What We Do

The Digital Public Goods Alliance Promotes digital public goods to create a more equitable world.

Digital Public Goods

In 2021, the Digital Public Goods Alliance launched a 5-year strategy. The corresponding annual Roadmap details progress against the DPGA’s strategic objectives.

The Digital Public Goods Alliance also maintains the DPG Standard and Registry, convenes expert communities of practice, and co-leads the Digital Public Goods Charter. Read more about each of these core functions below.

The DPGA stewards the DPG definition and measures solutions against the DPG Standard.
The DPGA maintains the DPG Registry of digital public goods, increasing their discoverability.
The DPGA convenes Communities of Practice to further identify high-potential digital public goods within a specific priority area.
The DPGA supports learning management from Pathfinding Pilots in low- and middle-income countries.
The DPGA coordinates and mobilises resources and funding to where it is needed across the DPG ecosystem.

Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are groups of experts who convene to support the discovery, assessment, and advancement of digital public goods with high potential for addressing critical development needs and responding to urgent challenges.

CoPs are a means of bringing together experts from organisations that are engaged in work related to a given topic, leveraging years of experience while simultaneously facilitating dialogue and alignment across these institutions and their networks.

All CoPs are led in collaboration with co-chairing organisations that have extensive sector-relevant knowledge. Each CoP scopes and defines a particular focus area based on inputs from governments, multilateral organisations and other stakeholders in the DPG ecosystem. The purpose of this process is to highlight digital public goods that can meet particular high priority needs. Based on input and feedback from CoP members, the DPGA releases reports highlighting DPGs that have high impact potential for that area of focus. You can see the reports published to date here.

 The following is an overview of the DPGA’s CoPs:
Priority AreaFocusCo-Chair Status
Early Grade ReadingFoundational LiteracyNoradComplete
Financial InclusionDigital Public InfrastructureiSPIRTComplete
HealthImmunization Delivery ManagementUNICEFComplete
TelehealthUNICEFIn Progress
Climate Change AdaptationClimate & Weather ServicesNoradComplete
GovStackDPGs for GovStackGIZIn Progress
Information PollutionRapid Response TechnologiesUNDPIn Progress
Normative Alternatives Omidyar NetworkIn Progress
DataOpen Data and DPGsGlobal Data Access InitiativeIn Progress
Food SecurityTo be determinedFAO & NoradIn Progress

Digital Public Goods Charter

In April 2022, it was announced that the DPGA will be co-leading the process for the Digital Public Goods Charter (DPG Charter) alongside the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL). The DPG Charter will advance the use of digital public goods, enabling countries to build safe, trusted, and inclusive digital public infrastructure at scale, improving outcomes for people.

The DPG Charter brings together stakeholders from governments; private sector companies; philanthropic foundations; the UN, development banks and other multilateral institutions; non-governmental organisations, academia, media and other civil society organisations. Stakeholder participation represents a commitment to advancing the use of digital public goods which can enable countries to build safe, trusted, and inclusive digital public infrastructure at scale. To learn more, see the DPG Charter website here.

Pathfinder Countries

What are pathfinding pilots?

The Digital Public Goods Alliance works with partners and government entities in low- and middle-income countries to pilot new ways to change the power balance around technology and digital solutions through the use of digital public goods. 

Pathfinding pilots are time-bound initiatives, led by DPGA members in direct cooperation with, or with the endorsement of, a relevant government entity to build local capacity for the creation of new DPGs and/or to support the local adaptation or implementation for existing DPGs. Pathfinding pilots are tailored to the needs of a country and/or region and help define use cases, identify needs, inform adaptations, and enable policy frameworks.

Current pathfinding pilots (2021-2022) span the health, education, innovation, and youth employment sectors and are active in Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Vietnam, and more. 

Explore all current pathfinding pilots & DPG implementations on this map or visit the DPGA’s Roadmap.

Women of Manduru village, Yumbe District discuss text messages received on a phone from Family Connect, an UNICEF health innovation.