Digital Public Goods and the Challenges with Discoverability | IGF 2023

Audience

Digital Public Goods (DPGs) play an instrumental role in digital transformation endeavours across the globe, especially within developing countries in the Global South. They proffer a significant alternative to the predominantly private sector-driven deployment of technology, addressing the increasingly prominent digital divide and presenting vast opportunities for equality in the digital sphere.

A crucial observation is the challenge faced by many public sector entities due to a lack of in-house tech expertise. Consequently, these entities frequently rely on partnerships with private sector institutions to augment this deficit. Interestingly, the utilisation of DPGs by consultancies has the potential to bolster public sector capabilities and enhance tech expertise. However, for the effective deployment of DPGs, tech expertise and consultation are necessitated, particularly from private sector partners such as IBM. This reflects the intricate interrelationship between public and private sectors in the digital arena.

Parallel to this trend of synergy and cooperation, countries are increasingly endeavouring to construct their local vendor ecosystems for DPGs. A prime example is the Togolese government, which independently developed the Novissi payment system, utilised during the COVID-19 pandemic for cashless transfers to vulnerable individuals. This exemplifies how DPGs can be instrumental during crises.

To cultivate a vibrant ecosystem for DPGs, it’s advantageous to establish robust partnerships and implement capacity-building programmes with system integrators and software providers. This strategy has been effectively utilised by Moseb, which has cultivated an ecosystem of over 80 partners globally and conducted numerous successful rollouts and pilot programmes.

However, significant challenges persist. One such issue is the difficulty in operating at a local level without substantial national support, which has been experienced in Bangladesh. Furthermore, there are considerable challenges surrounding procurement processes and system lock-overs that impede the adoption of open-source solutions. These factors underscore that policymakers at both municipal and governmental levels need to ensure a more conducive environment for open-source adoption.

Interestingly, it’s apparent that technical capacity does not represent the only challenge when it comes to integrating DPGs. Softer capacity issues have been identified through consultations with policymakers, underscoring the importance of capacity development at multiple levels – individual, organisational, and societal – when dealing with open-source software.

An essential insight captured from this analysis is the necessity for ensuring socio-cultural relevance of technology. Fundamentally, technology should be developed to align with society and its cultural norms, rather than society conforming to fit technology. Therefore, the integration of interdisciplinary capabilities should be contemplated by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) in developing socio-culturally relevant technology. This nuanced approach can potentially aid in achieving the objectives of digital transformation initiatives more effectively.

Cynthia Lo

The examination explores the instrumental role of platforms like GitHub in nurturing coding proficiency and fostering software development. GitHub equips developers with forward-thinking tools such as Copilot, an AI pair programmer, GitHub Actions to automate repetitive tasks, and Codespaces for setting up coding environments effortlessly. The fundamental importance of open-source software, where source code is freely accessible, fostering modification, usage, and distribution, is also highlighted. This openness stimulates a cooperative approach, bolstering the software’s customisation and evolution by an international community of developers.

Underpinning the series of contentions presented is the powerful capability of such platforms to contribute substantially to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This notion is supported by the affirmation that open-source software within the social sector is purposefully designed and tailored to align with SDGs and adheres to the precept of ‘do no harm’. By augmenting transparency and fostering active engagement, this software empowers individuals to learn coding and tackle broader societal challenges.

The necessity and benefits of alliances, particularly those bridging public and private sectors, are emphasised. The investigation substantiates the argument that these partnerships are crucial for augmenting the discoverability and efficiency of digital public goods (DPGs). Standardised formats, enhanced tagging systems, and continuous feedback loops with DPG users, creators, and backers all become feasible through such collaborations. The monitoring and impact reporting fostered by these alliances further forge a layer of accountability, whilst data and knowledge sharing cultivate transparency.

The discourse veers towards the need for localisation and accessibility of DPGs. Localisation may span from language alterations to software development adaptations, ensuring that digital tools are tailored for exacting communities. The design strategy should consider traditionally marginalised groups and regions with low connectivity, thus enabling inclusive development and diminishing inequalities, a central tenet that resonates with the SDGs.

