In alignment with the UN Secretary-General’s 2020 Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, we define digital public goods (DPGs) as open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable best practices, do no harm and are of high relevance for attaining the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Many types of digital technologies and content – from data to apps, data visualisation tools to educational curricula – could accelerate achievement of the SDGs. However, it is only if they are freely and openly available, with minimal restrictions on how they can be distributed, adapted and reused that we can think of them as “digital public goods”. 

Why Open Source? 

Not all open source projects are digital public goods, but all digital public goods must be open source. 

Open source is broadly defined as when the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. This is a crucial part of digital public goods where, for example, software, content and data must be accessible independently of any particular vendor and allow software, data and content to be freely used, modified, and shared. There are many existing open licenses, and the choice of license has implications on how the code, data or content can be reused. We’ll therefore dig deeper into the process of identifying which “approved” licenses were included in the DPG Standard, and why, in our next blog post. In this post we present an overview of the case for open source. 

“Open” ensures the software, data, AI model, standard or content we’re working with can be adopted, scaled and adapted in various country contexts. It also ensures transparency, can contribute to project sustainability, and reduces the risk of vendor lock-in. Below we describe each of these benefits in turn. 

Adoptability, Scalability & Adaptability 

For digital public goods to scale across markets, they must be freely adoptable and adaptable. 

For example, the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), a technology that helps governments implement a foundational ID, can be freely adopted by countries who can adapt the open software to fit their local needs. This can help build long-term ownership and agency within each implementing country and can also allow the platform to scale over time across many countries. 

Transparency & Sustainability 

Open source licensing allows a digital public goods’ code base to be independently scrutinized and audited. This can increase accountability and facilitate discourse about the steps that have been taken to design technologies that are inclusive and do no harm. 

Having a transparent code base can also allow for greater sustainability. As each implementing country adapts or iterates on the code, these changes can be shared back to help evolve and better the source code. 

Vendor Lock-In 

It can be costly to obtain licenses from vendors. This can also cause ‘lock-in’, meaning that a government or organization is beholden to that vendor for relevant service or maintenance for the duration of the contract. Additionally, state-owned solutions could suffer from politicization of access, where states may choose to give permission to their allies over others, making access vulnerable to geopolitical shifts and tensions. 

While the cost of implementing and configuring open source software is often comparable to purchasing a license, open source offers more control and independence and reduces the risk of vendor or political lock-in. This makes it easier for governments in particular to plan their digital futures in a holistic and long-term way.

Finally, an open approach to digital development can help to increase collaboration and resource mobilization in the digital development community, avoid duplicating work that has already been done, and attract new investors and contributors to initiatives with high-impact potential. This allows programs to maximize their resources — and ultimately their impact — through open standards, open data, open source technologies and open innovation.

Open source is a necessary condition for any technology to be considered a digital public good. It enables sharing, reuse and adaptation to suit local needs. And, combined with the right support and funding structures, open source represents an unprecedented opportunity to fundamentally alter power balances in international development. This means more creation and iteration can happen locally; trust in technology can be built through agency and transparency; and, best practices and learnings can be shared across geographical, institutional and expertise borders. We believe this is critical to advancing a more equitable world and is why open source is fundamental to the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA).

Learn more about the Digital Public Goods Alliance

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Nominate digital public goods through this form.

Please find an excerpt below.

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children and believes that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support the realization of children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.

As recognised in the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation Report in June 2020,  digital public goods – defined as “open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content” have a critical role in accelerating achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNICEF along with the Governments of Norway and Sierra Leone, and the India-based think tank iSPIRT have jointly established the Digital Public Goods Alliance, a multi-stakeholder initiative to accelerate the attainment of the sustainable development goals in low- and middle-income countries by facilitating the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods. The DPGA is an effort to convene a network of partners from different sectors that will contribute to the identification, support, scale-up, and use of software, data, and algorithms that can advance humanity. 

As partners explore and scale efforts on digital public goods, UNICEF is sharing its experience in setting up operational processes and tools to support and build open source across all of it’s work.

Continue reading here: https://www.unicef.org/innovation/stories/unicefs-open-source-approach-innovation

If you missed it, check out Part 1 on iSPIRT or Part 2 on Norway.  

The DSTI in particular is playing a key role by engaging private sector and university communities to help build the technology that makes the implementation of digital public goods possible. This comes from an understanding that, in order for DPGs to evolve at scale and with a lower barrier to entry, there needs to be a supportive ecosystem built up that addresses questions of resourcing and intellectual property. 

Sierra Leone is also setting an example by documenting their progress and lessons learned. DSTI gathers data to support policy and decision-making in the public interest and makes relevant data gathered throughout the process publicly available. 

