Many governments and international organizations have embraced the transformative potential of ‘digital public infrastructure’ (DPI)—a concept that refers to large-scale digital platforms run by or supported by governments, such as digital ID, digital payments, or data exchange platforms. However, many of these platforms remain heavily contested, and recent legal challenges in several countries have vividly demonstrated some of the risks and limitations of existing approaches. In an event we organized entitled “Contesting the Foundations of Digital Public Infrastructure: What Digital ID Litigation Can Tell Us About the Future of Digital Government and Society,” we discussed four case studies from Uganda, Mexico, Kenya, and Serbia. What connects the experiences in these countries is that efforts to introduce new national-scale digital platforms have had harmful impacts on the human rights of marginalized groups—and triggered legal challenges led by civil society organizations. These four examples therefore hold important lessons for policymakers, highlighting the urgent need for effective safeguards, mitigations, and remedies as the development and implementation of DPI continues to accelerate.

You can read more about these cases in our co-authored blog that builds on the themes explored in the event, and you can watch the video recording of the event below.

Read the transcript here.