50-in-5 Milestone Event Welcomes New Countries, Driving Global Cooperation to Advance Safe, Inclusive, and Interoperable DPI

New York City, September 24, 2025 — Government leaders and partners from across the globe gathered at the DPI Cooperation in Motion 50-in-5 milestone event at the Morgan Library and Museum on Monday, reaffirming their shared commitment to building safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure by the end of 2028.

Held on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly, the event showcased how countries and partners in the 50-in-5 campaign are turning cooperation into measurable outcomes. 

This second 50-in-5 milestone celebration unfolded within a challenging global context, marked by significant reductions in international development assistance that are leaving countries with fewer resources to sustain hard-won gains in their digital transformation efforts. The digitalisation momentum generated during the Covid-19 pandemic is at risk of slowing, and without strengthened mechanisms for digital cooperation, fragmentation could exacerbate inequalities and limit access to essential services. 

The event program highlighted how 50-in-5 countries are countering these risks by embedding cooperation, openness, and shared learning at the center of their digital journeys. Regional spotlights on West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and East Africa indicated how collaboration across borders can accelerate progress, strengthen local capacity, reduce duplication, and lower costs. 

A segment on DPI safeguards, hosted by the UN Office of Digital and Emerging Technologies and the United Nations Development Programme, underscored the importance of safety, trust and inclusion as countries expand their foundational digital systems. At the event, the 50-in-5 campaign and the DPI Safeguards initiative jointly announced the activation of their DPI Safeguards Accelerator and a comprehensive DPI learning exchange for countries on their DPI journeys.

“There is incredible momentum to build DPI in the world right now, and the 50-in-5 Campaign is at the heart of it, with 30 countries already signed up! I am thrilled to see the collaborative energy among countries as they build these digital foundations. We are witnessing the sharing and reuse of learnings and digital public goods at an unprecedented scale”, said Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO of the Digital Public Goods Alliance Secretariat and Master of Ceremonies for the event. 

Throughout the different event segments, many country speakers touched upon the important role that the adoption and sharing of digital public goods (DPGs) is playing in their relevant digital transformation efforts. 

“We need to build more capacity, have more people within the region developing DPGs. We’ve built a DPG pipeline, an open-source platform to collaborate with partners and countries, improve on it, and build on top of it — a great avenue to really move the needle.” — Salima Monorma Bah, Minister of Communications, Technology & Innovation, Sierra Leone

“We are in the process of building our data exchange system that will leverage X-Road, which will give us the three important elements of DPI. That means we can encourage more innovation and people can build faster, leveraging best practices and DPGs from the Digital Public Goods Alliance.” — Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, Nigeria

In addition to showcasing progress, the event featured a series of announcements, with four countries formally joining the 50-in-5 campaign: Trinidad and Tobago, Somalia, South Sudan and South Africa. In parallel, Brazil, Cambodia, France and South Africa announced their membership in the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), strengthening global cooperation by contributing technologies, expertise, and political leadership to the shared effort of scaling digital public goods worldwide. These announcements underscore the growing momentum behind 50-in-5 and the recognition that openness and cooperation are key to accelerating digital transformation.

The DPI Cooperation in Motion event was convened by the DPGA as part of the 50-in-5 campaign, which is also supported by the Gates Foundation, the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure, Co-Develop, UNDP and the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. For more information about the 50-in-5 campaign, please visit 50in5.net.

Explore the full discussions and watch the event recording here.

Photo credits: Anthony Randazzo