EkStep Foundation

Sunbird is a collection of open source building blocks - individually they are powerful digital assets which are designed to do something specific in various contexts and together they create possibilities. Sunbird building blocks play a vital role for addressing critical development needs across geographies and sectors be it capacity building of healthcare professionals, govt officials, teachers or improving birthing experience of millions or removing transaction frictions to benefits and services. EkStep has partnered with International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore to establish Center for Open Societal Systems (COSS) to provide solution advisory for countries, and evolve Sunbird based on country demand/needs.

PeoplePlus aims to spark conversations and ignite partnerships that will lead to people-centric transformations using DPIs. This activity is aimed at ensuring that countries have public sector capacity and vibrant commercial ecosystems in place to create, maintain and implement DPIs locally in line with the DPGA's '50-in-5' target.

Open network for Education and Skilling transformation (ONEST) (www.onest.network) was launched with interest from 120+ network participants to provide equitable access to learning experiences and livelihood opportunities. This initiative focuses on addressing critical development needs in the skilling and livelihood domains along with people centric transformations in these domains where the intention is to eliminate frictions related to trusted discovery.

Millions of people worldwide rely on their local languages for communication, and many lack essential literacy and technical skills. This creates a significant barrier to accessing and understanding crucial information, such as government policies, schemes, benefits, services provided by the government, civil society, or the private sector, and resources that can help them upskill. However, recent advancements in language and generative AI offer a promising opportunity to address this challenge. We are developing Digital Public Goods (DPGs) designed to bridge this divide. These DPGs will enable governments and other institutions to deploy solutions that provide the public with easy access to a wide range of information, ultimately enhancing their ability to benefit from available services and opportunities. We are working with the ecosystem - including Government organizations, Technical and Implementation Partners, Funders on developing and adopting DPGs and DPIs in this area.