Page 61 - Building digital public infrastructure for cities and communities

regulation, when anchored in clarity and interoperability principles, enables cross-border digital
services to flourish.

Balancing innovation with accountability requires adaptive regulatory approaches – those flexible
enough to accommodate technological change while safeguarding public interest. Governments
should streamline licensing and compliance for DPI providers, for instance through unified digital
business permits or simplified accreditation for civic-tech initiatives. “Test-and-learn” regulatory
models – such as those piloted for blockchain and AI governance – can enable experimentation
within defined guardrails, ensuring that innovation proceeds responsibly. In parallel, clarifying
data ownership, consent and sharing protocols is essential to protecting rights while encouraging
productive data use.

To replicate the success of frontrunner countries, national and municipal leaders must legislate for
openness, interoperability and accessibility, and to nurture a business-friendly environment. Laws
that mandate API standards, enforce the use of open-source platforms for government services,
and embed accessibility principles into procurement processes not only enhance efficiency but
signal a long-term commitment to inclusive digital development. However, legal reform alone is
insufficient. Research on adaptive governance shows that regulatory agility must be paired with
institutional capacity.

A future-ready DPI ecosystem depends on legal architectures that are not only enabling but
evolvable. By combining streamlined regulation with robust institutional capacity building,
policymakers can transform DPI from a compliance burden into a catalyst for inclusive digital
transformation.

8.6 Measure impact and share best practices

A scientifically rigorous approach to DPI demands continuous measurement, best practice sharing
and structured learning. Systematic monitoring is critical to assess operational performance and
broader societal outcomes. KPIs should encompass system adoption rates, demographic inclusion,
service uptime, incident and tampering reports, cost-efficiency assessments and socio-economic
impacts such as reductions in service wait times or increased public access to essential services.

Transparent sharing of successes and failure practices is essential to building trust, securing political
support and accelerating global learning. Governments should actively contribute to international
knowledge ecosystems such as the World Economic Forum, the World Bank’s Identification for
Development (ID4D), Digitalizing Government-to-Person Payments (G2Px) initiatives and UNDP’s
digital inclusion programmes and the U4SSC initiative. To ensure DPI systems remain responsive
to evolving needs, governments must embed feedback loops that are quantitative and adaptive.
This includes regularly evaluating systems against user satisfaction, accessibility metrics and
technology evolution – particularly with regard to emerging tools such as AI. Rigorous monitoring
must be matched by structured evaluation frameworks that link DPI performance to SDGs targets
and crisis resilience indicators. Institutions such as UNDP and the World Bank have repeatedly

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