Page 34 - Building digital public infrastructure for cities and communities

establishes interoperability and data exchange frameworks for environmental data governance
while embedding ecological intelligence into physical infrastructure via sensor networks.

4.3 Urban economic transformation and industrial innovation

DPI acts as a transformative catalyst for urban economic development and industrial innovation
across diverse contexts, as illustrated by four paradigmatic cases. In Brazil, Porto Digital has
revitalized Recife’s economy through a tripartite partnership among government, academia and
the private sector. It has established a thriving tech hub that hosts more than 350 companies and
has created more than 17 000 high-value jobs, while promoting walkable urban design and a
knowledge-based economy (Mari, 2023).

In Rwanda, the Irembo platform demonstrates how DPI can significantly enhance governance
efficiency and financial inclusion. Offering more than 100 public services, via a Web/ Unstructured
Supplementary Service Data (USSD) interface, it has reduced service access time by 80 per cent,
while a network of 4 000+ agents ensure accessibility for digitally excluded populations. This
platform provides many DPI functions like a digital payment component (e.g., Irembopay) and a
digital marketplace (e.g., IremboPlus).
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Thailand’s Traffy Fondue highlights DPI’s potential to improve urban management through AI-driven
civic engagement. Designed to address a broad spectrum of civic issues, the digital platform uses
AI to categorize and route complaints efficiently to the appropriate government agencies. To date, it
has handled more than 1.37 million infrastructure-related reports with a 77 per cent resolution rate,
intelligently routing citizen complaints to the appropriate authorities and enhancing transparency
and responsiveness (Hansen & Dahiya, 2025).

Finally, Brazil’s Pix instant payment system represents a leap in financial infrastructure. It enables
real-time transfers between bank accounts, within seconds, at any time of day, while maintaining
high standards of speed, security and accessibility. By making quick response (QR) code-based
wallets interoperable, Pix simplifies digital transactions across platforms and promotes widespread
financial inclusion (Pix, n.d.). This example highlights DPI’s capacity to support real-time, low-cost
digital payments at scale.

Together, these cases demonstrate DPI’s role in driving innovation, streamlining governance,
enhancing civic engagement and building inclusive financial systems.

4.4 Gender equality, social inclusion and human rights in urbanization

DPI has also shown its capacities in advancing gender equality, social inclusion and human rights in
urbanization by creating inclusive digital ecosystems that empower marginalized groups through
participatory governance and accessible identification systems. This impact is evident in Barcelona’s

2 https:// irembo8 .wpcomstaging .com/

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