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.

DPG4DPI Financing – Calls for Collaborative Action Progress Update

Last year, the DPGA Secretariat launched its first-ever set of Calls for Collaborative Actions as a way to galvanise members, DPG product owners, and other stakeholders around priority actions needed for advancing collective impact. Reflecting the priority that countries worldwide are giving to building and evolving their digital public infrastructure, which can also be seen in the 50-in-5 Campaign co-coordinated by the DPGA Secretariat alongside Co-Develop, one of the four calls is for “250 million USD in financing so that DPGs that enable the implementation of safe, inclusive and interoperable digital public infrastructure can be supported until 2030”.2025 Key Activities and Stakeholder OutputsAn initial step taken by the DPGA Secretariat was the creation of the DPG4DPI Collection, in order to point to the most DPI-relevant solutions available on the DPG Registry. Criteria for determining which DPGs should go into the collection have been developed with inputs from Co-Develop and the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI), and the DPG4DPI Collection will be expanded when additional relevant DPGs are identified. We have also convened multiple discussions with relevant funders, including the EkStep Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), and the Steele Foundation for Hope. In addition to encouraging new financing, another objective of these conversations has been to understand the motivations of different funders that are interested in supporting DPGs4DPI, and also how they see their financing as part of broader sustainability and contribution models. We are aware that several of the funders we have convened have made, or are planning to make, new financial commitments for DPGs4DPI in 2025, and we will provide updated numbers once they are public. We have also engaged additional stakeholders interested in contributing to the call in different ways, such as the sharing of learnings and best practices and case studies. These contributions were from UN agencies such as UNICEF, product owners like OpenCRVS, and civil society organisations including the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN). A key suggestion made by OKFN was to engage multilateral development banks more in evolving DPG sustainability models, given their important role as both grant providers and lenders to countries implementing their digital public infrastructure. This is particularly relevant given the large cuts to international development assistance in 2025, which are making funders ask more questions about the cost-effectiveness of interventions. As freely adoptable and adaptable, and open-source components, DPGs are extremely well positioned to be at the forefront of a new international development paradigm built around reuse, sharing, and collaboration, but only if we create the right enabling environment and recognise their broader value.Next Steps - Priorities for 2026In 2026, we will continue to mobilise stakeholders to achieve the 250 million USD goal set out in this call. However, we will increasingly see the effort to mobilise grant financing as part of developing a more comprehensive sustainability model. Our goal is for this to be a model where multilateral development banks, private sector companies, government agencies, and other stakeholders involved in DPGs4DPI planning, implementation, and maintenance processes all contribute back so that the core project remains robust and relevant.

How Do We Ensure that DPGs are Not Just Adopted, but Sustained as Well?

As countries accelerate investments in digital public infrastructure (DPI), digital public goods (DPGs) have become essential building blocks for implementors—providing open-source, reusable platforms for countries to implement digital identity, payments, and data exchange systems effectively. However, the sustainability of these systems hinges on creating financing models that support the upstream maintenance of their shared open-source components—a gap the DPGA’s Calls for Collaborative Action, including its USD 250 million call for DPGs that power DPI, aims to address. Their value is clear: countries and implementers often turn to DPGs to reduce duplication, lower costs, avoid vendor lock-in, and enable countries to adapt systems to local needs. Yet adoption alone does not sustain value nor guarantee these outcomes. That depends on contribution back to the core DPGs—a form of collective stewardship involving continuous improvements, documentation, localisation, and shared learning that keeps DPGs secure, interoperable, up-to-date, and relevant across contexts.“Organisations that contribute back to the open-source projects they depend on don’t just give — they learn, innovate, and capture more value over time.” Frank Nagle, Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Chief Economist, The Linux FoundationToday, the contribution loop for DPGs is underdeveloped. Most of the financing efforts target initial deployments of a DPG, neglecting the upstream maintenance of the open-source core that the DPG is built on. Many governments lack the institutional structures— whether they be Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs), procurement policies, or developer training pathways—that can make systematic contribution possible. And while DPGs are open-by-design, their contribution channels, governance models, and incentives vary widely, creating uneven participation and sometimes reinforcing capability gaps.Despite these challenges, emerging evidence shows that when contribution back to the core is intentionally supported, the benefits compound and multiply. Countries gain stronger digital capability, vendors build products and services around shared components, and global improvements circulate faster—reducing costs and strengthening resilience for all.There is no single solution to close this gap. In this article, however, we outline several modalities to consider—centred on three shifts that can help unlock the shared value of DPGs.

