Highlights from the DPGA Annual Members Meeting in Singapore

Author: Lucy Harris, COO and Interim Director of Membership, DPGA Secretariat

Earlier this month, the Digital Public Goods Alliance hosted its 2024 Annual Members Meeting (AMM) in Singapore, bringing together an international group of members, product owners and community to develop relationships, connect, learn and inspire progress for digital public goods! The energy, ideas, and collaborations that emerged reaffirmed the incredible potential of this community to drive transformative, positive change through digital public goods.

A sincere thank you to DPGA member, the Government of Singapore, for co-hosting this unique gathering of leaders from all over the world committed to harnessing the potential of open source for positive change. A special thank you to the team at Singapore’s Open Government Products for their invaluable support in making this event happen. Their efforts went far beyond logistics—they actively brought ASEAN countries into the fold, paving the way for new collaborations and showcasing Singapore’s leadership in advancing digital public goods across the region.

“Many of the challenges of our time transcend geographical borders. Technology can be harnessed to provide at least part of the solution, if not the majority of the solution. But it will take shared commitment and collective action to benefit fully from their capabilities and manage their impact.” – Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information, and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, Singapore

The event continued on a high note; thanks to the inspiring remarks of Salima Bah, Minister of Communications, Technology and Innovation, Sierra Leone, who represented the DPGA Board. Her reflections set the stage for a meeting that was both dynamic and deeply impactful.

“Sierra Leone’s membership to the DPGA connects us to a global network of innovators, practitioners, and policymakers who share our commitment to digital sovereignty, economic diversification, and sustainable development.” – Salima Bah, Minister of Communications, Technology and Innovation, Sierra Leone

This year’s AMM was our largest yet, with participants from over 75 organisations across the DPGA ecosystem coming together to explore the future of DPGs. Among the many highlights was the opportunity to welcome three new members to the DPGA: the Government of Uruguay, Open Future, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). These new members will significantly expand the DPGA’s reach and strengthen its impact across diverse geographies and stakeholder groups.

Recognising the potential of the DPGA to disrupt norms and create lasting change, we soft-launched four draft Calls for Collaborative Action. These four calls are designed to galvanise the DPGA community around concrete deliverables and outcomes that can strengthen the DPG ecosystem. The draft calls, which will be shared in final form in the DPGA Ecosystem Report in the first quarter of 2025, are described in brief below:

1. Be Open-Source First: Encourage governments and organisations to adopt open-source first principles as part of how they procure, implement, and fund digitalisation processes.
2. Build DPGs to improve access to Open Data: Develop tools to better identify, access, and use existing open data at scale, enabling the creation of public interest AI systems.
3. Increase Funding for DPGs4DPI: Mobilise sustained financing to support the development and stewardship of DPGs that can help countries build inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructure.
4. Build DPGs for Multidimensional Climate Action: Create high-quality earth observation DPGs to support diverse stakeholders in tackling climate challenges and building resilience.

“These calls provide an opportunity for us, as an Alliance and community committed to advancing DPGs, to identify priority actions that can make a long-term impact—whether through our own efforts or through advocacy that inspires others to act. At their core, these calls for collaboration aim to drive the availability, adoption, and financing of high-impact DPGs.” – Liv Marte Nordhaug, DPGA Secretariat CEO

The enthusiasm among AMM participants to engage and collaborate on deliverables as part of these calls was incredible. In the coming months, The DPGA Secretariat will work with members and other stakeholders to refine the draft calls, develop a strategy for how to operationalise them, and share a final version in early 2025.

As part of the DPGA Secretariat’s efforts to make digital public goods more accessible, transparent, and discoverable, we announced the launch of the improved DPG Registry, DPG profile pages, Roadmap, and DPGA member profile pages. These tools are now live and ready to support organisations, governments, and individuals in better understanding DPGs, their impact, and how to collaborate within the ecosystem.

This year’s AMM also gave priority to three topics across sessions:

• DPGs for DPI and Government Services: DPGA Members including Ekstep Foundation, Public Digital, and eGov Foundation highlighted how governments can deliver better, more inclusive, and efficient services by leveraging digital public goods – with DPGA member discovering new ways they can leverage a Singapore-built DPG in collaboration with other DPGA members. Countries participating in the 50-in-5 campaign—including Singapore, Estonia, and the Dominican Republic—shared progress, learnings, and best practices. They discussed advancing safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure within their countries, highlighting common challenges and how they overcame them. The DPG4DPI track underscored the crucial role DPGs play in designing and implementing digital public infrastructure, particularly for impactful sector-specific applications like education and social inclusion.
  
• Climate Action: DPGA members including FAO, Creative Commons, DIAL, and Open Knowledge Foundation joined DPG product owners from the World Resources Institute (Energy Access Explorer) and TerraFrame (GeoPrism) to explore collaborative, interoperable approaches to catalyse climate action through DPGs. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), a founding member of the DPGA, reaffirmed its commitment to DPGs for climate action, sharing its support for the Global Ecosystems Atlas, which will be built as a digital public good for ecosystem mapping and monitoring. This focus showcased how DPGA members are leveraging DPGs to drive climate action, highlighting impactful examples and the varied roles DPGs play in advancing climate solutions.
  
• Open Data and AI: Discussions explored how AI systems can be designed, regulated, and leveraged as digital public goods to maximise public interest and accelerate progress towards the SDGs.The role of DPGs in democratising AI systems was a key focus, including expanding the DPG Standard to better assess AI technologies Discussions also highlighted the creation of public value through public AI and emphasized the critical role of open data in enabling these systems to thrive. The conversations underscored the transformative potential of AI DPGs to tackle systemic inequalities, drive innovation, and deliver scalable solutions to address a wide range of global challenges.

Outside of workshops and discussions, a key highlight of the event was the DPG Fair. At the DPG Fair, 21 product owners with a focus on DPI and Climate Action, showcased their solutions and engaged directly with each other and members. Many discovered new ways to collaborate and interoperate, underscoring the tangible benefits of openness and adaptability. The Fair truly highlighted the vibrancy of the DPG ecosystem and the value of in-person interactions.

Countries and supporting organisations of the 50-in-5 campaign were able to come together at a dedicated coffee meet-up which celebrated one year of the campaign and the achievements made by 50-in-5 countries in their implementation of safe, inclusive, and interoperable DPI using digital public goods.

Overall, the DPGA Secretariat was deeply impressed by the energy and commitment displayed by DPGA members, product owners and other participating stakeholders throughout the meeting. It’s clear that in-person collaboration remains an invaluable driver of progress, sparking ideas and partnerships that will shape the future of digital public goods.We look forward to continuing these conversations and collaborations as we finalise this year and enter 2025. Thank you once again to all AMM participants for your contributions, and to the Government of Singapore for hosting us. Check out the video below for more highlights!

Photo Credits: Derrick Ng Jun Peng