The perspectives of Cynthia Lo are also integrated, highlighting the potential of embedding DPGs into local ecosystems. This strategy is believed to stimulate the wider usage of digital tools and technologies. She endorses the concept of the ‘Five Rules’, favouring pragmatic measures to encourage the adoption and assimilation of DPGs in local communities. Her insights also shed light on the need for inventive ideas to enforce this ecosystem integration, emphasising the ongoing discourse on the responsible and inclusive digitalisation of societies.

In summary, the examination emphasises the symbiotic association between digital public goods and sustainable development, underscoring the ongoing need for accessible, accountable, and cooperative strategies to promote these valuable resources. The synthesis of local and global perspectives offers a comprehensive understanding of how digital tools intersect with societal, developmental, and equality initiatives.

Ricardo Torres

The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multi-stakeholder initiative endorsed by the United Nations, is committed to boosting the discoverability, utilisation, and investment in open-source technologies. The DPGA consists of a diverse array of organisations, including units from the UN system, donors, civil society organisations, private companies, and governments. Ricardo Miron, the technical lead at the DPGA, encourages participants to explore their utilisation of Digital Public Goods (DPGs), particularly from a global and developed nations’ perspective.

A noteworthy accomplishment is the development of a COVID-19 tracker by Sri Lanka, utilising the existing open-source tool known as DHIS-2. This tool’s significance has been recognised globally, with adoption primarily in the South Asian region, demonstrating the potential of open-source solutions in tackling global challenges. However, there is an observed regional disparity in the adoption of this tool, highlighting inequality in the use of open-source technologies, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

GitHub is identified as the default platform for nearly all open-source projects, including GHIS2, Seekan, and ERPNext, which are components of DPGs. Encompassing open data, open content, open models, and open standards, these DPGs expand beyond mere software projects. Successful implementations such as SimpleMap and Open Terms Archive showcase the vast possibilities. DPGs, open by default, provide accessible code and corresponding documentation, and align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A crucial aspect discussed is the pivotal role of community support in the successful deployment and implementation of DPGs. The robust implementation of Sri Lanka’s HIS2 tracker and Estonia’s X roads data exchange solution underpin the importance of a strong supporting community. Community hubs with technical knowledge around HIS2 were significant contributors to successful implementation. Moreover, participants have flexibility in deploying solutions and expanding capacity building, as both are optional.

Interestingly, the DPGA itself does not operate directly at the local level, but many of its solutions and DPGs do. This reflects the adaptability and applicability of the solutions across various levels of governance. Insights from Project SDM, chiefly implemented at the local level and involving digital citizen participation, further emphasise this.

In conclusion, the DPGA highlights the vital role of open-source technologies and DPGs in the global digital transformation and in achieving SDGs. Insights emphasise the importance of having strong community support, efficient process design and facilitated public service delivery. Addressing the disparity in the utilisation of these technologies and solutions in different regions, and increasing their adoption in underrepresented areas, is deemed essential. Thus, the collective development and success of these initiatives are vital in global efforts towards achieving sustainable development.

Lea Gimpel

Digital transformation and public services have grown in prominence globally, with numerous countries evincing interest in cultivating local vendor ecosystems specifically tailored for digital public goods. This burgeoning trend signifies a stout international shift towards digital advancement. Open-source technology plays a pivotal role in this evolution, offering countries the potential to assert themselves as global pioneers in digital transformation and public services. The Togolese government is a case in point; they developed a payment system known as ‘No VC’, designed to facilitate cashless transfers to vulnerable individuals amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve declared an interest in exporting such capabilities to other countries.

Nonetheless, the path to widespread adoption of open-source software necessitates capacity development across multiple dimensions. This requires individual upskilling for users, developers and vendors, as well as organisational refinement in procuring open-source systems. Additionally, there’s a critical need to foster societal comprehension of open-source technology as beneficial to all, dispelling fears around security and safety, which primarily originate from citizens wary of government’s usage of open-source tools.

Against this backdrop of concerns, the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) nevertheless advocates for shared knowledge and experiences from various sectors to further bolster capacity development. It’s paramount to note that this intricate process is time-consuming and doesn’t offer immediate solutions.

