Digital Public Goods Standard

Digital public goods must demonstrate relevance to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Evidence required: A description that links the digital solution to the SDG list of targets and indicators detailed under each SDG. Only the most relevant SDGs to the solution should be mentioned and you will be required to provide information for each SDG the solution may be relevant to.

Digital public goods must demonstrate the use of an approved open license. For open-source software, only OSI approved licenses are accepted. For open content collections the use of a Creative Commons license is required. DPGs are encouraged to use a license that allows for both derivatives and commercial reuse (CC-BY and CC-BY-SA ), or a license that allows for derivatives but not commercial reuse (CC0); licenses that do not allow for commercial reuse (CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-SA) are also accepted. For open data, an Open Data Commons approved license is required. See The full license list for reference.

Evidence required: A public link that explicitly mentions an approved open license. Refer to the list of approved open licenses that are accepted based on the type of digital public good.

Ownership of assets that the digital public good produces must be clearly defined and documented. For example, through copyright, trademark or other publicly available information.

Evidence required: Link(s) to the copyright, trademarks, or publicly available ownership documentation for the digital solution. Examples include a webpage that clearly defines who owns the digital solution or Terms of Service that indicate ownership. Additional legal documentation that provides supporting information will strengthen your application. Digital solutions owned by a parent organisation could highlight this connection on their website to strengthen the application.

When the digital public good has mandatory dependencies that create more restrictions than the original license, proving independence from the closed component(s) and/or indicating the existence of functional, open alternatives that can be used without significant changes to the core product is required.

Evidence required: Applicants must provide a description of how open-source components are independent and/or list the open alternatives for any closed component(s). Applications should be able to demonstrate that closed components can be replaced with open alternatives with minimal configuration changes and without requiring a major overhaul of the entire solution. This requirement can be best answered by a technical member of your team.

Digital public goods require documentation of the source code, use cases, and/or functional requirements. For content collections, this should include all relevant/compatible apps, software, or hardware required to access the content collection, and instructions regarding how to use it. For software solutions, this should be technical documentation that would allow a technical person unfamiliar with the project to launch and run the software. For data projects, this should be documentation that describes all the fields in the set, and provides context on how the dataset was collected, and how it should be interpreted.

Evidence required: A detailed description of how the solution is documented as well as link(s) to all relevant documents. For Open Software, documentation could include an open repository, technical specifications, functional requirements, etc. For Open Data, documentation could describe all the fields in the dataset, and provide context on how the data was collected and how it should be interpreted. For Open Content collections, documentation could include relevant compatible apps, software, or hardware required to access the content and any instructions on how to use it.

Digital public goods with non-personally identifiable information (PII) design for possibility of extracting or importing non-PII data and content from the system in a non-proprietary format.

Evidence required: A detailed description of how the non-PII data can be imported or exported into non-proprietary formats such as CSV, XML, JSON, etc or by exposing the non-PII data through APIs.

Digital public goods must be designed and developed to comply with privacy and other applicable laws.

Evidence required: If the digital solution collects PII data, then link(s) to the privacy policy, terms of service, or other relevant legal documentation must be provided. To strengthen the application, applicants are encouraged to provide a list of the relevant laws that the digital solution complies with, in the relevant jurisdiction. Some examples include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Indian IT Act, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Digital public goods must be designed and developed to align with relevant standards, best practices, and/or principles.

Evidence required: A list of the open standards, best practices, and principles that the digital solution adheres to with relevant links wherever possible.

Digital public goods that collect, store and distribute personally identifiable data, must demonstrate how they ensure the privacy, security and integrity of this data in addition to the steps taken to prevent adverse impacts resulting from its collection, storage and distribution.

Evidence required: If the digital solution collects, stores, or distributes PII data, then a list of the types of data collected, stored, or distributed is required along with a detailed description of the steps taken to prevent adverse impacts resulting from its collection, storage, and distribution to ensure the privacy, security, and integrity of this data.

Digital public goods that collect, store or distribute content must have policies identifying inappropriate and illegal content such as child sexual abuse materials in addition to processes for detecting, moderating, reporting and removing inappropriate/ illegal content.

Evidence required: If the digital solution collects, stores, or distributes content, then a detailed description of (1) the policies for identifying inappropriate and illegal content, and (2) the processes for detecting, moderating, reporting, and removing inappropriate/ illegal content.

If the digital public good facilitates interactions with or between users or contributors there must be a process for users and contributors to protect themselves against grief, abuse, and harassment. The project must have system(s) to address the safety and security of underage users.

Evidence required: If the digital solution enables interaction between users, then a detailed description of how the project enables users and contributors to protect themselves from harassment as well as link(s) to relevant policies such as a code of conduct.