Open Data Editor: Making Data Validation Accessible for All

Communities cannot leverage open data or collaborate effectively if they are unable to share and reuse datasets without friction. Created by the Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Data Editor (ODE) is a desktop application that helps address this gap by enabling user-friendly data validation for people without technical or programming skills. In doing so, organisations can automatically detect errors and clearly identify what needs to be fixed before data is published or used for deeper analysis. Organisations using ODE report saving time and achieving significantly improved data quality, without data-engineering dependencies.Throughout 2025, ODE, which is supported in six languages, was adopted by organisations and governments all around the world. Use cases ranged from data verification by municipal workers in Croatia and Nepal to housing analysis in Argentina, investigative journalism in Mexico, and academic library services in India.Across these contexts, ODE was used by journalists, public servants, students, and peace activists—many with no technical background. By lowering the barrier to using and verifying data, ODE enabled users to consume, produce, and reuse high-quality datasets without requiring deep expertise in data algorithms or standards. This had a direct positive impact on the research and activities they were pursuing, while also generating feedback that flowed back to the ODE core team, enabling continued improvements based on real-world use cases and practical requirements.Recognising the importance of data literacy and in support of the goals that ODE helps advance, the Open Knowledge Foundation’s School of Data delivered targeted training sessions in 2025 to equip trainers to introduce and implement ODE in new communities. Rather than focusing solely on individual users, this approach invested in local trainers who can sustain and extend adoption over time. As a result, an estimated 500 people across all continents were trained to use ODE, helping to embed data literacy and practical data skills across diverse contexts.The evolution of ODE remains closely linked to the needs of the communities that use it, reflecting a deliberate emphasis on informed, community-driven development as a core principle of The Tech We Want. Looking ahead to 2026, expected outcomes include establishing a decentralised governance framework to support project sustainability, translating all documentation and literacy resources into four additional languages, and positioning the School of Data as a multilingual AI literacy hub.This content is part of the 2025 State of the Digital Public Goods Ecosystem Report, published by the Digital Public Goods Alliance in early February 2025. Learn more about the Alliance’s latest community highlights and explore the full report here.

5 Surprising Truths We Learned About Open Source in Government

In order to help governments implement open-source technologies, we must first understand the global policy implementation landscape. To support this effort, the DPGA launched the Global Open-Source Policies and Practices Survey in June last year as part of our Call for Collaborative Action. The initiative culminated in a report published in November 2025 by the researcher Melissa Muñoz Suro, which outlines four key policy recommendations to strengthen government When we talk about digital transformation in government, it’s easy to imagine a single, sweeping decision: a new national policy is signed and open-source software is formally embraced. This clean, linear narrative is appealing, but the key finding from the research was that it rarely reflects the complex reality of how public institutions actually change.To follow up on last year’s report, we spoke with digital leaders from eleven different countries and organisations. A different picture emerged; one that is far more pragmatic, incremental, and interesting. We discovered that the real story of open source in government isn’t written in formal policy documents, but in the unwritten rules of procurement offices, the strategic choices of agency-level teams, and the evolving motivations of countries.

How Liberia’s DPG-based Inclusive Instant Payments System is Advancing Interoperable Payments

Liberia, home to 5.6 million, has long been a cash-heavy economy. This began to change with the launch of “Pay Na-Na”, the Liberian Inclusive Instant Payments System (IIPS), a modern, real-time interoperable payments platform powered by Mojaloop, a recognised DPG, which is helping to strengthen Liberia’s digital public infrastructure. This was made possible by joint efforts from the Mojaloop Foundation, the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), ThitsaWorks, and The AfricaNenda Foundation.Normally, DPI related payments projects take 12–24 months to implement. However, Liberia’s IIPS, which went live in December 2025, took just 73 days to execute, making it the fastest Mojaloop implementation to date. Notably, the programme was delivered at a fraction of the cost typically seen in comparable payments initiatives in other countries.Immediate changes were evident, as Pay Na-Na transactions immediately hit scale. Additionally, the IIPS enabled mobile money transfers between the country’s two major mobile network operators, helping to advance the CBL’s mission to digitise the national economy and enable interoperability across mobile providers, banks, microfinance institutions, fintechs, and government. The system is also improving the lives of citizens and businesses by enabling fast, reliable, and secure digital transactions that reduce reliance on cash and expand financial inclusion. Government payments, including salaries and social benefits, will become more efficient and transparent; salary processing that previously took seven days can now be done in seconds.While the agility to adapt and implement quickly, as well as lower costs, make DPGs advantageous for DPI implementations, the success of the IIPS implementation was also driven by strong institutional coordination. This was particularly significant given the complex nature of payment systems, as existing, siloed payment platforms often make interoperability difficult. In Liberia’s case, strong participation from the CBL played a critical role in navigating challenges and aligning stakeholders around an interoperable national system.Another added value of this implementation was the opportunity to work with a systems integrator, ThitsaWorks, which had prior experience implementing Mojaloop in Myanmar, where it served as a local partner. Building on that experience, ThitsaWorks is now helping to lead Mojaloop implementations in four additional countries, including Liberia. In each case, the approach goes beyond delivery. Local partners, working with the system integrator, are equipped not only to implement the system, but also to operate and maintain it over time—and, in some cases, to become future systems integrators themselves. This experience helps demonstrate how implementing DPGs can serve as a pathway for building local capacity, rather than short-term technical dependency.This content is part of the 2025 State of the Digital Public Goods Ecosystem Report, published by the Digital Public Goods Alliance in early February 2025. Learn more about the Alliance’s latest community highlights and explore the full report here.