Moreover, observable differences exist in the development of Digital Public Goods (DPGs), with some DPGs being formulated via top-down approaches, particularly evident within Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) realms. Recognising the significance of DPI, agencies such as the UN Tech Envoy and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have recently commenced DPI safeguards initiatives. These are designed to build a framework for secure DPI via a multi-stakeholder method.

Lastly, it is underscored that public involvement is instrumental in the development process of digital public goods and services. Developers are encouraged to interweave public perspectives into discussions and development processes, thereby promoting inclusivity and equity. This synergy between digital development and public cooperation serves to strengthen the ties binding technological progress to societal collaboration.

Ricardo Torres:
Thank you, everyone here. So we’re going to talk a little bit about the discoverability of digital public goods. Thank you for the people also joining online. Please ask any questions through the chat. We have a moderator here, and we will try to answer as many as we can. And yeah, with that, I think we can start. So first of all, a little bit of introduction. My name is Ricardo Miron. I’m the technical lead at the Digital Public Goods Alliance, which is a multi-stakeholder initiative endorsed by the UN with the goal of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals by increasing the discoverability, use, and investment on open source technologies. There are multiple organizations that are part of this alliance, including the UN system, but also donors, civil society organizations, private companies, and governments, including GitHub, of course, who’s co-hosting this session. And to start a little bit with this conversation, I want to put a quick example of what digital public goods are and the value they create. This is a common example we always use, but it’s a really good one. Starting the pandemic in 2019, a lot of the governments facing a lot of challenges throughout the different logistics of trying to resolve for vaccines and contact tracing and different stuff, right? So this is the case of Sri Lanka, a small country that after two or three days of detecting the first case of COVID-19 in the country, they started developing an app, basically a COVID-19 tracker. And they did it at a really fast scale and in a really quick manner, because this COVID-19 tracker was built on top of something called DHIS-2, which is a digital health care information system, and it’s the backbone of many digital health care systems in the world. So they didn’t start from scratch, but they basically used this and built it on top of it. It got quickly deployed at airports, hospitals, and other public spaces, and they released it under an open source code. So basically, it was able to be reused by many other countries. And well, as I mentioned, it was because it was based in other open source solution called DHIS-2. And you can see here in the map the different countries that have adopted this COVID-19 tracker that was developed in Sri Lanka. And this was possible, of course, because the code was available, but also because other conditions that I’ll talk a little bit more about. But if you notice something in this map, is that there’s a clear line for this COVID-19 tracker was adopted, and that’s not a coincidence. The only small country that you see up there is Norway, but that’s because DHIS-2 was developed by the University of Oslo and is still maintained by the University of Oslo. But that speaks a little bit about the need to increase the use of certain open source technologies, especially in low and middle income countries.

Cynthia Lo:
Yeah. So yeah, talking about developing software anywhere in the world, GitHub. A little bit of background about what GitHub is and why we’re here today and at IGF. So GitHub is a complete software developer platform for anybody to create software. So whether that is in the public sector, the social sector, private sector, civil society, they can then go on GitHub to build, scale, and deliver secure software. We have a number of software developers around the world, and they create software like digital public goods, such as DHIS-2. And they use different tools, such as Copilot, which is an AI pair programmer, to help software developers write code faster. And it’s one way where we can lower the barrier to programming for individuals that want to learn a new programming language or learn how to code. There are ways for them to do so with a pair programmer, and they don’t need to pay for expensive boot camps, for instance. There’s GitHub Actions, which automates certain jobs to be run on GitHub, and there’s a whole marketplace where other people can create tools and share them as part of an open source community. There’s advanced security. There’s also Codespaces, which allows for developers to spin up a coding environment easily, and they can do so from any device. So if someone doesn’t have a computer, for instance, they can use a different device to set up a development environment to start coding. So that’s a little bit about GitHub. We’re going to then go into the next slide on what open source is and what open source means for the social sector. A little bit more background for anybody who’s not familiar. Open source refers to software, which the source code is freely available to the public. It allows anyone to use it, modify it, and then distribute it again. It means that software can be then improved and customized. Does anybody use Android, for instance, an Android phone? That’s an open source tool. And so you already use open source maybe without knowing, and open source is important because you’re able to then develop collaboratively with a community of other developers around the world. Now, open source in the social sector, this is defined as software that’s built with relevance to the sustainable development goals. They do no harm by design, and it’s driven to really increase transparency, accountability, as well as participation to really empower anybody who wants to create code to work together to address all the sustainable development goals, and which is how it fits in with the digital public goods. I’m going to hand it over to Ricardo.

