*By Camila Cristina Murta
Law 14,129/2021 deals with principles, rules and instruments for Digital Government and public efficiency, especially through debureaucratization, innovation, digital transformation and citizen participation.
Recently, the Federal Government published a public consultation on the National Digital Government Strategy for the period from 2024 to 2027 and, for the first time, brought the term digital public infrastructures – IPD, defining them as: structuring solutions, transversal to various policies public, which adopt networked technology standards, built for the public interest, that allow universal scale, and enable the orchestration of uses by different actors, from the public and private sectors, in an integrated manner across physical and digital channels, governed by legal frameworks applicable and enabling rules to promote development, inclusion, innovation, trust, competition, respect for human rights and individual freedoms.
In other words, IPD are open solutions, open standards and open protocols that facilitate public, efficient and secure digital interactions; they foster innovation in the private sector and drive the country's sustainable development. It is, therefore, an essential enabler of digital transformation.
The great advantage of IPD is that, as the fundamental digital resources of IPD are not exclusive to one country or public entity, from the conception of an IPD and its publication under an open license, many others can reuse and adapt the solution , allowing the reuse of code through implementation, configuration and operationalization at a much smaller fraction of the cost of creating your own.
Leveraging a pre-existing IPD represents significant savings in time and money, including more consistent public service delivery, greater digital inclusion and participation, reductions in leaks and fraud, and greater agility and responsiveness in the face of change and crises.
“Three main types of protocols that facilitate digital public infrastructure: digital identity, digital payments and data exchange. Collectively, we refer to them as the civic technology stack.” United Nations, Building & Securing Digital Public Infrastructure Playbook, June 2022
Brazil has some excellent use cases for digital public infrastructure, such as PIX, which revolutionized financial transactions in the country, being replicated in several developed countries.
PIX, an experience promoted by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), is a technology created to enable payments and transfers instantly. Implemented from 2020, in less than three years it has already made it possible to carry out approximately R$3 billion in financial transactions and has already promoted savings of R$6 billion for consumers and companies that use it. (CIEB, 2023)
India, a country often criticized for its poor physical infrastructure, has undergone a radical transformation in the digital space. Most notably, a digital payments revolution has reshaped the universe of informal transactions that make up 85% its economy. In January 2023 alone, eight billion of these transactions, worth almost US$200 billion, were carried out involving 300 million people and 50 million merchants – remarkable for a country that used cash for 90% of transactions a few years ago. (CC, 2023)
Another relevant Brazilian case to be cited is the CadÚnico system which was decisive for Brazil to have one of the largest income transfer programs in the world, Bolsa Família, and also to benefit more than 68 million Brazilians on an emergency basis during the Covid-19 pandemic.
And, finally, a Brazilian case that deserves to be mentioned is the Gov.br platform, which allows 152 million citizens to have access to almost 5 thousand digital services. The Federal Government provides some examples of using the gov.br platform on its institutional website.
Digital ID alone can generate an equivalent economic value of 3% to 13% of GDP, with an average improvement of 6% for emerging economies. This data has been circulated globally as a reference for countries that have adopted an IPD.
But if IPD are relevant, necessary, replicable and promote digital inclusion, why are they still little publicized in Brazil?
I believe that Brazil needs to overcome deep-rooted biases such as: i) obsolete infrastructure; ii) digital exclusion; iii) insufficient technical and financial resources; iv) underdeveloped digital regulations; v) the absence of political will; vi) the non-centrality of the citizen; among others.
Therefore, there is a need for coordinated and strategic action from the public and private sector to raise the technological level of public services provided. Reverberating the cases already implemented and reusing the IPD developed worldwide to resolve sectoral issues. Disclosure and awareness about IPD are fundamental to dissolving existing biases.
In line with the implementation needs of IPD, the Digital Government Law, as well as the National Strategy, exalt the use of open data, government as a platform, interoperability, preferential adoption, the use of the internet and its applications, technology , standards and open and free formats. Therefore, inducing the use of digital public infrastructures.
And, as icing on the cake, Law 14,133/2021 (New Tenders and Contracts Law) has as one of its objectives the promotion of innovation and sustainable national development, in addition to promoting market participation in innovative and technological solutions.
We have the knife and the cheese in hand, we just need to want it!
* Camila Cristina Murta is leader of the ABES Public Procurement Working Group
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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Sources:
https://cieb.net.br/conecte-c-aborda-infraestrutura-publica-digital-a-luz-da-educacao/
https://coachingcarreiras.com.br/o-caso-para-investir-em-infraestrutura-publica-digital/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/08/digital-public-infrastructure/
https://brasilparticipativo.presidencia.gov.br/processes/ENGD/f/77
https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2021/lei/l14129.htm
https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2021/lei/l14133.htm
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