Enabling governments to build and sustain digital public infrastructure — Co-Develop

To sum up, our discussions with stakeholders have revealed that engineering capacity within government in areas such as making design and technology decisions in building open, interoperable digital infrastructure, managing vendors, and developing secure systems are emerging as critical needs. 

Collectively, we have an opportunity to think about viable and scalable ways in which we can respond. Above all, we must support governments in a manner that respects their sovereignty and enables them to build DPI according to their stated policy goals. Any initiatives should therefore adhere to the following principles:

• Local ownership. DPI is a critical national asset, making strategic control and ownership a key concern. Initiatives should be embedded in the regional ecosystem of universities, civil society organizations, or other independent institutions that have earned the trust and respect of relevant stakeholders. 
• Collaboration, not competition. To avoid redundancy and inefficient use of resources, capitalize on synergies with active and related support initiatives in the region.
• Sustainability. Building DPI takes an extended period of time to come to fruition. Aim to help governments create capacity to manage DPI over its lifecycle without mission critical dependence on external support. 
• Flexibility. Avoid getting boxed into an overly narrow and rigid definition of what DPI is and isn’t. Be flexible enough to offer support and advice to best meet government needs
• And above all, trust. Knitting together the principles above, a demonstrated commitment to being demand-led, locally-owned, collaborative, sustainable, and flexible is essential for generating the trust needed for government and partner buy-in.