Read more about the work of Sierra Leone’s Directorate of Science, Technology & Innovation on their website.

Get Involved

Only by working together can we make this happen. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is, itself an open project, and we seek engagement and support from any governments, businesses, civil society, technology providers, donors, and experts wishing to help us achieve our aim.

Learn more about the Digital Public Goods Alliance on our website.

Follow our blog, or join our mailing list.

Stay on top of DPGA news and updates join our newsletter.

Nominate digital public goods through this form.

Last week we kicked off a four part series. In each part, we will share exciting work from one of the Co-Founders of the Digital Public Goods Alliance. This week we’re featuring Norway.

If you missed Part 1 on iSPIRT last week, you can see it here.

As we said last week, one of the fundamental strengths of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) is its decentralized, yet coordinated structure. Each member of the current Interim Strategy Group (ISG) – consisting of iSPIRT, Norway, Sierra Leone and UNICEF – brings their own areas of expertise and interest to the DPGA which makes it stronger and more diverse in its reach and potential impact. As the DPGA is built out over time, membership will expand and change to include more stakeholders. In this four part series, we’re pleased to offer a snapshot of the exciting work being led by each of the current ISG members. This week we focus on Norway. 

Norway

Norway believes in the deployment of digital public goods as a means to help countries accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and is a proud champion and co-founder of the DPGA together with the government of Sierra Leone, UNICEF and iSPIRT.

Their work funds high-impact digital public goods in several sectors including health, early grade reading, climate and weather services, and plant pest management. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Norway has worked on expanding existing digital public goods in both the health and education sectors. One example is DHIS2, an open source, web-based software platform for data collection, management, and analysis, used by governments and NGOs in more than 100 countries. Starting with a pilot in Sri Lanka, more than 30 countries have deployed standardized DHIS2 COVID-19 surveillance digital data packages since the pandemic began. 

Norway has also seen a rapid scale up in the use of the Global Digital Library platform for openly licensed early grade reading resources, and together with ADEA and UNESCO are also supporting a number of countries in translating early grade reading books into local languages, and fast-tracking the availability of learning resources.

As the DPGA develops, Norway would like to engage other bilateral and philanthropic donors in conversations on how each can best contribute to supporting the global architecture around digital public goods.   

You can find out more about Norway’s commitment to digital public goods by reading their white paper for Digital Transformation and Development Policy or watching this address from Prime Minister Solberg. 

Norway is co-hosting the DPGA and will engage at the forefront of the Climate Adaptation Community of Practice. 

Visit their website or follow Norway on Twitter to learn more.

Since its launch, the Digital Public Goods Alliance — an initiative co-founded by iSPIRT, Sierra Leone, The Government of Norway and UNICEF — has been working to identify, support and promote digital public goods to implement recommendation 1B from the June 2019 Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation.  

Get Involved

Only by working together can we make this happen. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is, itself an open project, and we seek engagement and support from any governments, businesses, civil society, technology providers, donors, and experts wishing to help us achieve our aim.

Learn more about the Digital Public Goods Alliance on our website.

Follow our blog, or join our mailing list.

Want to contribute with funding, technology, or expertise? Sign up here. 

Nominate digital public goods through this form.

This definition has been translated into a 9-indicator standard which we hope will serve as a comprehensive, shared definition to promote the discovery, development, use of and investment in digital public goods for a more equitable world. 

This standard was developed from the original 51 indicator standard used by the Alliance in the preliminary review of Early Grade Reading projects and refined through the contributions of many experts and diverse stakeholders. 

If you know of projects that you believe meet the following standards and should be considered a digital public good, please submit them. 

Digital Public Goods Standard 1.0 

Below is the full list of 9 indicators and requirements. These must be met in order for a nominated “project” (software, data, AI model, standard and/or piece of content) to be considered a digital public good. 

Thank you to: Sean P. Goggins,  Professor, College of Engineering at University of Missouri; Matt Germonrez, Professor, College of Information Science & Technology at University of Nebraska at Omaha; Georg J.P. Link, Open Source Strategist; Jon Lloyd, Director of Campaigns at Mozilla Foundation; Jamie Alexandre, Executive Director at Learning Equality; and Don Marti, for their endorsement of the DPG Standard as well as to the participants of the Early Grade Reading Community of Practice, UNICEF, Norway, iSPIRT, Sierra Leone and the DPG Alliance Secretariat for their contributions to this work. 

Note that evidence for requirements 7-9 can only be given by someone authorized to speak on behalf of the project. We collect title, name and contact information to confirm this authority. 

