The United Nations and Bill Gates Foundation-backed 50-in-5 campaign awards the governments and individual reps of Benin, Brazil, and Indonesia for their contributions to Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in the categories of impact, leadership, and collaboration.
Launched in November 2023, the 50-in-5 DPI campaign aims to accelerate at least one component of digital ID, digital payments systems, and data sharing among 50 countries by 2028.
Italy became the 40th country to join 50-in-5 in September when the 50-in-5 awards were held alongside the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The awards were given to governments and individuals for their efforts in Digital Public Infrastructure-related initiatives.
The 50-in-5 Awards categories included:
- Collaboration: The Collaboration Award recognizes that collaboration can accelerate DPI implementation and improve outcomes. It will honor two or more countries that have worked together to implement, or improve a DPI deployment.
- It will assess:
- Common DPI Technology
- Interoperability
- Safety and Inclusion
- Progress / Real Implementation Outcomes
- It will assess:
- Impact: The Impact Award recognizes a country where digital public infrastructure is delivering meaningful improvements to people’s lives. It celebrates tangible outcomes that show how DPI is driving real-world change — such as expanding access to essential services or reaching more people effectively.
- It will assess:
- Quantitative Reach
- Depth
- Growth
- Leadership
- Safety / Inclusion
- It will assess:
- Leadership / Individual Contribution: The Individual Contribution Award recognizes an individual who embodies the spirit of 50-in-5.
- It will assess:
- Knowledge Sharing
- Advocacy
- Leadership in Collaboration
- Values Around Safe, Inclusive, Interoperable DPI
- It will assess:
The government of Benin took home the 50-in-5 Impact award after having joined the campaign just a few months earlier in June 2026.
“Through this award, the international community recognizes the results obtained by Benin in the construction of an integrated digital ecosystem based on three pillars: a trusted digital identity, a national interoperability platform allowing the secure exchange of data between administrations, and digital public services accessible to citizens,” the Beninese government posted in a press release.
The Impact award was given to showcase Benin’s “From Identity to Inclusion: Building a Connected Digital Nation” initiative, which “registered nearly 13.75 million people, approximately 99 percent of its population” with a digital identity.
“We must ensure that people who use digital public infrastructure trust the systems we propose. People do not use a system because it is sophisticated, they use it because it is simple and because they are confident their data is secure. At the end of the day, technology scales only if trust scales. We are focused on creating the conditions to ensure people truly adopt the services we propose,” said Marc-Andre Loko, director general of Benin’s Information Systems and Digital Technology Agency.
Taking home the 50-in-5 Leadership / Individual Contribution award was Brazil’s minister of management and innovation in public services, Esther Dweck.
Her recognition comes from her leadership in “DPI systems such as GOV.BR and PIX, to deliver emergency assistance to flood-affected communities in as little as six days. She has also championed greater international cooperation on DPI through the G20.”
PIX is a fast payment system in Brazil run by the central bank.
“By bringing together our national identity card, GOV.BR, and CONECTA.GOV.BR, we are creating a sovereign digital public infrastructure that allows public services to become increasingly proactive, while ensuring that inclusion, accessibility, privacy, and trust remain at the center of everything we do,” said Dweck.
To round off the 50-in-5 Awards, the Central Bank of Indonesia was given the Collaboration award for sharing “technology, knowledge and lessons learned” through its QRIS Cross-Border initiative.
The QRIS Cross-Border initiative was “developed alongside regional partners across Asia, the payment system enables seamless cross-border transactions and supports over 45.3 million businesses, 96 percent of which are micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in seven countries.”
Said Filianingsih Hendarta, Deputy Governor of the Bank Indonesia:
“When we talk about QRIS Cross-Border, it’s not just about connecting payment systems. It’s about using the payment system to promote financial and economic inclusion. The QRIS Cross-Border, has at least two impacts: the first is accessibility, and the second is inclusivity. Accessibility means making cross-border payments more efficient, accessible, easier, and more transparent. And the second one, for inclusivity, opens new opportunities for small businesses, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises.”
Collaborators for the 50-in-5 campaign include the Gates Foundation (previously known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), the United Nations Development Program, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Center for Digital Public Infrastructure, and Co-Develop; with support from GovStack, the Inter-American Development Bank, and UNICEF.
The Center for Digital Public Infrastructure is backed by Co-Develop and Nilekani Philanthropies.
Co-Develop was founded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nilekani Philanthropies, and the Omidyar Network.
The Omidyar Network is a funder of MOSIP.
The Digital Public Goods Alliance lists both the Gates and Rockefeller foundations in its roadmap showcasing “activities that advance digital public goods,” along with other organizations and several governments.
The 50-in-5 campaign bills itself as a “country-led advocacy campaign;” however, it is organized by a handful of globalist groups that all partner with one another and are hellbent on rolling out digital ID and programmable digital currencies worldwide.
Image Source: YouTube screenshot from the 50-in-5 Awards