Safeguarding Land Information as a Digital Public Good

Access to information is fundamental to good land governance and to securing land rights for landless and vulnerable people. Yet land-related data and knowledge often remain fragmented, inaccessible, or unevenly represented.The Land Portal makes land information open, accessible, and inclusive. As a global hub for land governance knowledge, it empowers communities by making previously inaccessible data available and bringing forward perspectives that are often overlooked. It does so by improving the documentation, mapping, and monitoring of land governance issues. The Land Portal works to democratise the land information ecosystem, strengthen data flows across all levels and perspectives, and support evidence-based global debate on land issues.The Land Portal’s ability to adapt quickly was tested in 2025, when the US government closed down USAID’s LandLinks Library platform in February. The LandLinks Library was the US government’s flagship channel for land information, comprising analytical reports, policy briefs, evaluations, learning notes, and technical guidance developed over two decades of USAID land and resource governance programmes. Together, these resources captured the evolution of thinking on how secure land and resource rights underpin inclusive growth, social stability, and environmental sustainability.As it became clear that the platform would go offline, stakeholders raised concerns about the loss of access to these materials for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers worldwide. In response, the Land Portal team moved quickly in the days before the shutdown to migrate and preserve the collection. This rapid response underscores the Land Portal’s mission and one of the practical benefits of operating as a digital public good: the ability to act decisively to preserve open access to critical information in the public interest.This achievement came shortly after the Land Portal was officially recognised as a digital public good, confirming its role in maintaining open, rights-based, and equitable digital knowledge systems that can endure institutional and political change.Today, the LandLinks Library is live on the Land Portal, where users can explore, cite, and reuse its resources to inform programmes, policies, and research on land and resource governance around the world.This experience also highlighted that openness alone is insufficient. For this reason, the Land Portal is committed to the DPG Standard and to registering additional core assets in the near future—such as LANDVOC, SOLIndex, and the Land Portal Knowledge Graph—as DPGs, to safeguard the durability, continued operation, and reuse of land information as a public good.This content is part of the 2025 State of the Digital Public Goods Ecosystem Report, published by the Digital Public Goods Alliance in early February 2025. Learn more about the Alliance’s latest community highlights and explore the full report here.

LaSuite Docs at the French Presidency: How Digital Public Goods Enable Adaptable Public-Sector Systems

Across public institutions, teams working on sensitive policy and data often struggle with fragmented document management systems that undermine collaboration, security, and efficiency. Within this context, the French Presidency’s DataLab faced persistent challenges in how documents were created, shared, and maintained. Version control was difficult, documents quickly became outdated, and reliance on email-based workflows slowed collaboration. These issues increased risks to data integrity and delayed decision-making, while strict security requirements and complex workflows underscored the need for a secure, autonomous, and collaborative digital workspace.In 2025, the DataLab adopted LaSuite Docs, a containerised document editor recognised as a digital public good, as part of its broader digital transformation strategy. The tool was deployed using Podman, a secure container system required by the DataLab that allows applications to run within its own infrastructure rather than on external cloud services.Its open codebase and documentation made it straightforward to adapt to the Presidency’s context. The DataLab customised the interface to align with its visual identity and integrated the tool into existing security and networking systems, without introducing new infrastructure. Limited configuration changes—such as proxy settings and backup arrangements—met the required operational and security standards, enabling a smooth rollout.LaSuite Docs was selected for its alignment with the Presidency’s vision of a unified digital workspace. It complemented other LaSuite tools already in use, such as Grist, and fits within a broader ecosystem expected to expand to include LaSuite Drive, which is also a DPG. This harmonisation was key to eliminating silos and fostering a more collaborative way of working.Following deployment, LaSuite Docs was rapidly adopted by presidential teams. Real-time collaboration replaced email-based workflows, reducing version conflicts and enabling simultaneous editing. The intuitive interface meant little training was required, while integration with the DataLab’s self-hosted AI assistant, MarIAnne, supported day-to-day work. Teams reported improved efficiency, with improved real-time collaboration, and access managed securely, making the tool accessible regardless of technical expertise.LaSuite Docs demonstrated the practical advantages of adopting a DPG in a high-security environment. Its open-source design enabled transparency, adaptability, and cost efficiency, while autonomous deployment and interoperability with other LaSuite tools supported the Presidency’s objectives around digital sovereignty and institutional control. Together, this experience illustrates how DPGs can deliver secure, collaborative, and sovereign digital solutions at scale and strengthen public-sector workflows.This content is part of the 2025 State of the Digital Public Goods Ecosystem Report, published by the Digital Public Goods Alliance in early February 2025. Learn more about the Alliance’s latest community highlights and explore the full report here.