Ricardo Torres:
Yeah, and GitHub is kind of the default platform that almost all open source projects use. And I talked a little bit about DHIS2, which is on GitHub, but there are also other projects like Seekan, which is the world’s largest open source open data portal, and is used by many governments. There is also ERPNext, which is the world’s largest ERP that’s open source. And there’s many ways that these projects are available through GitHub, and developers know the way on how to fork these projects, adapt them, reuse them, and even contribute back through GitHub platform. But that’s not the case for every single project, and that’s why a little bit of this discussion focuses on how we make discoverables these other digital public goods that are not the world’s largest open source something, right? So one of those examples is not only those open source software projects, but also open data, open content, open models, and open standards, which are also digital public goods. One of those systems is SimpleMap, which uses computer vision for precision agriculture, and they basically detect the different health status of different types of crops. There’s also Open Terms Archive, which is a database of the different terms of service that different governments, private companies, and digital services have used and modified to give more transparency and accountability to the changes of those platforms. So those are also great digital public goods that are helping achieve certain targets of different SDGs, but that are maybe not as well known as the other examples that we just mentioned. So to kind of help make these projects more discoverable, we created the DPG Registry and the DPG Standard. But something that I first want to mention is that all of these projects help solve a global need, even if it’s locally deployed or within a local context. Any of these projects are relevant to the SDGs, so they could be replicated, and that’s also what open source and digital public goods try to achieve. Are open by default, but it’s not only that the code’s available, but also the documentation, and that anyone can contribute either through GitHub or through the different channels that they have. And that, of course, they’re officially recognized as digital public goods. And we have a set of criteria that we use to vet these solutions and make sure that it’s not only the license, so it’s not only that’s public and that there’s an open source license, but also that they have things like great documentation, that they adhere to laws and privacy and security best practices, that they use open standards, and that they do no harm by design. So in here, we also look at how their conduct for the contribution community works, or different things as best practices for contributing, right? So that’s part of what makes a digital public good. And we use this standard to evaluate the different open source solutions that are out there. And people can apply to be officially recognized as a digital public good. So they nominate through our portal, that digitalpublicgoods.net. Then it goes through a technical review. And if they pass all of the indicators, then they get added to the registry. Right now, we have around 150-plus solutions, including, as I mentioned, not only software, but also content data models and standards across all of the SDGs and all of the different sectors. Some of these solutions are more specific use cases or sectorial, but also some others are more in the society-wide functions. And there’s been a lot of talk here around digital public infrastructure, and the best way that we think to build digital public infrastructure is through digital public goods, such as Moosip, which is also around here somewhere. But yeah, and this registry gets updated every year. We make a reassessment of all of the tools. And as I said, it’s vetted through the DPG standard, and every single solution that’s in there gets reviewed. So it’s not only a list of the projects, but it’s also something that’s updated and that’s reviewed by a technical team. And this registry also fits into several other digital catalogs, like UNDP Digital X, which use these solutions as well for the long-term agreements, for example, with UN country offices, but also, for example, for investments by the Inter-American Development Bank. So there are many use cases why we want to make digital public goods this capable. It’s not only for the tech community to contribute or develop, right? So this is one of the tools we use, but there are also other challenges that we might want to highlight with the discoverability.

