Innovation-Driven Solutions: Exploring Alignment for Regional Digital Public Infrastructure That Spans Digital Divides

Side Event of the World Bank Spring Meeting. Hosted by the Science Summit UNGA

In person and by invitation only

Workshop Description

As a side event to the 2025 World Bank Spring Meetings, this high-level working session explores innovation-driven solutions to bridge the $5 trillion MSME financing gap and persistent digital divides by leveraging data, networks, open finance and international standards. The roundtable is especially timely in incorporating the April 2025 global tariff realignments. Chaired and introduced by Declan Kirrane, Chair of the Science Summit during UNGA, and moderated by Mei Lin Fung, Chair of the IEEE SSIT Technical Committee on Sustainability, our roundtable builds on the 2024 UN Global Digital Compact and lays the groundwork for the 2025 Financing for Development Summit.

Key themes include Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), regional sandboxes, and open finance models supported by interoperable standards, transparent data systems and digital asset registries that for example harmonize carbon sequestration, enabling local farmers to participate in markets in carbon credits. In light of global tariff realignments, the session explores how separating the physical movement of goods from the pricing of their intangible value—such as digital rights, data, and future services—can enable tariff-resilient, economic participation while closing the digital divide. This is especially vital for MSMEs and creative sectors, offering new avenues to monetize innovation without relying solely on scale or physical exports.

The Pipeline of the ITU’s Partner2Connect initiative with over 1000 pledges estimated at U$73 Billion from almost 500 entities in149 countries sets the stage for working session. The Roundtable on Practice, Pipeline and Outcomes highlights the opportunity to align global assets and investments given the new tariff environment, accelerating the localizing production through networks of global supply chain micro-factories up to and including assembly hubs close to or at the point of purchase. This strategy significantly reduces unnecessary shipping, streamlines the global supply chain, and creates more equitable access to participation in global markets.

Minimizing transportation reduces energy usage and increases sustainability. Crucially, this localization effort involves local data governance and active engagement of local MSMEs both at the point of purchase AND at the intermediate points of production and assembly. In this way active engagement of MSMEs within the global supply chain itself then fosters increased digital, financial, and data literacy within local communities, going beyond  the urban centers or industrial global supply chain ports and hubs.

As part of this dialogue, we will examine the ASEAN GovStack initiative—a pioneering example of regional Digital Public Infrastructure that is enabling cross-border interoperability in identity, payments, and messaging, and laying the groundwork for inclusive digital trade across Southeast Asia. By aligning financial mechanisms, technical standards, and community-led innovation, this session aims to shape a globally connected, locally empowered, and historically and geographically founded digital economy and society.

Agenda

Session Chairs:

• Declan Kirrane – Chair and Founder, Science Summit UNGA, CEO ISC Intelligence
• Brian O’Connor, Executive Chair, ECHAlliance – The Global Health Connector
• Mei Lin Fung – Chair, IEEE SSIT Sustainability Technical Committee; Co-founder with Vint Cerf &  Emeritus Chair, People-Centered Internet, Vice Chair, AI for Good Impact Initiative

15h – Keynote Speaker:

From Financial Crisis to Regional Growth: Architecting Sustainable Funding Pathways 

• Michael MacFarland – Former Chief Architect, Fannie Mae who played a key role in guiding Fannie Mae through the financial crisis and transforming its operations.

15h30 – Roundtable Practice, Pipeline, Outcomes – Moderator, Mei Lin Fung, Speakers:

• Michael MacFarland – Former Chief Architect, Fannie Mae
• Sameer Chaudhan – United Nations International Computing Center (UNICC) CEO
• Francesca Brown – Global Head of Policy, Women’s World Banking
• Qamar Saleem – Global Head of SME Finance, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Yannis Ioannidis – President, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan– President, Brahmam Innovations & Global Advisor, IEEE Tech Ethics
• Jeb Bell – Head of Research and Insights. Project Liberty Institute
• Antonio Garcia Zaballos – Director, Digital Sector Office, Asia Development Bank.
• Nitin Badjatia – Senior Vice President, CX Marketing and Solutions for SAP, based in Germany, is the largest vendor of Enterprise Resource Planning Software

References: 2022-2025 Think7 peer-reviewed policy briefs from the Germany 2022, Japan 2023, Italy 2024 and Canada 2025 

Registration closed