From principles to practice: what the new Digital Principles mean for social protection

The Principles for Digital Development (Digital Principles) were first developed in 2014 to guide the responsible, effective, and sustainable use of technology in development projects. As the digitalisation of social protection systems accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) produced sector-specific guidance in 2023 on applying the Digital Principles to ensure that social protection reforms were inclusive, reliable, and accountable. The guidance was based on an extensive review and consensus-building process. 

In 2024, the Digital Principles were updated to reflect “the diversity of actors that exert power over the design, deployment, and governance of digital initiatives”, recognising that most people now engage with digital technologies outside of traditional development projects. This evolution resonates with DCI’s 2023 analysis: while the original Digital Principles focused on discrete tools that improved existing workflows, social protection investments are embedded in the broader digital transformation of social protection institutions. The refreshed Principles speak more directly to this complexity, “emphasizing radical inclusion, local ownership, and the need to anticipate digital harms across entire ecosystems”. 

While the refresh is a necessary evolution of the Digital Principles, translating them into practice remains challenging. Indeed, a ten-year retrospective highlighted that limited technical capacity and constrained resources continue to hinder their consistent application across sectors and contexts. With the 2024 refresh, this article revisits what these principles mean for social protection in practice and how they can better support governments and practitioners in serving vulnerable people. 

Tying the refreshed principles to social protection practice 

Principle 1: Understand the existing ecosystem 

Principle 1 repeats the need to understand “the dynamic cultural, social, and economic context”, including access to devices, connectivity, capacity, and existing government systems. As emphasised in 2023, plugging into the broader e-governance landscape is crucial while digitalising social protection systems. Avoiding silos where disparate systems impede the relationship between governments and citizens has been key to success stories like Tϋrkiye’s Integrated Social Assistance System and Chile’s Registro Social de Hogares, both of which operated within robust e-government environments. Building for interoperability, i.e., understanding what other information systems could usefully share data both now and in the future, remains key. Further, robust digital solutions are built on strong analogue foundations: clear legal frameworks that enable data sharing, institutions with mandates and capacity to govern integrated systems, and skills ecosystems that can sustain them over time. See here for how countries have conducted ecosystem assessments through diagnostic tools or, where resources permit, through dedicated pilots, as in the case of Cambodia’s on-demand social registry.  

Principle 2: Share, reuse, and improve 

As in the original version, Principle 2 stresses collaboration and avoiding duplication by building on existing initiatives, whether technology products, services, research, or policies. This has always been central to social protection: activities along the delivery chain (outreach, registration, enrolment, payments, grievance redress) are standardised business processes common to many programmes, within and beyond the sector. As we noted in 2023, understanding how other programmes and sectors may already be digitally delivering these activities before building anything new is essential. The growing adoption of open standards (not just open source) has been particularly encouraging, as countries have increasingly recognised the threat of vendor lock-in. While reusing can dramatically reduce development time and costs, it is not automatic: sometimes adapting existing code or standards can prove more complex than building from scratch. The decision requires careful assessment of local capacity, complexity, the learning curve, and the true cost of ownership. See here for how Kenya, The Gambia, and Cambodia have reused and improved existing systems and standards. 

Principle 3: Design with people 

Revised Principle 3 expands the focus from ‘user’ to ‘people’, echoing our 2023 guidance that there is no ‘monolithic user’. Intended beneficiaries, frontline workers, programme managers, and policymakers each have distinct needs and power dynamics. We examined how without meaningful engagement across different stakeholders, digital solutions fall short of expectations. In one case, a national case management information system was barely used by social workers, because it did not ease their workload. The system did not produce mandatory reports in required formats, which forced parallel paper-based systems to persist. In another case, managerial staff readily saw the business value of a social assistance information system for centralised oversight, but frontline social workers couldn’t reconcile their community-oriented worldview with the rationalistic, codified logic embodied by the technology, resulting in limited uptake. 

Principle 4: Design for inclusion 

This new principle greatly expands the responsibility and accountability of digital interventions. Designing for inclusion means considering the diverse needs of at-risk populations related to gender, disability, income, and geography, while ensuring non-digital alternatives remain available for those who lack access to devices, connectivity, or skills. While digital-by-default may be a long-term goal, the pathway to get there must be inclusive and incremental, meeting people where they are. See here for how India’s Unique Identification Authority operationalised this principle at scale to enrol persons with disabilities in the world’s largest national ID programme. Gender and disability particularly exacerbate the risk of exclusion, requiring digitalisation efforts to pay explicit attention to these dimensions. 