Cynthia Lo:
And yeah, so some policies to consider to help improve this discoverability of the tools. We have here a couple, starting with public and private sector partnerships, being able to pull in a number of different private sector, public sector academia to be able to work together on either highlighting. These tools exist. This is how it’s used, is how to implement them. A lot of times, for instance, on GitHub, the implementation can be a little bit harder, as they’re very technical tools, and the documentation is highly technical. So one thing we want to work together on is being able to create a microsite to make it really easy for open source developers to pick up an issue that is related to a digital public good, and the open source community can then work on that. So for example, if there’s a bug on a certain app, any open source developer then can go and try and fix that bug and push that fix through for a digital public good. But we do need help from digital public goods as well with, for instance, on the metadata standards, making sure it’s tagged properly so we can pull that into the microsite, and encouraging more standardizing formats and tagging systems. And then this way, we can create more long-term plans, having sustainability on these plans, as a lot of times with the private sector, things change a little bit quicker. Every quarter, there sometimes is a different initiative, and we want to make sure we have longer-term plans in place, being able to create a collaborative platform to make it really easy to share the digital public goods. The registry is really great, but we want to make sure it’s also accessible to other standards and other organizations that have their list of digital public goods. Included in that is creating a feedback and improvement loop so we can hear back from individuals that create digital public goods, use digital public goods, and also fund digital public goods. A lot of times, those are different groups, so being able to understand where they’re coming from and being able to incorporate that back into GitHub, for instance, on how we host the digital public goods and how individuals can find them is really important. On the next slide, we’ll go into a little bit more on the public and private partnerships considerations. They’re very similar to the previous slide, of course, with highlighting transparency and accountability, being able to really showcase this is what this partnership means, and this is what we will do on both sides. And also on capacity building, a lot of times there is a little bit of a divide with the private sector. They may not fully understand the terms that are used within the social sector or the public sector. Being able to showcase this is, a lot of times, this is what the SDGs are, and this is why it’s important with the private sector has been sometimes a little bit of a learning curve for some other partners, but they do understand the importance of SDGs. And furthermore, being able to align on the goals. Being able to showcase this is how certain DPGs work, and this is why it’s important, really help to align the goals to be able to make sure that we’re really working towards the same thing for that long-term plan. And of course, having monitoring evaluation impact reports. A lot of times, some private sector companies may not be used to creating monitoring evaluation reports in certain ways, so being able to showcase this is what M&E is, and this is how we can incorporate into that long-term plan, really helps strengthen the partnership. And finally, on data and knowledge sharing. Being able to share the data that comes through on DPGs, on how it’s being used, which regions are using it, and then sharing that across the partnership. When that comes to mind is the World Bank Development Data Partnership, being able to share that data to be able to have more research and highlight areas where more DPGs are needed or where DPGs aren’t well-known, then we can work a little bit more in that section. And then finally, we have five simple rules. Hopefully, these are the ones that you can remember on improving discoverability. The rule one is decide what level of access you can provide to your partners, and how deep that access should be. Rule number two, deposit the DPGs in multiple trusted repositories for access, preservation, and reuse. So being able to have it in different areas, even though it may seem like it’s repeating itself, it makes it easier for anybody to come across it. Rule number three, create thoughtful and rich metadata. So consider the FAIR data principles, which is making sure the data is findable, is accessible, interoperable, and reusable. Number four, localize the tools for cross-domain integration. So localization can appear in many different ways, whether that’s by language, by software development languages. Being able to have the tool be implemented easily for an organization that may not have very large technical team, making it really easy for them to implement is very important on discoverability. And then lastly, ensuring accessibility inclusion for ease of access. So having a digital public good that’s easy to access and the use of a design considers traditionally marginalized groups is important to improve discoverability, as there may be groups that don’t have access to certain activities. So if this DPG can work in low connectivity regions, and also the systems are in multiple languages, it’ll make it increase the discoverability chances. And most importantly, to engage the community to be able to understand what type of tools they need, what are they currently using that it’s not working or works really well, and understanding the accessibility on and including them in that accessibility journey as well. So those are the five rules that we have. And in this session, we want to have more of an interactive time. So we have some roundtable discussions that Ricardo will take away. And we want to hear from you.

Ricardo Torres:
Yeah, a little bit of what we want to hear from you is also like what the use cases in your context that you could use digital public goods. And it’s not only because you’re necessarily interested in open source, but a lot of the discussions around digital transformation, either from governments or international development or private companies, comes around how half of the world or the global south is going to continue this journey and just replicating the model from the developed countries is not necessarily going to work the same here. So there’s a necessity to use digital public goods to help some of these digital transformation efforts. So yeah, these are just a couple of guiding questions. And I want to encourage as well, the people participating online to put their comments, but I don’t know if someone from the public here wants to answer any of these questions or something related to that. Like what would be your use cases in terms of open source?

