Strong and inclusive digital public infrastructure can address many of the above challenges. Specifically, this can support data ecosystems through three key features:
1. Digital public infrastructures encode standards that improve data quality and interoperability. The foundational digital public infrastructure data exchange layer is based on standards that enable seamless data sharing based on consent networks.
2. Digital public infrastructures incentivize innovator communities to build (data) interoperable solutions. By design, digital public infrastructure creates the foundations for innovation in the ecosystem. It incentivizes the creation of interoperable and open solutions to be built on top of it, thereby strengthening administrative data and its interoperability with other kinds of data, opening even more use cases.
3. Digital public infrastructures also give control of data to governments and citizens. Often, it is built using open-source software or digital public goods. In these cases, it ensures that governments maintain ownership of their data. Made available as open government data (OGD), such data enables research and trends assessments across sectors. As it is increasingly recognized that certain high-value datasets have to be openly available for creators of value-added services and applications, this capability is key for tackling challenges for children and beyond.