Digital Public Infrastructure Is Supposed To Be Interoperable: Why Does the Standardization End When Something Goes Wrong?
Digital public infrastructure (DPI) is becoming more common in emerging markets, as a growing number of governments are building population-scale digital systems for identity, payments and data exchange. And as DPI increasingly crosses national borders, involving multiple governments, processes and contractors, the need for interoperability in these systems is growing. According to David Porteous at Integral: Governance Solutions, Maria Luciano, Deepti George at Yutadhi, and Sahana Arun Kumar at Amarante Consulting, this growing reach and complexity mean that redress — i.e., citizens’ ability to challenge errors in DPI systems and obtain remedy — should also be interoperable. They share insights from a research project that examined grievance redress mechanisms for 15 DPI systems in Brazil, India, South Africa, Benin and Ethiopia, exploring how they can move toward greater standardization.