When 40+ Organisations Build Life-Saving Community Health Technology Together

An estimated 4.5 billion people lack access to quality healthcare. Fragmented systems and paper-based records contribute to misdiagnoses, medicine shortages, and opportunities to detect and respond to disease outbreaks early.For those who do have access to care, it is often delivered by the world’s four million community health workers (CHWs). CHWs play a pivotal role in strengthening health systems and have been directly linked to reductions of up to 60% in child and maternal mortality. Yet many remain disconnected and under-supported, relying on expensive, proprietary digital tools that they cannot adapt, own, or maintain.Community Health Toolkit (CHT) was created to solve this. CHT is free to use, modify, and scale, giving implementers full ownership and control. For over 15 years, the CHT has been adopted as national health infrastructure by seven governments and international organisations collectively serving 200,000 health workers across 24 countries and providing essential care to an estimated 88 million people.Worldwide, CHT connects remote and underserved communities to vital services. Applications built using CHT transform household-level care delivered by CHWs, supporting digitally-enhanced direct services across maternal and child health, HIV, Malaria, tuberculosis, cancer, and diabetes. In practice, this means proactive pregnancy monitoring, timely immunisations for children, disease surveillance and response, and coordinated care for families. In 2025, the CHT Community proved that DPGs thrive through co-creation. More than 40 organisations didn’t just use the technology—by contributing to it, they actively built and co-evolved it, showing that when DPGs are genuinely community-owned, innovation accelerates and each contribution amplifies everyone’s impact. Teams collaborated to develop smarter task prioritisation, helping CHWs better serve community needs. Others developed Single Sign-On capabilities for seamless, secure access across systems. Partners implemented Right-to-Left language support and Arabic translations, expanding the CHT to North Africa and the Middle East.Being open source plays a foundational role in CHT’s success. Transparent code enables organisations to self-onboard, customise independently, and fix bugs. Volunteers have helped strengthen the platform’s code and stability through dozens of improvements. Interoperability standards enable seamless integration with other DPGs like DHIS2 and openIMIS.When communities grow, when more voices shape technology, we can reach open-source at scale, proving that collective ownership creates exponential impact and makes community-led digital health the sustainable path forward.This content is part of the 2025 State of the Digital Public Goods Ecosystem Report, published by the Digital Public Goods Alliance in early February 2025. Learn more about the Alliance’s latest community highlights and explore the full report here.

Ensuring “Openness” in AI is a Beacon of Trust, Not a Slogan: Reflections from the India AI Impact Summit 2026

Returning from New Delhi after the India AI Impact Summit 2026, it is clear that the global AI conversation has reached a turning point. As the first major AI summit held in the Global South, the event centred on impact, democratisation, and the specific needs of developing economies. For the Digital Public Goods Alliance, the week provided a vital platform to discuss the foundational role of digital public goods in AI development and to connect with like-minded partners committed to supporting the open AI ecosystem for a more equitable digital future.Openness: A Foundation, Not a Finish LineAt a time when data from HuggingFace suggests that we are witnessing a collapse in transparency in AI development, openness emerged as a recurring theme at the AI Impact Summit and discussed as a fundamental building block of AI infrastructure for countries, the private sector and end users.At the DPGA, we believe openness is the necessary starting point for achieving transparency, trust, sovereignty, and the democratisation of AI resources. However, without integrated best practices, guardrails, and strong governance, "openness" remains a hollow term, leaving it open to use in ways that may not always advance the public good. Since its inception, the DPG Standard, as a community-driven benchmark, has addressed these aspects through specific indicators on "do no harm by design" and "adherence to privacy and applicable laws".The DPG Standard: Verifying Public BenefitThe DPG Standard is grounded in the UN Secretary-General’s definition: digital public goods are open-source software, open datasets, open AI systems, and open content collections that adhere to privacy laws, follow best practices, and help attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With this, the DPG Standard moves the definition from “openness” as a standalone characteristic to “openness” as a feature complemented by other features, with a specific objective: making the world a better and more equitable place.The DPG Standard allows us to move beyond the "open source" label by providing a verifiable framework that ensures technology is not only technically accessible but also safe, inclusive, and designed for public benefit. As a meta-standard that also encourages adherence to other standards and best practices, as per Indicator 8, the DPG Standard ensures that AI safety best practices are incorporated through continuous consultation with the community and experts.The Threefold Intersection of DPGs and AIThe intersection of DPGs and AI is threefold:AI systems as a category of digital public goods.DPGs' use of AI to enhance and run their products.DPGs are trusted resources that can improve responsible AI development —such as open data, tooling, and software (DPG4AI).This third category includes resources such as compar:IA (a chatbot comparison arena developed by the French government to reduce cultural and linguistic biases in LLMs); simpleAudit (framework for AI safety testing); and the Mozilla Common Voice dataset (multi-lingual dataset for language technology).DPG4AI was also the topic of the DPGA Secretariat’s mainstage session, “Digital Public Goods for Global AI Equity,” at the Summit in India which included John Dickerson, CEO of mozilla.ai, Ayah Bdeir, CEO of CurrentAI, Chenai Chair, Director of the Masakhane African Languages Hub and Urvashi Aneja, Founder and Executive Director of Digital Futures Lab. There the discussion focused on persisting challenges such as the shortage of high-quality open data, market concentration, and the skills gap to develop and deploy AI in ways that benefit public interest. Panellists explored the role of openness in supporting the digital sovereignty of nations and people and raised questions about the fine balance between championing openness while avoiding corporate capture and ensuring that communities benefit from their own data collection work. Having CurrentAI, one of the main deliverables of last year’s French AI Action Summit, on the panel with Ayah Bdeir also enabled us to connect the dots between Paris and New Delhi, underscoring the essential role of open, global collaboration in advancing AI that serves the many, not the few. Trust and Safety in Local Open-source AI solutionsRepresenting the DPGA Secretariat, we also had the privilege of moderating a session titled "Harnessing Open Source AI for Inclusive Economic Development," hosted collaboratively by GIZ FAIR Forward, NASSCOM, and Digital Futures Lab. During this session, Yasha Khandelwal, CEO & Founder of Tech4Biz, shared that open-source initiatives are effectively reducing access barriers for local developers. However, the Indian startup founder also highlighted that significant resource constraints mean that large technology companies continue to benefit disproportionately from open resources. To truly localise AI development and address diverse local needs across different regions and contexts, fundamental changes are required, including investment in decentralised compute infrastructure and adopting a frugal AI approach—that means designing and deploying machine learning models that minimise computational costs, energy consumption, and data requirements without sacrificing essential performance. Another key discussion point was the need to simplify the deployment of open source models and enhance their safety by ensuring developers "ship the car with the seatbelts". These points closely align with the DPGA Secretariat's work. For instance, the DPG Standard mandates that AI systems prioritise safety in development and publicly license their full training data—requirements potentially more manageable for smaller, task-specific models.The session also featured the launch of a policy brief, “Advancing Open Source AI in India: Recommendations for Governments and Technology Developers”. This brief, which mirrors the efforts of the DPG Standard, encourages developers to provide high-quality, reusable core components. It emphasises avoiding "open washing" through clear documentation, use of safeguards, and a firm commitment to open source AI as the foundation for transparent, local collaboration.Collaboration for Impact: Climate, Health, and AgricultureThe DPGA Secretariat week was wrapped up by co-hosting a high-level event with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi and Norad, focusing on “International Collaboration on AI and Digital Public Goods to Advance Progress on Climate, Health and Agriculture”. The event, which included opening remarks from Norwegian Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance, Karianne Tung, and the Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services of Brazil, Esther Dweck, provided practical examples of how AI intersects with digital public goods. This was followed by showcasing the updated requirements of the DPG Standard for AI systems to be recognised as digital public goods, highlighting the importance of data transparency in promoting responsible AI practices. Representatives from verified DPGs, including DHIS2, Rural Environmental Registry (RER), DiCRA, and ODK showcased how AI can be responsibly integrated into existing solutions. They also demonstrated how their solutions offer trusted data infrastructures essential for AI deployment.We concluded the discussion by highlighting the value of DPGs as platforms that demonstrate best practices in the era of AI-driven software development. A key point was the necessity of public investment in open datasets to overcome market failures, aggregate markets, and incentivise the private sector to solve social challenges. “How do we ensure that the digital world grows in ways that are fair, open, and beneficial for all? The answer lies in supporting digital public goods—through our policies, partnerships, and priorities. When digital resources are shared, everyone benefits. And when everyone can participate, innovation becomes not only faster, but also more just and more sustainable.” Karianne Tung, Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance, Norway By positioning DPGs as an infrastructure of trust, they offer a value proposition that proprietary solutions cannot match. This is because the DPG Standard ensures that DPGs follow industry best practices, prevent “open-washing,” embed do-no-harm principles by design, and support the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, we were also happy to meet representatives of openFN, Syft and Care | Open Healthcare Network during the summit, which once more underlined the point that DPGs are relevant solutions in developing responsible AI and AI-mediated access to services and information. Reclaiming AI for the Public InterestThe summit reinforced a powerful truth: an open approach to AI, complemented by participatory governance, guardrails and a deep understanding of the prevalent power imbalances in the AI ecosystem, is the only way to ensure local relevance and agency for the Global Majority.As Prime Minister Modi noted in his opening remarks of the summit, India believes AI’s benefits must be shared—invoking the principle that "sunlight is the best disinfectant" to make AI safer and more effective. This call for open code and collaborative development aligns deeply with the DPGA’s work. However, to truly reclaim AI as a technology that serves the public interest, we must learn the lessons of open source software by pairing openness with deep, public-sector-led investments in research, safety, and trusted data infrastructures. Open data plays a fundamental role in trustworthy AI, and it was reassuring to hear the recurring call for more open data in AI development-an approach the DPGA Secretariat has championed with the update of the DPG Standard for AI systems last year. By maintaining this high bar and demanding a genuine plurality of models, visions, representations and stakeholders, we can move toward a global AI ecosystem that empowers everyone to build and own AI on their own terms. The Road Ahead: Our CommitmentThe DPGA Secretariat is committed to building the technical and policy foundations for a public-interest AI ecosystem. Our next steps include:Strengthening the DPG Standard for AI systems: Conducting a systemic review in the second half of 2026 to assess the open data requirement and continuing our engagement with experts and the community on AI trust and safety best practices. Building the DPG4AI Collection: Identifying and onboarding new DPGs that serve responsible AI development, from open data for training and benchmarking to tools and software for packaged, sovereign solutions.Making DPGs Future-proof: Providing case studies and insights into the responsible use of AI by established DPGs and positioning DPGs as a platform of best practices.Mobilising for Policy Change: Advocating for public sector investment in the open source AI ecosystem to ensure AI is developed with the public interest at its core.Supporting Discoverability and Global Collaboration: Feeding into initiatives like the Global AI Impact Commons to ensure everyone walks the talk, and partnering with like-minded organisations to build the public interest AI movement.

