will need to evolve to address

Vendor lock-in avoidance and ensuring true interoperability across different DPG implementations needs continued attention

Measuring and demonstrating ROI and impact of DPG investments to secure continued political and financial support

Suggested compromises

Modular, reusable building blocks approach allows countries to mix and match DPG components according to their specific context and needs rather than adopting complete systems

Open source first policies in procurement while maintaining security and sovereignty requirements through proper implementation of safeguards frameworks

Combining public and private sector investments through initiatives like EU’s Global Gateway to support DPG development while respecting different stakeholder interests

Evolving safeguards framework that adapts to new challenges like AI integration while maintaining core principles of human rights and inclusion

Multi-stakeholder governance model that includes governments, businesses, civil society, and tech communities in DPG development and oversight

I think we focus too much when we talk about DPG on the open source element, we actually forget the fact that true DPG is how we’re able to stick to the demands that we must be interoperable in the way we build, the trust that is required of digital technology solutions… It’s true DPG that we can ensure that we can accelerate this. It’s true DPG that we can ensure also reuse as well, that the silos that we’re trying to move away from, that we actually move away from them.

Speaker

Bosun Tijani (Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Nigeria)

Reason

This comment reframes the entire discussion by challenging the common oversimplification of DPGs as merely ‘open source solutions.’ Tijani introduces a more nuanced understanding that emphasizes interoperability, trust, and anti-silo architecture as the core principles, moving beyond technical specifications to systemic thinking.

Impact

This comment fundamentally shifted the conversation from technical features to systemic principles. It influenced subsequent speakers to discuss trust, collaboration, and interoperability more deeply. The audience poll results later reflected this shift, with ‘collaboration’ emerging as the top word in the word cloud, directly echoing Tijani’s emphasis on breaking down silos through collaborative approaches.

What drives adoption and impact is trust in those systems. So if we don’t have safeguards, then we don’t have the trust. And if we don’t have trust, we don’t have adoption. If we don’t have adoption, there’s no impact. So that’s the operating equation for us.

Speaker

Amandeep Singh Gill (UN Under-Secretary General)

Reason

This creates a powerful logical chain that connects abstract concepts (safeguards) to concrete outcomes (impact). It transforms the discussion from technical implementation to human psychology and social acceptance, introducing the critical insight that technical excellence means nothing without user trust.

Impact

This comment established trust as the central organizing principle for the remainder of the discussion. It provided a framework that other panelists referenced when discussing their own national experiences, and it elevated the conversation from ‘how to build’ to ‘how to ensure adoption and impact.’

I actually think our interbank settlement system should become open source. I think we should open source it because it’s one that works really well and can benefit so many other countries.

Speaker

Bosun Tijani

Reason

This spontaneous commitment represents a real-time policy decision made during the discussion. It demonstrates how the collaborative spirit of the forum can generate concrete commitments, moving from theoretical discussion to practical action.

Impact

This moment energized the discussion and demonstrated the power of the forum format to generate real commitments. It prompted Liv Marte Nordhaug to immediately respond ‘We’ll be in touch,’ showing how the discussion was creating actionable outcomes in real-time.

In a world of rising digital fragmentation, supporting the Open Internet Stack is our way of defending a shared global infrastructure that serves the public good.

Speaker

Henna Virkkunen (EU Executive Vice President)

Reason

This comment introduces geopolitical context and frames DPGs as a response to global digital fragmentation. It elevates the discussion from technical cooperation to digital sovereignty and global governance, positioning DPGs as tools for maintaining an open, interoperable internet against fragmenting forces.

Impact

This comment introduced the geopolitical dimension that ran as an undercurrent through the rest of the discussion. It influenced how other speakers framed their national strategies, with several emphasizing sovereignty, security, and international cooperation as key motivations for DPG adoption.