Header Image Credit: Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

We provided a detailed update on the activities of the Alliance over the past 6 months, and shared the roadmap for our future work. Some highlights from this presentation are included below, as well as the link to the complete presentation.

• The Digital Public Goods Alliance has established an interim Secretariat co-led by UNICEF and Norway to coordinate and operationalize the work of the Alliance. The 4 initial Co-Champions; Sierra Leone, iSPIRT, UNICEF and Norway form an Interim Strategy Group, which will evolve into a formalized governance structure by Q4 2021.
  
• The Digital Public Goods Platform is streamlining the submission of nominations through an online form, while aligning with other partners developing similar lists (Digital Impact Alliance and Ovio). The Alliance is in the final stages of creating a Digital Public Goods Standard 1.0, working with partners to create a comprehensive, shared assessment criteria.
  
• The Communities of Practice (CoPs) are groups of experts who convene to support the discovery, assessment and advancement of high-potential Digital Public Goods within a priority area. In 2020 there are four communities of practice:
  • Early grade reading: Concluded July 2020 with 8 vetted DPGs
  • Financial inclusion: Focus on foundational technologies for financial inclusion. Currently identifying projects for additional assessment.
  • Climate Change Adaptation: Focus on climate and weather services. There are 30 identified projects for review by the full CoP.
  • Digital Health: Currently forming an Advisory Group.
    
• Pathfinder countries are those who take a leadership and pioneering role in the development, adoption and implementation of Digital Public Goods. Jordan was the first country to formally join the Alliance as a Pathfinder Country in the spring of 2020 and is deploying a Digital Public Good for youth employment.
  
  The Alliance is also exploring engagement with the following countries as potential pathfinders:
  • Ghana (exploratory) is convening local stakeholders to select and implement 2 to 3 Digital Public Goods at a subnational scale within the first year.
  • Niger (exploratory) is focusing on digital skills and education content.

• The presentation also highlighted two potential Digital Public Goods in which the Alliance co-champions are involved. These examples help to illustrate the potential of Digital Public Goods when deployed at scale, a model the Alliance hopes to emulate:
  • DHIS2: Ongoing pilots in the Gambia and Uganda to use DHIS2 for digitalization of Education Management Information Systems (EMIS)
  • MOSIP: Morocco and the Philippines adopting MOSIP for a national roll out of their national identity system.

To conclude the presentation, we included several engagement opportunities for the high-level panel participants with the goal of expanding our collaborations with them in the future.

Get Involved

Only by working together can we make this happen. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is, itself an open project, and we seek engagement and support from any governments, businesses, civil society, technology providers, donors, and experts wishing to help us achieve our aim.

Learn more about the Digital Public Goods Alliance on our website.

Follow our blog, or join our mailing list.

Want to contribute with funding, technology, or expertise? Sign up here.

Nominate digital public goods through this form or with a pull request.

Header Image Credit: Job vector created by stories — www.freepik.com

The aim of the Digital Public Goods Alliance is to facilitate the discovery, development, use of, and investment in, openly licensed technologies, data models, and content of high relevance for attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to accomplish this in 2019 we began convening networks of partners from different sectors into Communities of Practice (CoP) to contribute to the identification, support, scale-up, and proper use of digital public goods (DPGs).

Late last year we launched our first CoP pilot by gathering an initial group of experts around Early Grade Reading to identify and review potential digital public goods.

Why Early Grade Reading?

Knowing how to read is essential for individuals to thrive and learn throughout life, and for participating in modern society. It is a key sub-goal within SDG4, and is an enabler of many of the other sustainable development goals. Still, More than 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading, and the number of illiterate adults stands at around 773 million, according to estimates from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

The COVID-19 pandemic also spurred our initial attention on Early Grade Reading as we saw schools close and nearly all countries overnight having to shift to remote learning. This shift dramatically increased the need for learning materials that could be used at the household level, including more reading resources in the languages used by children and parents in their home settings.

The goal was to quickly identify and vet a list of potential digital public goods for foundational literacy and early grade reading.

Creating Assessment Criteria

At the outset of this process the DPG Alliance had a definition of digital public goods as:

“Open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable best practices, do no harm and are of high relevance for attainment of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

However it was necessary to turn that broad definition into a specific set of indicators that could apply across domains, while also encompassing domain-specific considerations and criteria.

In order to achieve this we convened two different groups: one technical group to define a set of indicators that would apply across domains, and a domain-specific group on literacy. The technical group focused on assumed generic issues related to interoperability, re-usability, accessibility and child online safety, while the literacy group looked at topics such as pedagogical quality and content appropriateness.