The 2025 State of the Digital Public Goods Ecosystem

2025 was a year of significant growth for the DPG ecosystem. With over 220 DPGs verified and the DPGA reaching 50 members, the ecosystem reached a new scale—demonstrating that shared, open approaches can remain resilient and effective even as geopolitical uncertainty, funding pressures, and digital divides intensify.Amid this rapidly shifting global landscape, the DPG ecosystem showed that collaboration remains not only possible, but powerful. The 2025 State of the DPG Ecosystem Report captures this momentum, offering both a celebration of progress and a forward-looking view of how DPGs can help sustain pace and impact. Over the past year, the Digital Public Goods Alliance Secretariat, Members, and DPG product owners worked side by side to strengthen the foundations of the ecosystem and advance collective action. From advancing the Calls for Collaborative Action, to deepening cooperation through initiatives such as the 50-in-5 campaign, and the DPG4DPI and upcoming DPGs for Climate Actions Collections, 2025 demonstrated what coordinated, open approaches can achieve. These efforts were visible not only through DPG adoption and implementations but also on global stages—from the UN General Assembly and the Internet Governance Forum to COP30—where DPGs featured prominently in discussions on digital transformation, climate action, and digital public infrastructure.The report is also an invitation. In the lead-up to its publication, all activities on the DPGA Roadmap were updated or renewed, offering the most current view of how members are advancing digital public goods worldwide. As a result, the report provides a timely snapshot of major initiatives underway, recent achievements, and emerging priorities—making it a valuable entry point for anyone looking to understand where the ecosystem is headed and where collaboration opportunities lie.This year’s report also features eight DPG Spotlights. These spotlights bring the ecosystem to life, illustrating how open, reusable solutions are being adapted and deployed in real-world contexts to address pressing challenges and the conditions needed for DPGs to thrive.While there is much to celebrate, the report also outlines the significant work that remains. Sustaining and scaling DPGs will require deeper cooperation, new financing and governance models, and continued commitment across sectors. It will also require clearer identification of where DPGs can play a decisive role in emerging and evolving areas—such as AI and the need to move beyond today’s social media platforms toward truly social technologies that serve the public interest. Looking ahead to 2026, the message is both simple and urgent: progress depends on working together, building on shared foundations, and keeping collaboration at the centre of digital transformation efforts.The 2025 State of the DPG Ecosystem Report is both a reflection on a pivotal year and a call to engage more closely in the one to come. Read the report to understand the progress made, the work still to be done, and how collaboration can continue to shape the future of digital public goods.

