DPI Is Not Philanthropy
The Business Case for Digital Public Infrastructure in African Agriculture - A Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Perspective
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) refers to shared digital systems that an entire country or sector can use - things like digital identity systems, electronic payment networks, and data-sharing platforms. Think of them as the digital equivalent of roads, bridges, and electricity grids. Just as physical infrastructure allows goods and people to move, DPI allows data, money, and services to flow across an economy.
In Africa, DPI is becoming critical for agriculture - a sector that employs the majority of the population in many countries. Farmers need access to finance, markets, weather information, and compliance systems. Governments need reliable data to make policy decisions. Businesses need traceability and verified information to trade across borders. DPI is the shared foundation that can connect all of these needs.
Yet for too long, DPI has been treated as a development aid project - something funded by donors and managed by governments as a public service. This article argues that framing is wrong, and that it is holding Africa back.
After two decades working in monitoring, evaluation, and learning across African agriculture, I have seen hundreds of data systems come and go. Pilot projects that shine for eighteen months then vanish. Dashboards that no one opens. Surveys that cost a fortune and deliver results two years too late to matter. So when I encounter an idea that genuinely changes the equation - not incrementally, but structurally - I pay attention.
Digital public infrastructure is not corporate social responsibility. It is not philanthropy. It is not compliance theater. It is about competitiveness.
As MEL professionals, we spend our careers making the case for better data, better evidence, better decision-making. But we have often framed that case in the language of accountability and learning. The DPI argument reframes it in the language of economics. And that changes everything. If DPI is a competitive asset - not a charitable donation - then every conversation about funding it, governing it, and scaling it changes. The question shifts from "Who will pay for this?" to "Who can afford not to invest?"
The Four Business Realities No One Can Ignore
The business case for DPI rests on four realities that any CFO, supply-chain director, or agriculture minister would immediately understand. Together, they form a profit-and-loss argument for shared digital infrastructure.
Reality #1: Regulatory Pressure Is No Longer Optional
Traceability requirements are multiplying. ESG disclosure is becoming mandatory. Due diligence frameworks are expanding across every commodity and every market. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) alone has sent shockwaves through coffee, cocoa, and timber supply chains across Africa. When every exporter builds its own reporting system, the result is not compliance - it is chaos. The same farmer fills out the same forms for five different organizations. Standards differ. Audits overlap. Each one adds cost. The solution: if everyone uses the same shared system, that duplication disappears. Alignment reduces the tax.
Reality #2: Risk Is Rising - and Data Makes It Financeable
Climate volatility, supply chain disruptions, input price shocks - these are the operating environment. Without real-time data, uncertainty compounds. With it, something remarkable happens:
It makes risk measurable.
And measurable risk is financeable.
An insurance company cannot offer crop insurance if it has no data about weather patterns or farm yields. A bank cannot give a farmer a loan if it has no way to verify that farmer's production history. But when shared digital infrastructure makes this information visible and trustworthy, financial institutions can step in. Risk stops being a problem that farmers bear alone - and becomes an opportunity that capital markets can address.
Reality #3: Markets Are Already Digital - the Question Is Whether They Connect
Mobile money payments are already digital across much of Africa. Logistics tracking is digital. Trade documents are going digital. But when these digital systems cannot talk to each other, they create new bottlenecks. A payment processed in one system cannot be verified in another. A shipment tracked in one platform is invisible to the next. Every disconnection slows trade and costs opportunity.
Reality #4: Capital Follows Data
Money follows data. Banks lend when they can verify. Insurers cover when they can see. Investors commit when they have evidence. No credible data means borrowing costs more. In Africa, where access to affordable finance is the biggest barrier to agricultural growth, this determines whether millions of farmers can grow their businesses or remain trapped in subsistence.
The Hidden Tax You Cannot See on Your Balance Sheet
When digital public infrastructure is not aligned, the consequences cascade. Organizations duplicate data collection. Governments and donors build parallel platforms. Businesses compete on infrastructure instead of on value. Farmers become data sources for systems that return nothing to them.
When infrastructure is fragmented, friction becomes the hidden tax on growth. The usability test is simple: does this system reduce friction, or simply shift it somewhere else?