In consultation with our group of experts and drawing inspiration from DIAL, Digital Health and others we developed an initial set of these 11 categories and 51 indicators with which to assess the first set of potential Digital Public Goods.

The categories were:

1. Licenses and Copyright
2. Utility and Impact
3. Benchmarks
4. Product Design
5. Product Quality
6. Community
7. Do No Harm
8. Best Practices
9. Content
10. Quality
11. Financial Sustainability

List of approved digital public goods for foundational literacy and early grade reading

The projects below have been vetted against the criteria described above, in the first exercise of this kind for the Digital Public Goods Alliance. The assessment has been done by a group composed of experts from UNESCO, USAID, Creative Commons, ADEA, Mozilla, Education Development Center, Foundation for Learning Equality, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, and Humans at Play. Some of the criteria, such as “license compliance with digital public goods requirements” are binary, whereas scores on others have been assessed in relation to one another, or information has been collected more for informational purposes.

The projects below were all approved by the expert group as meeting minimum criteria for digital public goods and we are continuing to adjust, expand and revise our structures for vetting as the Alliance continues to form. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is following up with several of the projects on improvement potential such as suggestions for improving accessibility, or for making licensing information more readily discoverable.

The detailed assessment of all 8 successful projects is openly available here.

H5P makes it easy to create, share and reuse HTML5 content and applications, and has here been assessed as a tool for adding interactivities to foundational literacy and early grade reading content. H5P empowers everyone to create rich and interactive web experiences more efficiently — all you need is a web browser and a web site with an H5P plugin.

Vetted as: Source code
Contact: Svein-Tore Griff With
Website: h5p.org
Funders/Partners: Eurekos, ICFOSS, Opigno, SPACE.

StoryWeaver is an open source platform by Pratham Books for multilingual children’s stories. It addresses all the issues around the lack of content by using an open access framework and technology as force multipliers combined with a platform that supports translation and re-mixing of stories.

Vetted as: Content
Contact: Purvi Shah
Website: storyweaver.org.in
Funders/Partners: Google, Oracle, Cisco, Nasscom Social Innovation Fund.

African Storybook Provides open access to picture storybooks in the languages of Africa for children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination.

Vetted as: Content
Contact: Jenny Glennie
Website: africanstorybook.org
Funders/Partners: Comic Relief UK, Cameron Schrier USA, Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, Google.org, Zenex Foundation.

The Global Digital Library An open collection of high-quality early grade reading resources, made available for web, mobile and for print. The Global Digital Library is a flagship initiative within the Global Book Alliance.

Vetted as: Content
Contact: Christer Gundersen
Website: digitallibrary.io
Funders/Partners: the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation

Book Dash gathers creative volunteers to create new African storybooks that anyone can freely print, translate and distribute.

Vetted as: Content
Contact: Julia Norrish
Website: bookdash.org
Funders/Partners: The Solon Foundation, The Jim Joel Fund and the Liberty Community Trust.

Feed The Monster Localized versions of one of two winning games from the international innovation competition EduApp4Syria, conducted in 2016–2017. Feed The Monster teaches your child the fundamentals of reading. Collect monster eggs and feed them letters so they can grow into new friends! Available in more than 45 languages.

Vetted as: Source code and content
Contact: Creesen Naicker
Website: curiouslearning.org/apps
Funders/Partners: MIT, UCSF Dyslexia Center, UNICEF Innovation + 19 others.

Antura and the Letters One of two winning games from the international innovation competition EduApp4Syria, conducted in 2016–2017. Open source smartphone application that teaches children how to read in Arabic and improve their psychosocial well being.

Vetted as: Source code and content
Contact: Francesco Cavallari
Website: antura.org
Funders/Partners: Cologne Game Lab of TH-Koeln, Video Games Without Borders, Wixel Studio, + 21 others.

Collection of Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) and Interactive Audio Instruction (IAI) resources A centralized resource library for USAID and other donor-funded Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) and Interactive Audio Instruction (IAI) resources.

Vetted as: Content
Contact: Heather Risley
Website: gdlradio.org
Funders/Partners: U.S. Agency for International Development + other donors.

Get Involved

Only by working together can we make this happen. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is, itself an open project, and we seek engagement and support from any governments, businesses, civil society, technology providers, donors, and experts wishing to help us achieve our aim.

Learn more about the Digital Public Goods Alliance on our website.

Follow our blog, or join our mailing list.

Want to contribute with funding, technology, or expertise? Sign up here.

Nominate digital public goods through this form or with a pull request.

Co-authored by Liv Marte Nordhaug, Victor Grau Serrat and Christer Gundersen. Cover image: A boy talks to sad, caged birds, by Nivong Sengsakoun© Room to Read, 2016. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.