Mozilla Joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance

The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) is pleased to welcome Mozilla as its newest member. A global advocate for open-source and trustworthy technology, Mozilla, by joining the DPGA, will help strengthen shared efforts to ensure that technology serves the public interest and advances the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Mozilla’s commitment to openness is well established through initiatives such as Common Voice, whose multilingual and inclusive dataset is recognised as a digital public good that teaches machines how real people speak. The organisation also plays a leading role in advancing open-source AI and shaping policies that promote transparency, interoperability, and human-centred innovation.As part of the DPGA’s 2025 Roadmap, Mozilla will focus on three key work streams:Promoting DPGs in the Open-Source Ecosystem: Mozilla will keep advocating, engaging on policy, and publishing research to strengthen conditions and funding for open-source, public-interest technology—especially in AI.DPGs and Digital Commons: Mozilla maintains key open-source projects (e.g., Common Voice, Firefox, Thunderbird) and backs open-source AI through product work (including Mozilla.ai) and Mozilla Ventures.Funding Open Source & Public-Interest Technology: Building on its roots, Mozilla will continue funding open-source tools that address complex socio-technical issues, launching an incubator in late 2025 to help community projects achieve long-term sustainability.“Open-source AI and open data aren’t just about tech,” said Mark Surman, President of Mozilla. “They’re about access to technology and progress for people everywhere. As a double bottom line, mission-driven enterprise, Mozilla is proud to be part of the DPGA and excited to work toward our joint mission of advancing open-source, trustworthy technology that puts people first.”“I am thrilled to welcome Mozilla as an official member of the DPGA. Mozilla has long played a pivotal role in the history and momentum of the open-source movement, demonstrating that mission-driven open-source software can be world-class and competitive while stewarding a truly free and open web. This aligns deeply with the premise of digital public goods and the purpose of the DPGA — a natural fit, and we are delighted to have them join us.” Lucy Harris, COO, DPGA Secretariat To learn more about Mozilla 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.

Catalysing Climate Solutions: A Framework for Identifying DPGs for Climate Action

Tackling climate change demands solutions that are inclusive, scalable, and cost-effective. The sheer scale and cross-sectoral nature of the crisis—from extreme weather events to resource scarcity—underscore the need for shared solutions and infrastructures that enable the speed and reach that the climate crisis requires. Recognising the transformative potential of digital public goods (DPGs) to address this urgency, the DPGA Secretariat launched a dedicated Call for Collaborative Action in early 2025. This initiative focused on identifying, supporting, and scalable open solutions that strengthen global climate monitoring, mitigation, and/or adaptation efforts.A key outcome of this collective work is the creation of the first version of a Framework for Identifying Digital Public Goods for Climate Action—a layered approach designed to identify highly relevant open-source solutions that can ideally serve as building blocks for shared global climate action infrastructure because of their potential for interoperability and scaling. For example, geospatial datasets or early-warning systems that could work with digital public infrastructure layers like digital IDs and real-time payments to work in lockstep to deliver much-needed tools for climate adaptation, mitigation, and monitoring to communities in need or at risk. In short, it’s about identifying DPGs and open-source projects that can be part of interconnected digital systems and solutions.

