New research · Integral · October 2026

Redress is the missing layer of digital public infrastructure.

A first cross-country look at how well grievance systems actually work inside the payment, identity and data-exchange rails people are told to trust — and what it would take to fix them.

Download the report (PDF) Free. No registration required.
Digital identity Payments Social registry Complaint Provider the redress gap

The report, in one paragraph

Grievance redress is the part of digital public infrastructure that only gets attention when it fails. This report is the first attempt to assess it systematically — testing 15 payment, identity and social-registry systems across Brazil, India, Benin, Ethiopia and South Africa against a simple question: can someone actually get their problem fixed? The answer, most of the time, is that no one outside the operator can tell. Only two of the fifteen systems publish enough data to know how well they perform, and even where data exists, it rarely means the same thing from one system to the next. The report proposes a way out: a minimum test any DPI can be judged against today, and the first building blocks of a common language for grievances that could let a complaint move safely between the institutions responsible for solving it.

15

GRM systems assessed across Brazil, India, Benin, Ethiopia and South Africa

2 of 15

publish grievance volumes in meaningful public detail

4 / 8 / 3

systems fully live, underway or not live, under a proposed minimum "liveness" test

57%

of adults worldwide reported experiencing a scam in the past year (GASA, 2025)

Cover of Assessing Grievance Redressal Mechanisms in Digital Public Infrastructure

Assessing Grievance Redressal Mechanisms in Digital Public Infrastructure

David Porteous, Deepti George, Sahana Arun Kumar and Maria Luciano · Integral · October 2026 · Supported by the Gates Foundation

The full report: evidence from five countries, a proposed "liveness" benchmark any DPI can be tested against today, and the case for a common grievance data object that can travel safely across institutional boundaries.

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About the authors

David Porteous

David Porteous

Founder, Integral: Governance Solutions

Advises governments, development finance institutions and funders on governance in digital public infrastructure. PhD in Economics, Yale; MPhil, Cambridge.

Deepti George

Deepti George

Founder, Yutadhi

Works to improve financial systems for citizens and enterprises, and has contributed to policy through committees of India's securities regulator and central bank.

Sahana Arun Kumar

Sahana Arun Kumar

Co-founder, Amarante Consulting

Twenty years building inclusive finance and DPI across more than 75 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Based in Paris; MBA, HEC Paris.

Maria Luciano

Maria Luciano

Policy analyst

Specializes in technology policy, inclusive data governance and digital government. Law degrees from the University of São Paulo; MSc, LSE.

Go deeper

More on why dispute resolution and digital public infrastructure are converging.

Article · Tech Policy Press

No DPI Without Redress

Why effective remedy has to be treated as a foundational safeguard for digital public infrastructure — not an afterthought bolted on once systems are already at scale.

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Video · ODR 2026 Forum, Harvard University

ODR for Digital Public Infrastructure

David Porteous (Integral: Governance Solutions), Moritz Fromageot (UN Office of Digital and Emerging Technologies) and Christopher Harrell (Mastercard Policy Center for the Digital Economy) on what online dispute resolution can bring to DPI.

Watch the session

Blog · Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)

Online Dispute Resolution and Digital Public Infrastructure — What's the Connection?

DIAL's own take on why ODR and DPI are converging fields, and what each has to learn from the other.

Read the post

Read the full report.

Evidence from five countries, a minimum "liveness" test any DPI can be measured against today, and a path toward grievances that travel safely between institutions.

Download the report (PDF) Free. No registration required.