Cutting the Gordian Knot of Social Media

Today’s big social media platforms are directly manipulating and polarising public discourse in countries worldwide, and are undermining individual and societal wellbeing. What if, instead, we had social technologies that enabled open, informed public debate – and helped individuals and societies thrive? In many countries today, the main space where citizens encounter political candidates, hear campaign messages, debate local priorities, and even learn where and how to vote is not a public forum — it is Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, X, or YouTube. These platforms have become default infrastructure for democratic participation. Yet they were not designed to support informed deliberation or civic trust. They were designed to maximise a primitive form of engagement as measured in clicks and likes, often by amplifying outrage, polarisation, and misinformation.This example points to a deeper issue: many of the social functions we rely on most — civic debate, community organising, public consultations, local information sharing — are not inherently global. They operate within national and subnational jurisdictions. Yet the infrastructure enabling them has been ceded almost entirely to a handful of global platforms, with little interoperability, accountability, or public-interest governance.In this blog, I argue that a solution to this issue is not only possible, but critically important to achieve. I propose that countries should reclaim the power to set the rules and mechanisms for digital spaces where civic discourse occurs, and apply an infrastructure mindset. They should advance social technologies to strengthen people’s relationship with, and participation in, the jurisdictions they are part of. We can imagine national digital spheres - where participants would first verify their affiliation with that national jurisdiction to enter. These spheres could allow users to discover and connect to technologies that enable democratic deliberation and debate, local communities formed around hobbies and civic engagement, and other solutions that the private, public, and civil sectors could be inspired and incentivised to build. Crucially, these solutions should be built on open protocols to ensure interoperability with a broader landscape of better regional and global solutions that are simultaneously underway. To do so, the DPGA Secretariat is working with practitioners with deep technical expertise to bring these different worlds together through a verifiable credential technology that can be used to build trust and information integrity. We will be working with partners, including DPGA members, to test this approach in the months to come.To understand why we are focusing on the concept of national digital spheres enabled by social technologies, it is helpful to first look into why people use today’s big social media platforms.

Building Open Digital States: How DPGs Create Value for Digital Public Infrastructure