What the Private Sector Actually Needs
| Need | Not This | But This |
|---|---|---|
| Interoperability | Siloed platforms | Connected systems |
| Standardization | Reinvention at every step | Compliance by default |
| Trust | Data no one believes | Commercially usable data |
| Timeliness | Reports after the season | Decisions in season |
| Usability | Complex onboarding | Works at farm level |
If it does not work at the farm level, it does not work. Period. When DPI is treated as a public good funded by goodwill, usability becomes an afterthought. When it is treated as competitive infrastructure, usability becomes the product. The difference in outcomes is enormous.
The ROI Equation: Four Returns That Change the Math
One collection, multiple uses
Better data improves forecasting
Cross-border scalability
Compete on value, not rails
"We collaborate on the rails. We compete on the value. Infrastructure that works for farmers will work for markets. And when markets work better, everybody benefits."
- The foundational principle of pre-competitive collaborationFrom the Ground Up: Where Theory Meets African Reality
In Uganda, the coffee sector offered a live case study. When the EUDR compliance requirements hit, every exporter initially scrambled to build their own data collection system. Farmers were overwhelmed with requests. Data fatigue set in. Quality collapsed. Then, under the Uganda Coffee Platform, competing actors agreed to collaborate on shared infrastructure: a national data warehouse, polygon mapping, deforestation verification, and - critically - farmer-controlled data cards.
The result went far beyond compliance. Banks started using the transaction data to assess creditworthiness. Coffee farmers who had never been able to get a bank loan - because they had no land title or traditional collateral - had something better: a verifiable digital track record. The DPI created an entirely new financial services market.
When competitors agreed to share infrastructure, three things happened: compliance costs dropped, farmer data sovereignty was established through individual cards, and an entirely new financial services layer emerged. The DPI did not just reduce friction - it generated new economic value.
From farmers themselves - across Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Zambia - the picture is grittier. Technology adoption is real. Mobile phones, WhatsApp groups, and social media are already part of how African farmers do business. But the infrastructure underneath remains fragile: no network, no electricity, no way to charge devices. Trust has been damaged. Too many organizations have come to collect data and never come back. The feedback loop - returning insights to the people who provided the data - is the most basic requirement and the one most often broken.
The Mindset Shifts That Must Happen
From owning systems to contributing to shared ones. The instinct to build proprietary infrastructure is deeply embedded. DPI requires organizations to invest in something they do not exclusively control - and to trust that shared ownership generates more value.
From pooling proprietary data to enabling trust flows. Data sharing requires governance, not just technology. The infrastructure for trust - consent frameworks, access rules, audit trails - is harder to build than the data pipeline itself.
From short-term pilots to long-term integration. The development sector's addiction to pilot projects is a structural barrier. Shared infrastructure requires long-term commitment, sustained funding, and political will.
From regulation alone to co-creation. The public sector must design with commercial usability in mind, build standards before platforms, and recognize businesses as co-builders - not just end users.
From tension avoidance to tension by design. The tensions between openness and control, competition and collaboration, sovereignty and interoperability - these are design challenges, not weaknesses.
So What Changes Tomorrow?
To private-sector leaders: Stop treating DPI as a government problem or a donor initiative. It is infrastructure that directly affects your cost of compliance, your access to capital, your market integration speed, and your competitive position. Invest in it the way you would invest in any strategic asset.
To governments: Build standards before platforms. Design for commercial usability, not just policy elegance. Recognize that the private sector is not just a user of your systems - it is a co-builder. And enforce the governance that makes shared infrastructure trustworthy.
To development partners: Fund infrastructure, not just projects. Coordinate among yourselves before asking others to coordinate. And accept that the era of spending without accountability for cost effectiveness is over. The return on investment lens is not a constraint on your mission - it is the only way to achieve it at the scale the continent requires.
"Alignment creates possibility. Advantage comes from the execution. Infrastructure that works for farmers will work for markets. And when markets work better, everybody benefits."
- The case for shared digital infrastructure in AfricaFor MEL professionals, this moment is both a challenge and an opportunity. We have spent years perfecting the art of measuring what programs achieve. Now the question is bigger: can we help design the shared infrastructure that makes achievement possible in the first place?
DPI is not philanthropy. It never was. The only question is how long it will take for the rest of the world to catch up to what African agriculture already knows.