DPG now is becoming a global phenomenon and the goal is to take DPGs to 50 countries in five years and we already have about 30 countries using one or more of the DPG products… But to build on AI, you have to have DPG first. So, I think the right journey is to have countries have to have a strategy of having DPGs built on this philosophy… And then out of that, we can produce the AI modules, which run on top of that.

Speaker

Nandan Nilekani (Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys)

Reason

This comment provides both concrete metrics (50 countries in 5 years) and a strategic framework that positions DPGs as foundational infrastructure for AI development. It connects current DPG work to future AI capabilities, creating a compelling progression narrative.

Impact

This comment established the ambitious ’15-5′ campaign as a central organizing goal for the community and introduced the critical insight that DPGs are prerequisite infrastructure for equitable AI development. Multiple subsequent speakers referenced this framework, and it became a rallying point for the discussion.

Overall assessment

These key comments fundamentally elevated the discussion from a technical presentation of digital solutions to a strategic conversation about global digital governance, trust, and collaboration. Tijani’s reframing of DPGs beyond open source, combined with Gill’s trust equation and Nilekani’s AI-DPG connection, created a sophisticated framework that influenced how all subsequent speakers approached the topic. The spontaneous policy commitments (like Nigeria’s offer to open-source their banking system) demonstrated how thoughtful dialogue can generate real-world outcomes. The discussion evolved from ‘what are DPGs’ to ‘how do we build a collaborative global digital infrastructure that serves humanity’ – a much more profound and actionable conversation that was directly shaped by these pivotal interventions.

How can we ensure that Digital Public Goods maintain security and trust while being open source?

Speaker

Thomas Davin

Explanation

This addresses a common concern about whether open source solutions can be as secure as proprietary ones, which is crucial for government adoption and citizen trust

How can the Nigerian interbank settlement system be made open source to benefit other countries?

Speaker

Bosun Tijani

Explanation

Minister Tijani suggested that Nigeria’s successful interbank settlement system should become open source, indicating a need to explore the technical and policy steps required for this transition

What are the specific technical and policy requirements for countries to adopt and adapt existing Digital Public Goods?

Speaker

Implied from discussion

Explanation

While the benefits of DPGs were discussed extensively, the practical implementation challenges and requirements for adoption were not fully explored

How can AI be integrated into Digital Public Infrastructure while maintaining safeguards and inclusion principles?

Speaker

Amandeep Singh Gill

Explanation

The Under-Secretary General mentioned that as AI integrates into DPIs, new risks and challenges may emerge that require updated frameworks and approaches

What specific mechanisms are needed to scale Digital Public Goods from 30 to 50 countries in five years?

Speaker

Nandan Nilekani

Explanation

While the 15-5 campaign goal was mentioned, the specific strategies, resources, and mechanisms needed to achieve this ambitious target require further exploration

How can intra-regional trade be enhanced through interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure, particularly in Africa?

Speaker

Amandeep Singh Gill

Explanation

The Under-Secretary General highlighted the untapped potential for African economic growth through better intra-regional trade facilitated by DPIs, but specific implementation strategies need development

What are the current gaps in government capacity for Digital Public Infrastructure implementation globally?

Speaker

Audience poll results

Explanation

Government capacity was identified as the top need for unlocking DPG impact potential, but specific capacity gaps and training needs require detailed assessment

How can the connection between Digital Public Infrastructure and climate action be strengthened and scaled globally?

Speaker

Luanna Roncaratti

Explanation

Brazil’s experience connecting DPI to climate action was mentioned, but broader applications and scaling strategies for other countries need exploration

What are the specific components and implementation timeline for the EU’s Open Internet Stack?

Speaker

Henna Virkkune

Explanation

The EVP mentioned the Open Internet Stack as part of EU’s tech offer but details about its components, deployment timeline, and access mechanisms need clarification

How can Digital Public Goods address the digital divide for the 2.6 billion people still unconnected to the Internet?

Speaker

Takuo Imagawa

Explanation

The Vice Minister highlighted this significant gap, but specific strategies for using DPGs to bridge this divide require further research and development