As governments around the world accelerate digital transformation, a quiet tension is shaping the global digital landscape. Digital technologies are spreading rapidly—especially across the Global South—yet control over core digital infrastructure is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of firms and countries. For policymakers, this combination of diffusion and dependency raises urgent questions about digital sovereignty, resilience, and long-term sustainability.Digital public infrastructure (DPI) has emerged partly in response to this challenge. Foundational systems for identity, payments, and data exchange are increasingly seen not just as technical platforms, but as public infrastructure that underpins inclusive growth and effective governance. Within this shift, digital public goods (DPGs)—open-source software, open data, open AI systems, and open content that meet the DPG Standard—are playing a growing role as core elements of DPI.But while interest in DPG-based DPI is growing fast, evidence of its real-world impact has remained thin, and fragmented. What value do DPGs actually create for governments and societies? And under what conditions do they deliver lasting benefits?A new report, Building Open Digital States: Country Case Studies on the Impact of DPGs for DPI, helps answer these questions by combining a review of existing evidence with in-depth country case studies from the Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, and Rwanda. This report also contains a framework for how to understand the value of DPG adoption from an economic, social, governance, and political lens. From Adoption to Impact: Why Evidence MattersMuch of the global conversation on DPGs has focused on adoption—the question of how many countries and users are using open-source platforms for digital ID, payments, or health systems. But adoption alone does not tell us whether these systems are delivering meaningful outcomes.The report responds to growing calls from governments, multilaterals, and development partners for more rigorous evidence on the impact of DPGs for DPI. Rather than starting from abstract metrics, it asks a more grounded question: what do policymakers themselves hope to achieve when they adopt DPGs—and how does value actually show up in practice?A Framework for Understanding the Value of DPGsAt the core of the report is a DPG-for-DPI Value Framework that identifies four dimensions of value that matter most to national decision-makers:Economic value: Including cost savings, reduced vendor lock-in, increased competition, increased innovation, and the stimulation of domestic digital markets.Social value: Expanding access to essential services such as health, identity, and payments—especially for underserved populations—and supporting progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.Governance value: Strengthening state capacity, interoperability across institutions, data-driven decision-making, and anti-corruption efforts.Political value: Enhancing digital sovereignty, strategic autonomy, global participation, and a country’s ability to shape its digital future on its own terms.Crucially, the framework also highlights ecosystem effects—the indirect, cumulative benefits that emerge over time, such as trust in public systems, local technical capacity, and innovation spillovers. These effects are often the hardest to measure, but they are frequently the most durable, and often these benefits only reveal themselves in the medium to long term.What the Country Cases ShowThe three country case studies illustrate how DPGs create value across these dimensions when embedded in coherent DPI strategies:1. In the Philippines, open-source platforms such as MOSIP and Mojaloop are being used to reduce dependence on proprietary vendors, lower long-term costs, and expand financial inclusion—enabling millions of previously unbanked citizens to access formal financial services.Digital Autonomy and Ownership. The primary value proposition is gaining greater ownership and control over the country’s digital transformation path, after a history of disadvantageous experiences with external vendors.Cost-savings. DPGs offer the potential to save costs both for public agencies and citizens, such as a 95% reduction in the total cost of an interoperable instant payments system. Financial Inclusion. The introduction of PhilSys has enabled as many as 8.3 million additional Filipinos to open bank accounts and further gains to inclusion are expected from the scaling up of pilots.2. In Kyrgyzstan, the X-Road–based Tunduk interoperability platform has saved citizens millions of hours by eliminating paper-based processes, while also serving as a powerful anti-corruption tool and reinforcing national control over sensitive data.Strategic Autonomy. The use of a DPG, via its open source nature, allowed the country to maintain control over its national data and avoid vendor lock-in.Economic Efficiency. In 2024 alone, the system saved citizens an estimated 21 million hours and 1.7 billion soms ($19 million).Market Innovation. The platform served as a foundation for the private fintech market, enabling open banking and new G2B business models. Social Contract. The system strengthened trust by making data silos and public service opacity a visible and quantifiable governance failure rather than an accepted reality.3. In Rwanda, long-term investment in DPGs such as DHIS2 and Mojaloop has strengthened health outcomes, enabled a data-driven COVID-19 response, and catalysed a domestic innovation ecosystem—positioning the country as a regional leader in DPI. Strategic Autonomy. DPGs enabled Rwanda to own and govern core digital systems, avoiding vendor lock-in and maintaining sovereign control over national data and development path.Health System Transformation. DHIS2 improved data completeness from 88% to 95% and timeliness from 60% to 90%+, enabling targeted interventions. Maternal mortality fell by over 50% (476 to 203 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2010-2019). During Covid, Rwanda achieved 77%+ full vaccination coverage using DHIS2-integrated digital certificates and national ID linkage, ranking among top African performers in testing and vaccination.Innovation and Market Competition. Implementation of Mojaloop has eased market concentration and improved payments interoperability. It also increased the capacity and expanded customer base of local firms , demonstrating how DPGs can catalyze startup ecosystems.Regional Leadership. Rwanda exports DHIS2 and Mojaloop expertise to neighboring countries, and contributes innovations back to the global DPGecosystem. The country is recognized as a regional—and, increasingly, global—leader in the DPI space.Across all three cases, DPGs are not simply cheaper software alternatives. They function as institution-building tools that reshape markets, strengthen governance, and expand state capacity.Lessons for Policymakers and PractitionersSeveral cross-cutting lessons emerge from the analysis:The impact of DPGs is as much political as social or economic. Although often unstated or under-recognized, political considerations–such as increased sovereignty, autonomy, and long-term institutional control—are among the most important benefits sought by policymakers. .Incremental implementation matters. Phased rollouts, parallel systems, and pragmatic integration with legacy infrastructure reduce risk and improve sustainability.Capacity-building is essential. Open code only delivers autonomy when governments invest in people, institutions, and local ecosystems.Incentives and mandates matter. DPGs succeed when institutional authority and market incentives align around interoperability and reuse.Crisis moments can accelerate impact. COVID-19 validated many DPG investments and helped lock in long-term political support.Why This Matters NowAs more countries invest in DPI, choices made today will shape digital ecosystems for decades. The evidence in this report suggests that DPGs offer a credible pathway for countries to build open, inclusive, and resilient digital states—if they are implemented strategically and governed well.Moving forward, the challenge is not whether DPGs work, but how governments, funders, and practitioners can better measure their impact, learn from real-world experience, and invest in the institutional foundations that allow DPGs to thrive.The full report offers a deeper look at how to do that—and invites further research, collaboration, and evidence-building to strengthen the global DPG ecosystem.

How the DPG Standard and the Universal DPI Safeguards Framework are Charting a Safe and Inclusive Digital Future

Digital systems are shaping how millions of people access essential services, from healthcare and education to financial inclusion. The stakes for getting these systems designed and implemented right from the outset have never been higher. This was evident during the recent Annual Members Meeting of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) in Brazil, which highlighted how countries are increasingly leveraging open, interoperable building blocks to power their digital infrastructure.Digital public goods (DPGs) sit at the heart of this digital transformation. When integrated into the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) approach, these technologies can unlock unprecedented opportunities for inclusive development. But opportunity alone is not enough. The technologies and systems being built must be inherently safe and inclusive, and uphold fundamental human rights from the ground up. This article explores how recent updates to the DPG Standard and the Universal DPI Safeguards Framework are working in lockstep to nurture a cohesive ecosystem where technologies originating from the DPG community are designed to be safe and inclusive by default.The DPG Standard serves as the global benchmark for recognizing not only digital public goods, but technologies that can be safely adopted, adapted and scaled to advance sustainable development. To qualify as a DPG, a solution must be open source, contribute to advancing SDGs, and meet rigorous additional criteria outlined across nine indicators in areas such as licensing, documentation, privacy, security, and platform independence. Recent updates to the DPG Standard establish a stronger, more explicit safety-by-design foundation. The revised criteria clearly articulate expectations for privacy, security and responsible AI, ensuring these safeguards are integral to how DPGs are assessed. As a result, technologies recognized as DPGs demonstrate, from the outset, clear baseline commitments to user protection, data transparency and accountability.The Universal DPI Safeguards Framework, first released in 2024 by the DPI Safeguards initiative is the result of extensive global multi-stakeholder consultations involving 44 working group members, global convenings, consultations with international organizations, and local in-country engagement. The Framework was updated in 2025 following feedback from the ecosystem to ensure its continued relevance and practicality. It provides a comprehensive, rights-based approach for governing and ensuring responsible DPI implementation across the whole DPI lifecycle. The Framework is structured around 18 Foundational and Operational Principles that are designed to mitigate risks grouped into three core categories: safety, inclusion, and structural vulnerabilities.

