UN Open Source Week 2025. Part IV: Building DPI We Can Trust

What does it take to turn open source frameworks into actual digital public infrastructure that communities trust and use? At UN Open Source Week 2025, five thematic tracks at PwC (Open Source for Sustainability, Community Building, AI & Data Governance, Digital Public Infrastructure, and Digital Sovereignty) offered diverse entry points into how open systems shape the world we live in. I chose to attend every session in the DPI track, following how open source intersects with governance, inclusion, and sovereignty across regions. (If you missed the full schedule, here’s how the week was structured.)

Friday’s DPI track grounded high-level ideals in the real work of building and governing open systems. From FIWARE’s journey scaling open APIs for smart cities, to Mojaloop’s instant payments in Africa, to grassroots labs in rural Nigeria, and case studies of India’s digital expansion and Mexico’s cautionary failures, the conversations revealed a consistent message: frameworks alone are not enough. Local capacity, governance structures, and clear safeguards are what transform technical models into infrastructure that advances sovereignty, inclusion, and economic participation—without sacrificing rights. In a world seeking trusted, scalable digital systems, these sessions offered a concrete path for countries to build DPI that is open, adaptable, and deeply rooted in local needs while aligning with global standards.

Open Source DPI in Practice: Lessons from FIWARE and Partners

Friday’s DPI track at PwC opened with a grounded exploration of what it means to build open source digital public infrastructure that is interoperable, trusted, and scalable across borders. Chandra Challagonda (FIWARE Foundation) traced FIWARE’s journey from a European Commission-funded open API framework to a globally adopted, community-driven architecture for smart, data-driven solutions, now active across Africa, Japan, Latin America, and beyond. At the core of this model is the commitment to combine open source, open standards, and local capacity-building, enabling local developers, universities, and SMEs to govern and adapt infrastructure for their communities while retaining technical sovereignty.

Misato Hattori (NEC Corporation) highlighted how FIWARE-based smart city platforms are now in use across 20+ Japanese municipalities, addressing challenges from disaster management to local tourism while building local technical ecosystems. Roland Fadrany (Gaia-X) explained how federated trust frameworks are enabling scalable, compliant data sharing in regions from Europe to the Caribbean, illustrating how infrastructure can be sovereign while interoperable. Michael Epley (Red Hat) shared a Gulf Coast aquaculture pilot leveraging FIWARE to connect fragmented supply chains and drive sustainable circular economies, while Suna Akbayir (Artech International) outlined how Europe’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) initiative is aligning with open DPI frameworks to embed transparency and traceability across global supply chains.

A consistent thread across these interventions was clear: frameworks alone do not build resilient DPI. Local capacity, governance structures, and shared trust are essential to transform technical models into public goods. This session underscored that DPI is not a one-size-fits-all deployment but a collaborative process of building adaptable, open systems that meet local needs while aligning with global standards—offering a concrete path for countries seeking sovereignty without isolation in the digital era.

Digital Public Goods as Infrastructure: Use Cases and Practical Paths

The second DPI track session at the UN’s final day explored how Digital Public Goods (DPGs) move from concept to practical infrastructure, fostering inclusive, rights-based digital transformation. Moderated by Jon Lloyd (Digital Public Goods Alliance / 50-in-5), the session opened with a clear distinction: DPGs are open, reusable tools and standards, while DPI is their implementation at scale with governance, funding, and policy alignment. Paula Hunter (Mojaloop Foundation) described how Mojaloop’s open-source instant payments platform enables low-cost financial inclusion in Africa and Southeast Asia, using central bank partnerships and local SI capacity-building to embed sustainable infrastructure while reducing transaction costs for small merchants and citizens.

Gunjan Jain (eGov Foundation) shared how the open-source DIGIT platform supports city, state, and national governments in India and Africa to modernize public services: building reusable data registries and modular workflows that allow proactive, citizen-centered governance. From the civic participation frontier, Arnau Monterde Mateo (Barcelona City Council) and Nil Homedes Busquets (Decidim Association) showcased Decidim, a modular participatory governance platform now used in over 450 organizations across 30+ countries. They highlighted how Barcelona’s open-source-first approach has driven both adoption and local ecosystem growth, transforming civic engagement and democratic innovation while building a sustainable global governance model around the platform.