Private Sector Stakeholders and DPG4DPI-Sustainability: A Mutual Benefit Approach

At a time of rapid geopolitical change, cuts to international development assistance, and increased emphasis on digital sovereignty - investing in digital public goods (DPGs) represents an attractive option for countries looking to build and evolve their foundational digital public infrastructure (DPI).As open source solutions that incorporate safeguards and best practices by design, and which can be adapted to meet contextual needs, DPGs provide an important starting point for helping countries implement and strategically maintain their most foundational components faster, better and at lower cost-over-time compared to leasing proprietary technologies or building from scratch. Few governments have the capacity and resources to do the planning, financing, deployment, operation or hosting of DPI components fully by themselves, and entering into well-structured agreements with different types of private sector stakeholders is therefore vital for the success of these digital transformation processes. However, when these agreements include the deployment and maintenance of DPGs, especially as part of building DPI, there are risks that may undermine the advantages that open source solutions provide. For these DPG4DPI-deployments we need to evolve a paradigm where a vibrant private sector benefits from actively seeking to meet implementing country objectives and to preserve the advantages and long-term sustainability of DPGs. To inform this topic, it is important to first highlight the broad variety of stakeholder types that are covered by the “private sector” term. Important groups include: Systems integrators (SIs) that specialise in bringing together various components, including hardware, software, and services, from multiple vendors to create a cohesive and functional solution for a client; Independent system vendors (ISVs) that develop, market, and sell software applications running on existing third-party infrastructure, and who tend to create specialised software solutions for more narrow markets; and Hyperscalers/cloud providers, global service providers that offer highly scalable and flexible computing infrastructure, and that provide a wide range of services, including compute, storage, networking, and AI. These different types of private sector stakeholders are similar in that they are all involved because of the expected commercial gain, but they differ widely in size, scope, engagement and business models. Hence, we must recognise that there is immense variation in the bargaining power, resourcing and contribution capacity within the group we collectively refer to as “private sector”.DPGs and the risk of extraction and lock-insThe open-source licence of a DPG ensures that access to the solution is non-exclusive, such that an implementer doesn’t need permission to adopt or adapt the solution to their needs and preferences.Most DPGs that are relevant for implementing DPI take this one step further by having permissive licenses, which give even greater freedom to the users to choose how to modify their own version of the solution, even allowing them to re-license derivatives under a proprietary license. In the context of system integrators (SIs) and hyperscalers, this offers greater flexibility for them to innovate and build upon existing code. Allowing for more seamless integration into existing proprietary systems and greater interoperability. However, it also gives these technology partners, who are at arm's length from the government, that same level of discretion in how they engage with the DPG, sometimes without clear incentives for contributing back to the source product. For example, larger private sector companies supporting multiple implementations of a DPG in different countries may find it more advantageous/profitable to offer a modified version under a new, proprietary license that they own the rights to, or make changes or configurations that result in detrimental forks and other types of lock-in. This risks undermining both the implementing country’s agency and the long-term sustainability of the core DPG.How can we shape private sector engagement in the deployment of DPGs, so that it results in genuine partnerships where country objectives are met alongside commercial goals, with sustained benefits also to the DPGs that are being deployed?

Open Data for Public Interest AI – Calls for Collaborative Action Progress Update

Last year, the DPGA Secretariat launched its first-ever set of Calls for Collaborative Action following discussions with experts in the open source ecosystem, digital public infrastructure, climate action, and public interest AI. These calls are designed to galvanise support and signal to stakeholders the actions they can take to contribute to the success of digital public goods in highly impactful areas. One of those calls is the Open Data for Public Interest AI, which clamoured for DPGs that can make identifying, preparing, sharing, and using higher-quality open training data easier. The development of public interest AI depends on the opportunity to train models on both existing and new high-quality openly licensed datasets. In a time where generative AI is advancing at breakneck speed, and the term “open-source AI” is often misconstrued to describe systems that fall on varying degrees of openness, such as releasing model weights without transparency around the training data. Thus, it has become increasingly imperative to work towards a transparent and open way of building AI systems that serve the public interest.Several challenges, including infrastructure limitations, funding constraints, and limited access to open solutions, exist that impede this at a larger scale, underscoring the need for greater resources to produce and share open data across diverse geographical contexts. In an earlier blog post by the DPGA Secretariat CEO, Liv Marte Nordhaug, she mentioned that “DPGs, as open, adaptable digital solutions, with documentation that can help facilitate reuse, can play an important role as tools for addressing common challenges to scaling public interest AI – both in the near future and longer term. In particular, DPGs can help unlock more and higher-quality open training data and data sharing.” Thus, over the past several months, we have focused on exploring how DPGs can help reduce some of the technical barriers to having more high-quality open training data, particularly for use cases like the development of language models that address language gaps in AI development, solutions for public service delivery, and research-based climate action (monitoring, mitigation, adaptation). One fundamental way we addressed this challenge, with multiple stakeholders participating on the call, was by creating an adaptable and reusable toolkit that can be recommended to countries and stakeholders to facilitate the collection, extraction, processing, validation, and preparation of data.