Principle 5: Build for sustainability 

Our 2023 research revealed a troubling pattern: programmes designed as pilots often failed to scale, because they didn’t consider sustainability from the start. Donor-financed capital investments ranged from 1.7 million dollars to 90 million dollars, but operational costs, which often exceed initial investments, were not planned well and threatened long-term viability. While consensus exists on the importance of this principle, implementation remains challenging. Digital social protection reforms often focus on building national infrastructure over very long- and uncertain-time horizons. Optimising for current constraints in terms of finances, capacity, or talent can prove suboptimal in the long term as these conditions evolve toward more supportive states. Yet this creates real risks, as Bolivia’s experience with donor-financed social registry demonstrates. However, thoughtful sustainable approaches are not impossible, as evidenced by experiences in Malawi and Kazakhstan. 

In addition to these financial and operational sustainability considerations, this refreshed principle urges digital solutions to minimise environmental impact and promote ecological sustainability. 

Principle 6: Establish people-first data practices 

Perhaps the most significant evolution is the elevation of data governance from a technical safeguard to a fundamental principle of dignity. This new principle emphasises that people should not only be protected from data harms, but should retain control of and derive value from their own data. In 2023, we documented examples that illustrate why this principle matters: in the absence of safeguards, social protection beneficiaries were targeted by scams; their data sold to predatory lenders; and their data misused to deny benefits. The power asymmetry inherent in social protection means that beneficiaries may lack agency to claim recourse during data breaches, because they view their entitlements as conditional on surrendering their data. People-first data practices must address this vulnerability by ensuring informed consent, transparent data use policies, and mechanisms for people to understand and control how their information is used. See here for promising practices adopted by governments in managing social protection programmes.  

Principle 7: Create open and transparent practices  

This refreshed principle expands the idea of ‘open standards and open data’ to a wider culture of transparency and collaboration. In the social protection sector, several countries have embraced open data to foster collaboration and innovation, as illustrated here. Further, as highlighted by countries the DCI is working with, there is increasing commitment to open standards. Moreover, as algorithmic decision making expands in the sector, transparency, accountable data governance, and participatory decision-making become essential. Our 2023 report underscored that opacity in system design and implementation often reinforces existing asymmetries between central agencies, local administrators, and citizens. By contrast, transparency builds trust and improves the uptake of digital systems. 

Principle 8: Anticipate and mitigate digital harms 

This new principle urges practitioners to recognise that digitalisation amplifies not only opportunities, but also risks such as repression, exclusion, and the reinforcement of social bias. These risks are particularly acute in social protection, where programmes engage vulnerable populations and handle sensitive data. As our 2023 report documented, the inability to receive timely support can have grave consequences for beneficiaries. This makes risk anticipation and mitigation a foundational concern for all digital social protection programmes. Beyond technical safeguards, it calls for institutional practices that prioritise human oversight, transparency, and mechanisms for redress when systems fail. With the increasing use of artificial intelligence in administering social protection programmes, this principle is even more crucial; the DCI’s AI Hub tackles the emerging challenges in greater detail. 

Principle 9: Use evidence to improve outcomes 

This refreshed principle calls for using diverse forms of evidence to holistically measure impact on people, rather than focusing only on the number of beneficiaries. In social protection, where programmes must adapt to households’ needs at scale, embedding feedback and evaluation mechanisms into digital architecture is as critical as the technology itself. Our 2023 report observed that while many governments collect vast administrative data, few systematically use it to improve design or delivery. In one case, a digital social registry captured beneficiary records, but lacked the tools to track how data quality shaped programme decisions, limiting its usefulness. In contrast, another agency embedded a monitoring unit within its digital operations, analysing transaction logs and grievance data to flag bottlenecks such as delayed payments. Examples from our research demonstrate that it is possible and necessary to embed continuous learning within digital social protection systems. 

Looking ahead 

The 2024 refresh strengthens the ability of the Digital Principles to guide responsible digital development in social protection—but principles alone are not enough. As we noted in 2023, “without clear standards or performance indicators, the Digital Principles risk becoming mere window dressing”. Our report offers practical guidance for evaluating digital investments as well as turning these commitments into action through country examples, implementation strategies, and honest assessments of barriers and trade-offs. Taken together, the refreshed Digital Principles’ emphasis on inclusion, harm mitigation, and local ownership, combined with the operational lessons from 2023, provide a strong foundation for governments and partners designing and evaluating digital social protection systems. 

Explore the detailed guidance: Applying the Principles for Digital Development in Social Protection, Digital Convergence Initiative, 2023  

Access the refreshed Digital Principles: Principles for Digital Development: The Next Decade, Digital Impact Alliance, 2024 

Author: Madhumitha Hebbar