Leveraging DPGs for Rapid Response to Urgent Global Challenges

The global development landscape is facing a dual crisis. On one hand, we are witnessing a rise in Urgent Global Challenges (UGCs)—events that exceed routine disaster response capacities, frequently cross borders, and require coordinated international action. On the other hand, the resources available to meet these challenges had been shrinking, with global aid budgets having declined by up to 17% in 2025.This raises a central strategic question: How can institutions ensure that digital systems can be mobilised rapidly and effectively when the next major shock occurs?The DPGA Strategy 2023–2028 identifies a clear objective: by 2028, digital public goods (DPGs) should form a default component of the international community’s approach to preventing and responding to UGCs. Target 4 outlines the development of a global methodology for rapidly establishing communities of practice, as well as financing mechanisms to support relevant DPGs.At the DPGA Annual Members Meeting (AMM25) in Brasília, policymakers, practitioners, and technologists met to translate this objective into a concrete trajectory for 2026.Defining the Scope: Readiness for ResponseWhile mitigation and long-term recovery remain essential, discussions at the AMM25 underscored that the distinctive contribution of DPGs lies in rapid operational activation. UGCs are characterised by urgent timelines, uncertainty, and the need for coordinated digital action across institutions and borders. For this reason, the emerging focus is on scalable process models—structured methodologies that enable governments and partners to deploy and adapt digital tools quickly and systematically.It also became clear that rapid response is a cross-cutting theme that interacts with broader digital and governance ecosystems. Crises often generate significant pressures in areas such as:Information pollution, where inaccurate or misleading information disrupts coordination and decision-making;Digital public infrastructure (DPI), where foundational systems such as identity, payments, and registries must remain functional under degraded conditions or elevated demand;Climate-related events, which increasingly require real-time data, interoperable systems, and rapid mobilisation of sector-specific tools.These intersections demonstrate that readiness for response is not a discrete domain but an integral component of multiple DPGA workstreams.Participants also identified key vulnerabilities that frequently arise in crisis contexts, helping to clarify where process models must provide operational guidance:Delays or barriers in data sharing, often linked to unclear legal frameworks or governance arrangements;Connectivity disruptions, reinforcing the need for offline capability and low-bandwidth optimisation;Insufficient local implementation capacity, leading to reliance on external actors during periods when local expertise is most needed;Fragmentation among digital systems, where tools exist but lack validated workflows, integration pathways, or predefined institutional responsibilities.Given the evolving nature of UGCs and the variation in country contexts, this scope will remain an ongoing discussion within the DPGA community.Evidence on DPG Value: Rapid Adaptation and ResilienceAt the AMM25, experts presented concrete examples demonstrating how DPGs have supported rapid response in practice. Two attributes were repeatedly highlighted: Rapid adaptation and resilience.1. Rapid Adaptation and Repurposing During COVID-19, the ability of open-source platforms to be reconfigured on short timelines proved critical. Pamod Amarakoon (Director HISP Sri Lanka) described how DHIS2 was adapted to support a port-of-entry tracking system within days. This reflects broader research showing that open and modular systems enable unplanned yet essential adaptations during emergencies.2. Resilience: Stable and Scalable Infrastructure Emily Bennett, Head of Digital Public Solutions at UNICC, highlighted the importance of robust and secure digital infrastructure to maintain continuity of operations under crisis conditions. Building on this, she also noted that tools deployed in emergency contexts can continue to deliver value well beyond the crisis itself. She pointed to UNICC’s experience deploying iReport in eight countries, initially designed for short-term use around critical events, but later institutionalised by several governments once its broader usefulness became clear. This experience highlights the importance of considering post-emergency sustainability and long-term operational use when deploying DPGs for crisis response. Likewise, Zhongxin Chen, Senior IT Officer, D4I Lead at FAO) demonstrated how the organisation’s digital infrastructure for agrifood systems - FAO Agro-informatics Platform (FAIP) supports emergency agricultural and food security operations, pointing to the sectoral breadth of DPG relevance.Insights from Brasília: The "Status Quo" MapFollowing the expert panel, workshop participants engaged in a co-design exercise. The resulting "status quo" maps highlighted several persistent challenges:Technology: Offline capability remains essential for disaster resilience, and participants underscored the importance of low-code/no-code approaches to support rapid local adaptation.Governance: In many countries,legal frameworks to support interoperability and cross-border data sharing are still absent. Internal governance structures for emergency data use are also frequently underdeveloped.Support and Capacity: Discussions highlighted limited availability of local implementer networks and a continued reliance on external consultants, both of which hinder rapid deployment and long-term sustainability.The Way Ahead: Ideas for Strengthening ReadinessDuring the discussions, participants put forward several possible ideas for how readiness could be strengthened, without treating any of them as settled solutions. One idea was to create a shared, pre-crisis environment where different digital public goods could be set up quickly, tested together, and run through realistic emergency scenarios to surface gaps and improve how systems work together before a real shock occurs. Another idea focused on people rather than systems, suggesting more structured ways to build local technical capacity so that technologists on the ground are better prepared to deploy, adapt, and maintain digital tools under crisis conditions. A third idea addressed institutional bottlenecks, pointing to the value of having practical legal and procedural resources prepared in advance—such as guidance on procurement, data sharing, and decision-making—to reduce delays when governments and partners need to act quickly. These ideas were discussed as part of a broader set of options, with the understanding that further exploration and refinement will be needed as the work continues. Strengthening readiness for response will require continued collaboration, evidence, and alignment across sectors and regions. The ideas emerging from Brasília offer a concrete foundation, but their impact will depend on the engagement of a broader community of partners. We invite stakeholders to help shape and advance this work as the DPGA refines its 2026 agenda. For questions or to get involved, please contact Max Kintisch, Director of Research & Urgent Global Challenges of the DPGA Secretariat, at max@digitalpublicgoods.net.

