Page 18 - Building digital public infrastructure for cities and communities

efficiency, interoperability, user experience and inclusion, scalability, resilience and innovation
(OECD, 2024). OECD’s approach is oriented towards digital government.

These perspectives were not tailored though at the peculiarities of cities and their associated
urban challenges, which might deem the identified digital components, uneconomical or difficult
to implement, unless if specific measures and/or policies have been implemented at an early
stage both at the national/federal and city/local community levels alike. DPI for cities must adopt
a carefully crafted architecture framework which is capable of reflecting multiple stakeholders’
needs, concerns and viewpoints at the city/local community level.

In 2023, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) identified DPI as having four characteristics:
it (1) is interoperable (forms the underlying infrastructure for a variety of use cases alongside a
range of tools, technologies and service providers); (2) can be built on open standards (is available
to anyone to build on to and integrate services for people); (3) operates at a societal scale (is
not restricted by geography or demographic); and (4) has robust enabling rules and regulations
(has unified and coherent governance frameworks to safeguard people and prevent misuse).
UNDP suggested twelve key technology, governance and community principles, building upon the
advancements in this domain such as the Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development,
the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the International Organization of
Securities Commissions (CPMI-IOSCO) Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, UN Principles
for Responsible Digital Payments and the Principles for Digital Development:

1. Inclusivity: Eliminate or reduce economic, technical, or social barriers to enable inclusion,
empowerment of end-users, last-mile access and avoid erroneous algorithmic bias.

2. Interoperability: Enable interoperability by using and building on open standards and
specifications with a technology neutral approach, wherever possible, while accounting for
appropriate safeguards and keeping in view the legal considerations and technical constraints.

3. Modularity and extensibility: Extensible approach implies a building block or modular
architecture to accommodate changes/modifications without undue disruption.

4. Scalability: Use flexible design to easily accommodate any unexpected increase in demand
and/or to meet expansion requirements without changing existing systems.

5. Security and privacy: Adopt an approach that embeds key privacy enhancing technologies
and security features within the core design to ensure individual privacy, data protection and
resilience based on standards offering appropriate levels of protection.
6. Collaboration: Encourage the participation of community actors at different stages of
planning, designing, building and operating to facilitate and promote a culture of openness
and collaboration. Enable the development of user-centric solutions and facilitate widespread
and sustained adoption and allow innovators to develop new services.

7. Governance for public benefit, trust and transparency: Maximise public benefit, trust and
transparency while respecting applicable legal frameworks. This means that laws, regulations,
policies and capabilities should seek to ensure that these systems are safe, secure, trusted and

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