Across much of the world, administration of public finance systems remains fragmented, opaque, and rigid, limiting governments’ ability to make informed decisions and respond to emerging needs for service delivery. This session will explore the state of the field and how DPI principles of interoperability, reusability, and evolvability with the help of open standards, modular architecture, and inclusive design, can transform PFM into a data-driven, citizen-centric engine of governance and growth.

ICTD is at the Global DPI Summit and taking part in the following session, which has been designed as a conversation between researchers and practitioners to reflect on:

  1. What DPI means for public finance and the problems it can help solve
  2. The challenges and benefits of using a DPI approach
  3. The tensions involved in implementing technology in the public finance space and strategies for navigating them

Speakers:

  • Emily-Rose Steyn, Product Manager, Open Cities Lab
  • Ayanda Hlatshwayo, Acting Chief Data Analytics Officer, National Treasury of South Africa
  • Cathal Long, Senior Research Fellow, ODI Global
  • Fabrizio Santoro, Research Fellow, ICTD
  • Jayant Narlikar, Government of Assam, India
  • Gaurav Godhwani, Executive Director and Co-Founder, CivicDataLab
  • Devesh Sharma, Senior Program Officer, Digital Public Finance, Gates Foundation

Key resource

Digital Public Infrastructure and Tax: High Stakes, High Rewards (Policy Briefing)

Event Details
Past Event
Date
6 November 2025
Time
-
Location
Cape Town International Convention Centre(CTICC)
Lower Long Street, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

Fabrizio Santoro

Fabrizio is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and is the co-lead for our programme of work on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Previously, he was Research Lead for the second component of the ICTD's DIGITAX Research Programme. His main research interests relate to governance, public finance, and taxation, with a strong focus on impact evaluation methodologies and statistical analysis. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.
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