Five Steps to Enable Digital Sovereignty Using Digital Public Goods

The concept of digital sovereignty—the collective ability of states and communities to shape, govern, and safeguard digital infrastructures, data, and standards that underpin their societies—is a crucial topic gaining traction worldwide. While it’s out of reach, impractical, and counterproductive for every country to own every layer of its technology stack, national and regional digital sovereignty movements should focus on developing critical capacities and being strategic about their technology dependencies. They should also embrace like-minded digital cooperation if they choose to engage in such conscious decoupling. Digital public goods (DPGs) and the communities built around these public interest, open-source tools are proving to be of great value to governments, communities and people as they seek to strengthen their digital sovereignty in a shifting geopolitical landscape.A Global Imperative: Beyond EuropeDigital sovereignty has become one of the leading policy priorities in the European Union, which is addressed twofold by (1) laws and regulations that are designed to address the concentrated power of tech giants, e.g. through the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act and industrial policy proposal and (2) by strategically supporting Europe’s tech ecosystem through legislation and investment vehicles such as the European Chips Act, the Apply AI Strategy, and the InvestAI Initiative. The growing EU tech sovereignty movement doesn’t stop there. Initiatives such as the EuroStack proposal and calls for strategic funding of open-source software with a European Sovereign Tech Fund are increasingly focusing on the role of open-source technologies in achieving technology sovereignty. Yet, this debate is far from a solely European concern.We also see this desire for digital sovereignty on the African continent, where the pursuit of digital self-reliance is equally, if not more, critical. The African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030) explicitly aims to empower Africa's "ownership of modern tools of digital management" and safeguard the continent's data sovereignty. Similarly, the AU Digital Compact (2023) further emphasises the need for an inclusive and rights-respecting digital future, built on African terms. H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the African Continental Trade Agreement Secretariat, described digital sovereignty, alongside inclusivity and interoperability, as a shared principle on which African digital public infrastructure should be built. The Stakes Are High: Lessons from Real-World ExamplesThe urgency of this quest is underscored by real-world incidents where a lack of digital sovereignty has led to significant vulnerabilities.Consider the case of Kenyan health data. For years, critical national health systems and sensitive patient data were hosted on US-based servers, supported by USAID. When USAID was dismantled, these systems were abruptly shut down, leaving Kenya without access to its own vital public health information. This starkly illustrates how external control over fundamental digital infrastructure can undermine a nation's ability to manage its own public services and safeguard its citizens' well-being.Another powerful example emerged from a diplomatic spat involving the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Microsoft. Amidst US sanctions against an ICC official, Microsoft was compelled to disconnect the official's email account temporarily—although the details of this process remain contested. Even though the data might have been physically located in Europe, the incident highlighted the extraterritorial reach of certain national laws, like the US CLOUD Act. This demonstrates that not even the physical location of data always guarantees sovereignty if the service provider is subject to foreign jurisdiction, posing a significant challenge to the notion of data control.In light of these and other examples, there’s a growing uncertainty over the reliability of critical digital infrastructures that power societies if they can’t be effectively controlled. The Linux Foundation concluded: “That lack of certainty is driving governments everywhere to find self-reliant solutions that put the steering wheel back in their hands."