Audience:
Hi, my name is Tariq Hassan. I’m the head of the Digital Transformation Center for the GIZ in Vietnam. Thank you so much for this session. I think this is an amazing showcase that DPGs can be an antithesis to the usually private sector driven deployment of technology. But I was also interested in that IBM, SAP, they offer solutions, but they also offer consulting services. So you spoke a lot about capacity, not coming with an answer, but more of a question from your practice on how do you see successful deployment usually being implemented from my understanding a lot of the institutions usually don’t have the tech expertise in-house a lot of the times. And what’s really attractive about private sector partners like IBM is that they they come in and they have their Consultants who help you implement that in your system. So I was also wondering for the DPG Alliance, I understand that your team wouldn’t have the capacity of course to consult public sector institutions around the world But do you see for example? consultancies private sector consultancies who use DPGs in order to then Consult public sector institutions around the world Is that something that you would like to see or is your ideal scenario? so to speak to see more DPGs being implemented by the institutions themselves rather than have a sort of Economy built consultancy economy built around DPGs. That makes sense. Thank you

Ricardo Torres:
Yeah, I can Maybe talk a little bit around that Question I think Like having a strong community behind the digital public goods project is something that’s key for implementation and successful deployment of these technologies and we talked about the HIS2 and Maybe I didn’t mention this but part of the success of the replication of the tracker that was developed is because there are many community hubs that focus around The HIS2 that already have the technical knowledge and capacity to implement this so that was crucial part of of this process right and that doesn’t happen only Because you publish some code on on certain place, right? So that’s one model like build different communities and I don’t think there’s like a one way or one correct answer to to that but there are others that have different models like Validating different vendors that provide this technical assistance that you were talking about, right? so one of the other examples is X roads, which is this Data exchange open source solution developed by Estonia, which has approved vendors Around different places that help implement and provide this right because extra directly does not provide this service but rather relies on this vendor ecosystem to Successfully deploy and maintain the different implementations of this solution, so I think it’s definitely like a mix of different models that could be applied but

Lea Gimpel:
Yeah, I’m the online moderator but since there’s not much to moderate Let me jump in here as well. I’m also of the DPGA. I lead on our work with countries on AI and What you put forward this idea to develop really and consultant see environment that’s actually what we try to inspire so to say Because a lot of countries ask this actually, how can I develop my local vendor ecosystem? for digital public goods and For countries that open source technology It’s awesome. I mean in their interest to build up this capacity locally because for them It’s it’s a way to position themselves as a global leader in Digital transformation and digital public services. So for instance the Togolese government developed no VC, which is a payment system which was used and deployed during the code 19 pandemic to make cashless transfers To vulnerable people and they have a great interest in building the capacity That other vendors can implement the system in other countries as well and therefore also boost their soft power so to say But since we have most appear in the room, maybe you guys also want to share a bit about your model and what’s working Sorry for putting you on the spot

Audience:
Hi, this is Rohit from Moseb We are a digital public good for identity based out of University in Bangalore triple IT Bangalore So the model that has worked for us is similar to what X road has done is that we have developed a ecosystem of vendors because we are a Identity platform and thus there are two things that are required. One is that our Biometric devices that are required for an identity platform to work and the other thing is that there are SDKs and several other Software, you know add-ons you can say to create the entire national ID system So what we have done is that we have created two sorts of You can say partnerships one we call with the system integrators because those are those big you could say software providers would come and would create all the the entire system and the other thing that we do is that we have created a compliance program for software development kits for biometric devices and other things and Then we have been able to create a vibrant ecosystem of about 80 plus partners across the globe who are then You know, wherever these countries want to develop a national ID system They can choose amongst these multiple vendors Avoiding any kind of vendor lock-in or any kind of you know, consultancy trap if I may use the term But at the same time they are able to provide the services Through a capacity building program that most of would have given So all our essays undergo a capacity building program where they have to prove that They understand the system and they are able to implement the system For for our engineers to you know test that so in that sense As of now this program has worked well for us and we have seen about Three national rollouts that that we are going through and about 11 to 12 Pilots successful pilot that we have done So I think that this this is a model that that has worked this might not be the DHIS model Which which is very community driven and very bottom-up you could say This is not exactly the NIIS model or the X rule model as it has been called that it is that you have a set of vendors that That you can only work with we say any vendor can work with us any private entity can work with us The only thing that we request is that you join our capacity building program So then what happens is that we build capacity in the country and we also build capacity at the private level So that’s why developing capacities both the sides and creating this virtuous cycle Hopefully there there will be a time when you don’t need a triple ITV or most if you can just go on github You have your essays you have your biometric partners and countries can do the implementation themselves. So that’s that somewhat Thank you. I think also on the capacity building side. There’s one thing where