Reflections from the 2025 Annual Members Meeting in Brasília

Last week, the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) concluded its fourth Annual Members Meeting (AMM)— its first ever in South America—with three energising days of collaboration, shared learning, and collective momentum. Taking place in Brasília and held in partnership with the Government of Brazil, represented by the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU), the Ministério da Gestão e da Inovação em Serviços Públicos, and DATAPREV, this year’s AMM served as a capstone to 2025’s steady global progress and growing interest in digital public goods.Over the course of this year’s Annual Members Meeting, more than a hundred representatives from DPGA member organisations - including country governments, in addition to digital public good (DPG) product owners, explored how DPGs can help countries and development partners, including multilateral development banks and UN-agencies, navigate geopolitical and technological shifts while delivering real benefits for people’s lives and for the planet. It also served as an opportunity to welcome Co-Develop, co-coordinator of the 50-in-5 campaign, as the newest member of the DPGA.This year’s AMM reflected how far the DPGA has come, and the role it is increasingly poised to play amid rapid advances in technology and significant geopolitical change.The gathering opened with reflections on key achievements from the past year, including:Growth and maturity across the DPG ecosystem, seen through continued expansion of the DPG Registry—now with well over 200 verified digital public goods—and increased collaboration among DPGs themselves, demonstrating how open, interoperable digital solutions can drive scale and impact.Strengthened global alignment, with DPGs front and centre at major convenings including COP30, UN Open Source Week, the Internet Governance Forum in Norway, and the annual 50-in-5 Milestone Event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Continued advances in understanding how DPGs can be used for DPI implementation, including the launch of the DPG4DPI Collection, which is already helping countries more easily identify DPGs that enable safe, inclusive, and interoperable DPI.Significant progress on climate, marked by a new framework to identify DPGs for climate action and Brazil’s announcement of a newly shared open-source module derived from its Rural Environmental Registry (RER).Strengthening efforts to sustain DPGs, with growing alignment on the need for upstream maintenance, flexible financing, and stronger contribution pathways to ensure that governments and partners can adopt, adapt, and maintain DPGs over time.Together, these achievements created a strong foundation for workshops and roundtable discussions that unfolded in Brasília.“We believe that open technologies and global digital governance contribute to better governments, but also to stronger democracies and enhanced sovereignty. These joint activities and collective sharing really embody that spirit. Let us all work together in that direction to promote inclusive and sustainable development, powered by open technology strategies.” - Cristina Kiomi Mori - Vice Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Government of Brazil

Co-Develop Joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance

The Digital Public Goods Alliance is pleased to welcome Co-Develop as its newest member, marking a step forward in advancing safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure (DPI) globally. Announced during the DPGA Annual Members Meeting in Brasília, Brazil, Co-Develop’s membership strengthens the global movement to scale digital public goods as critical foundations for equitable digital transformation.As part of the DPGA’s 2025 Roadmap, Co-Develop will focus on four key work streams:Accelerating DPG adoption at country level with targeted support for a variety of solutions including MOSIP, Mojaloop, Mifos, OpenCRVS, OpenFn, OpenSPP, and DIGIT.Championing the DPI Safeguards Framework by supporting the development and implementation of comprehensive policy safeguards that address governance, design, deployment, and use of DPI.Co-leading the 50-in-5 campaign alongside the Digital Public Goods Alliance by engaging countries, organising peer learning exchanges, and providing support to 50 countries seeking to deploy safe, inclusive, and interoperable DPI by 2028.Expanding domain-specific DPG solutions by identifying and supporting DPGs relevant to DPI that address sector-specific challenges in agriculture, climate, and health."Digital public goods play a critical role for countries seeking a robust and rapid approach to deploying digital public infrastructure", said Tim Wood, Chief Partnerships Officer at Co-Develop. "By joining the DPGA, we are emphasizing Co-Develop’s commitment to help counties identify pathways to leapfrog traditional development trajectories using proven, open-source technologies."“Co-Develop’s membership to the DPGA will significantly strengthen the use and understanding of digital public goods for digital public infrastructure. Their co-coordination of the 50-in-5 campaign, deep country engagement, and commitment to safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure directly advances our shared mission to empower governments with DPGs they can trust and adapt to meet their contextual needs.” Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO, DPGA Secretariat.To learn more about Co-Develop joining the DPGA, visit their blog.To learn more about the activities they will be undertaking as part of their DPGA membership, visit the Roadmap.

Four Policies That Can Unlock the Promise of Digital Public Goods

Digital public goods (DPGs) are open-source technologies that countries can freely adopt to accelerate digital transformation, improve residents’ lives, and drive economic growth. For governments and large organisations, DPGs hold the promise of increasing efficiency and technology transparency while preserving their digital sovereignty, and avoiding costly lock-ins.However, in order to better facilitate the potential of DPGs to deliver on these benefits, governments and organisations should prioritise implementing policies, principles and frameworks. Doing so could allow them to more effectively implement DPGs that address country needs which may include evolving their digital public infrastructure.For this reason, the DPGA Secretariat included dedicated emphasis on this as part of the Calls for Collaborative Action that were launched in November 2024.