Global Digital Compact (GDC) at UN Summit 2024

Global Digital Compact was adopted by UN members in the recently concluded United Nations Summit of Future 2024. Global Digital Compact lays down a comprehensive framework for global governance of Artificial Intelligence and other digital technologies.

What is the Global Digital Compact (GDC)?

• It is an agreement being negotiated by 193 United Nations (UN) member states to establish shared principles for a secure, open, and free digital future.
• It is a non-binding diplomatic instrument that outlines shared goals for governments, institutions, and stakeholders.
• Aim: To harness and regulate digital technologies for the common good and focusing on their potential benefits while addressing associated challenges.
• It was adopted during the United Nations’ Summit of the Future 2024 as part of the ‘Pact for the Future’.

Key Objectives of the Global Digital Compact

• Closing the Digital Divide: Ensuring everyone has access to digital technologies and the internet.
• Inclusion in the Digital Economy: Promoting equitable participation in the digital economy for all individuals.
• Data Governance: Advancing responsible and equitable governance of data.
• Human Oversight of Technologies: Ensuring that technology development aligns with sustainable development goals (SDGs).
• Artificial Intelligence Governance: Establishing panels to oversee AI governance and promote ethical practices.

Key Initiatives under the Global Digital Compact

• Establishment of an independent International Scientific Panel on AI within the UN to promote scientific understanding.
• A Global Dialogue on AI Governance involving governments.
• Developing innovative financing mechanisms and incentives to connect the remaining 2.6 billion people to the Internet.
• Establishing safeguards to prevent and address adverse impacts on human rights from the use of digital and emerging technologies.
• Providing and facilitating access to independent science-based information to counter misinformation and disinformation.

What is Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)?

Digital Public Infrastructure, or DPI, refers to the technology systems that provide essential digital services to people. This includes things like:

• Digital IDs like India’s Aadhaar, which helps people prove their identity online.
• Payment platforms like UPI, allow people to send and receive money digitally, in real time.
• Government services are provided online to make people’s lives easier.

Global Support and Spread of DPI

• India has become a global leader in DPIs, especially in the Global South (developing countries). Under India’s G20 presidency, DPIs were promoted as tools to help countries grow faster.
• India’s Achievements:
  • India has Aadhaar, the world’s largest digital identity system.
  • India also leads in digital payments, with 96 billion transactions made in just one month (August 2024).
• Other countries are following India’s example:
  • The World Bank’s ID4D program is helping 60 countries develop digital IDs.
  • Programs like MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform) are working in 11 countries, helping governments build their own DPI systems.

Why DPIs Are Important?

• DPIs can help governments serve people better and faster, especially in areas like financial inclusion, where more people can access bank accounts, credit, and government benefits.
  • Example: In India, 80% of adults now have bank accounts, compared to just 25% in 2008.
    • Women own 56% of these accounts, improving financial independence.
  • DPIs are also crucial for economic development. Digital transactions in India make up nearly 50% of the country’s GDP, showing how much digital infrastructure can boost the economy.

Challenges in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Implementation

• Lack of Granular Data for Impact Assessments: Current data on DPI initiatives, such as Aadhaar enrollments, UPI transactions, or Jan Dhan accounts, does not reflect the true social and economic impact on individuals.
  • The absence of intersectional data (e.g., gender, income, education) makes it difficult to link DPI usage to outcomes like financial inclusion, livelihoods, or systemic risk.
• Difficulty in Deconstructing Causality: Understanding the direct connection between digital initiatives and socio-economic improvements (e.g., UPI’s impact on income or rural women’s financial independence) is challenging without proper data.
• Systemic Risk in DPI-Enabled Lending: DPI’s role in credit facilitation, such as pre-sanctioned loans via UPI, could either increase or decrease systemic financial risks. The absence of specific data on this makes evaluation difficult.
• Underreporting of Socio-Economic Impact: Current metrics are primarily macro-level achievements (e.g., percentage of people with bank accounts), which fail to capture deeper effects on income, well-being, and social agency, especially in marginalised groups.
• Limited Private and Government Sector Data: DPIs affect not only individual citizens but also the private and public sectors. Assessing the broader impact on these sectors is not adequately addressed due to limited data availability.

Recommendations to Address These Challenges

• 3D Approach: Design, Data, and Dialogue:
  • Design: Integrate mechanisms for impact assessment into the initial design of DPI systems, similar to how privacy and security are incorporated. These should enable continuous data collection for evaluations.
  • Data: Encourage trusted and well-governed data-sharing mechanisms to provide granular, anonymized data that can offer insights into who benefits from DPIs and why certain groups may be left behind.
  • Dialogue: Foster ongoing dialogue between third-party assessment agencies, policymakers, the private sector, and civil society to drive participative governance and accountability.
• Incorporating Impact Assessments as Routine Practice: Make impact evaluations part of DPI design from the start, forming a continuous feedback loop to adjust and improve systems.
• Use of Intersectional Data: Collect data on user demographics, usage frequency, and behavioural changes to better understand the societal impact. This can help quantify the DPI’s effects, such as financial independence in rural women.
• Promote Participative Governance: Build protocols for regular engagement with various stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society, to improve ownership of DPIs and ensure accountability.

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