Cynthia Lo:
DBG’s we want to encourage them to have a larger community and use the open source community. So trying to figure out ways on capacity building We have a program to be able to train community managers for digital public goods And then they will belong to the digital public good and maintain that community for open source Developers that want to join but I also would love to know what other capacity building Opportunities or do you see any gaps in capacity building? How it’s currently done how it’s run that we can consider would love to know anybody’s thoughts

Audience:
You Hey there Tim Steiner Working in the field of digital transformation for GS at Bangladesh and to be honest I sadly do not have any answer for you But kind of like extending that question because from the examples that you have been shown For me at least it looked a lot like you would work with partners mostly on the national level For us in tears at Bangladesh. We are currently shifting from a national focus to rather like local government focus and Facing exactly the same problem, right? Like even on the national level It’s really hard to convince people to build up. Let’s say in ICT cell for yeah Having having people also sustaining the solutions over a longer time So yeah, basically the question that I would like to respond to give back to you is if you’re working on on local level How do you do that? Or are you working on a local level? And if so, how do you do that? If let’s say the national support is not really There, thanks

Ricardo Torres:
Yeah Directly us at the DPA are maybe not working at the local level but many of these solutions and DPS are and I can talk about one specific experience of a project called SDM which it’s for Parties Digital participation of citizens and that’s a very kind of local topic that’s implemented mostly at the city level So what they do is that they basically have as well can I like a program that they used to cannot train? Officials on those cities to run the project but also Part of like and it’s completely optional, of course, right because the solution is open source so you could decide like any city government or organization can decide to directly just pull the project and deploy them themselves, but if the one that Be part like in a partnership or collaboration where they get this extra kind of capacity building the basically the agreement is that whoever is deploying the solution like if it’s a vendor or whoever like gets a part of Of Funding to the project also to cannot give back and in return they get this capacity building So they’re not necessarily charging specifically For for that deployment, but that way they can still provide like a service to multiple local governments or or cities to have this extra capacity and that’s also cannot their sustainability model because this tool originally was developed by a government and then gonna spin out into like a different foundation, but that also came with the cost of not having like sustainable funding for them, so Yeah, I guess that that’s one project that I can Yeah, just highlight like that’s their model and that works very well at the local level where they have like a small incentive for Cities and governments to Collaborate with them and also creates back like a sustainability of yeah funding for for the project itself

Cynthia Lo:
That’s a very good example it does go into the core on this discoverability issue or one local city or local Area may know of a tool but maybe a partnering one just doesn’t know how did they find out and that’s one thing where we hope that the five rules earlier could help encourage that so more tools can be used widely and We’re looking for different ideas to promote the adoption of DPGs and integrate them into local ecosystems effectively

Audience:
Hi, thanks for this session, my name is Kay McGowan, I’m with the digital impact Alliance and last year we worked very closely with the digital public goods Alliance to Steward an effort called the digital public goods charter that was meant to kind of lift up the opportunities but also dig into some of the challenges around this and the systems integrators and the lack of Folks that have the technical capacity certainly came up But there was there were capacity issues on the softer side too, right? So we had in particular in our consultations with policy makers whether at a municipal level or a national government we kept hearing things about like the procurement processes don’t allow for open source adoption or They’re already using systems that they’re locked into and there’s a lot of risk and cost Associated with moving from one system to another and so I guess I’m just wondering if you guys think about capacity Are you looking at issues beyond just the technical capacity, which obviously needs a big work and more of the kind of whole package