Throughout the discussion, speakers emphasized that intentional governance, local capacity building, and sustainable funding are essential to move DPGs from pilots to durable, trusted infrastructure. Payments systems, civic tech, and public service platforms can reduce costs and strengthen digital ecosystems, but realizing this potential means aligning policy, ecosystem incentives, and citizen-centered design from the start. The conversation underscored that building public digital infrastructure with DPGs is ultimately about shaping systems that reflect community priorities, foster participation, and safeguard public interest in a rapidly digitalizing world.

DPI in the Global South: Open Source Perspectives from Beyond the North

This session brought together voices from Africa and Asia Pacific to explore how digital public infrastructure (DPI) is taking shape across the Global South. Evelyn Kwarteng (Africa Center for Digital Transformation) underscored DPI’s role in advancing Africa’s digital sovereignty while tailoring systems to local realities, such as leveraging mobile money networks and building ID systems adapted to diverse documentation and connectivity contexts. Khairil Zhafri (EngageMedia) challenged participants to recognize the risks of “digital infrastructural violence,” cautioning that DPI gains should not come at the expense of marginalized communities or human rights in regions where surveillance and restrictive policies are the norm.

Speakers from STEM Garage Africa, including Ronald Ajiboye, Jan Morrison, and Kemisola Bolarinwa, highlighted the connection between DPI and grassroots innovation, sharing how mobile STEM labs and localized fabrication spaces can equip rural communities with practical digital tools to address their challenges directly. The conversation emphasized that open source approaches, local capacity building, and intentional safeguards are not abstract ideals but essential to ensuring DPI becomes an engine for opportunity, inclusion, and resilience in diverse Global South contexts.

DPI Governance: Law, Ethics, and Safeguards in Open Source Implementation

The final session of the DPI track brought the conversation down to earth, focusing on how safeguards, law, and governance frameworks shape the viability and trustworthiness of digital public infrastructure. Sarah Lee and Li Xing (Access Partnership) showcased their DPI Readiness Index, an emerging open-source tool to help governments assess their DPI landscape, prioritize reforms, and track gaps in policy, infrastructure, and ecosystem development. Feedback during the session highlighted the need for accessibility, localization, evidence-backed scoring, and practical outputs governments can act on, underscoring the complexity of balancing clarity, usability, and depth in readiness frameworks.

Alice Bibaud (Margin Research) anchored the conversation in technical realities, reminding the room that “open source” is not just about free use but requires transparency of code and maintenance for security, modularity, and community trust. Jorge Tuddón (The Wireless Cable) connected these threads with grounded case studies: Mexico’s biometric SIM registry, which failed due to privacy and proportionality concerns, and India’s digital revolution, which has expanded financial inclusion and digital identity access but raises questions around transparency, privacy, and exportability of DPI models to other contexts. Across the discussion, speakers emphasized that safeguards and human rights are not obstacles but foundational elements for DPI to function as infrastructure citizens trust, use, and can build upon safely.

TWC Insight

This week’s sessions brought open source and DPI down to earth, showing how they shape the everyday infrastructure people rely on for trust, inclusion, and practical progress. From payment systems in Kigali to participatory budgeting in Barcelona, the stories shared remind us that technology choices are deeply political; and that governance, funding, and safeguards are what turn frameworks into living systems. Building digital public infrastructure is about aligning what we build with the values we want to see reflected in the world.

Takeaway

DPI that lasts is DPI that earns trust. That means aligning open source, policy, governance, and local realities from the start. It means designing for inclusion, security, and adaptability. And it means ensuring digital public infrastructure remains a public good, not an opaque system citizens are forced to rely on without recourse.

FAQs

1. What is DPI, again?

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) refers to core systems like digital payments, digital identity, and data exchange that enable governments and societies to deliver services, participate in the digital economy, and exercise rights safely and efficiently.

2. What are Digital Public Goods (DPGs), and how do they relate to DPI?

DPGs are open, reusable tools—like open-source platforms, standards, or registries. DPI is the implementation of these tools at scale, with governance, policy alignment, funding, and accountability structures.

3. Why do safeguards matter for DPI?

Without privacy, security, and clear governance, DPI can become a tool for exclusion or surveillance, eroding trust and effectiveness. Safeguards ensure DPI strengthens human rights and inclusion rather than undermining them.

4. What’s next after this post?

This was the final day-by-day recap. Next, we will wrap up the entire UN Open Source Week 2025 with Part V: Reflections and Lessons Learned, distilling key insights, tensions, and opportunities for countries, technologists, and civil society building DPI that serves people.

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UN Open Source Week 2025. Part III. DPI in Practice: Trust, Sovereignty, and the Push for Inclusive Infrastructure