Lea Gimpel:
Yeah It’s definitely on our agenda So at the DPGA’s annual members meeting, we feel for instance have a session around capacity development, which is tackling the three levels of Capacity development that you usually need in order to be successful one is the individual and we talked a lot about you know Individual capacity development. So upskilling users upskilling developers Upskilling specific vendors and then of course the other part is the organizational capacity development So what you say procurement loss for instance what countries? need to do to upgrade as their ability to actually procure open-source software and open-source systems and Third part being a societal level. So to really shape policies shape the understanding of open source technology as A good that benefits society in an ideal case and that’s for instance a point that I hear a lot from countries as well said Citizens are skeptical of open-source software if they find out that their government is using any of these because it’s usually associated with being not Secure and not safe and so on. It’s a force. There’s this kind of capacity Development needed as well. So it’s definitely Yeah, as I said on our agenda, of course, it’s not an easy task I mean as a like everyone who’s working in international development knows capacity development takes years and two years It’s not that there’s an easy fix but I think all of us play our different roles and ends us in this part and as the TPGA for instance really encouraged sharing of knowledge of Experiences of good practices from the different levels that need to be involved in in such an endeavor So and that’s why we put this topic on the agenda of our annual members meeting for instance

Audience:
Hi, I’m a Swartha Mika, I also work with massive and I just wanted to take Kim’s question probably one step further We’ve been sitting in a lot of panels since this since this morning And I noticed that while capacity building comes up a lot and people say that it needs to be contextualized there is a certain capacity that no one is really talking about in terms of how How do you kind of ensure that the technology has the socio-cultural relevance? Somebody in the morning very interestingly said that you know, the technology needs to fit the society and not the other way around So I think there is definitely an opportunity here I don’t know if the DPG is working on it but to kind of bring in a lot of interdisciplinary capacity into building this beyond just technology and policy like this Kind of an umbrella of things that fall between these two categories. So I was wondering if there’s something there. Thank you

Ricardo Torres:
Yeah, I think there are many things that the projects are working on that kind of fall into this in-between and I can say that It’s probably not the case for everyone. But many of these open-source projects are Digital commons or a steward by a community model which actually takes into account Very much of this kind of capacity of the societal context comes with it, right? And we have some digital public goods that are stored by civic tech organizations For example, where most of the focus is not actually on the technology, but on how you design the process and facilitate Deployment delivery of public services, right? Because if you’re just trying to copy the same model of an existing physical Public service into a digital tool is not necessarily something that’s gonna work But I think many of the organizations behind the open-source project are thinking more that way rather than just Trying to develop a tech tool for developing a tech tool. But yeah, I don’t have a specific answer to that Yeah, I think that’s a very important question because I think that’s a very important question I think that’s a very important question And I think that’s a very important question because I think that’s a very important question

Lea Gimpel:
Yeah, I think that’s a very important question because it relates to this idea of bringing the public back into digital public goods Yeah, I think that’s a very important question because it relates to this idea of bringing the public back into digital public goods So a governance question actually and as Ricardo mentioned, we see this with some DPGs but not with all to be honest I mean, there are also DPGs that are developed in a top-down manner and I think that’s especially true in the DPI fields and the digital public infrastructure fields and here for instance we speak about Of most of as a DPG with DPI capabilities and not to confuse these two different things and I think one good example on a on a global and multilevel Level is the DPI safeguards initiatives that the UN tech envoy of a few and DP just launched recently because that’s the that’s the Endeavor to develop a framework for safe and secure DPI which does so in the multi Stakeholder constea consteam in a mighty stakeholder process Where you basically involve? everyone as it wants to Add to the development of the framework And I think that’s on a multi Lateral level a really good example, but I think we also need to break it down to the individual product and actually help Developers to do exactly sex or bring back the public into the debate into the development process

Cynthia Lo:
So it looks like that is all the time we have we don’t want to be in the way for between you and the dinner so the last Closing comments that we have. This was a really great conversation and we’re always open for any other thoughts you have on discoverability We do have a couple other sessions as you see here One on October 10th a quick lightning talk will be myself as well as Ricardo on combating Misinformation with digital public goods one thing to consider misuse of tools. How do we tackle that? So come and join us on that quick talk on the 10th then we can continue the conversation there and then we have an open forum that the Digital the good Alliance will have on effective governance for open digital ecosystems And then lastly on October 11th, we have a workshop on connecting open code with policymakers to development Great. And if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to either myself or Ricardo and thank you so much for Joining us for this talk today You