Fixing demand and supply side issues of DPGs
Author: Venkatesh Hariharan
Digital Public Goods can accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, many gaps in the ecosystem need to be fixed before this vision translates into reality.
Digital Public Goods (DPGs) are seen as a key instrument that can accelerate the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Digital Public Goods Alliance defines DPGs as “open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable best practices, do no harm by design, and are highly relevant for attaining the United Nations 2030 SDGs”.
Development agencies are investing billions in deploying DPGs globally. However, the following could prevent DPG adoption:
Demand-side challenges
Low awareness of the DPG concept among governments
Procurement bottlenecks
Supply-side challenges
Need for increased involvement of System Integrators (SIs)
Long-term funding across the Create, Deploy, Sustain, and Evolve stages of the DPG lifecycle
Lack of investments in capacity building and other key areas for uptake
This blog scrutinises the challenges and provides suggestions to overcome them.
At the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), October 2022, high-level representatives from governments, civil society, the private sector, philanthropy, and international organisations committed an initial US$295 million for the development and adoption of inclusive DPGs. The World Bank’s ID4D group is enabling US$1.5 billion to implement digital ID and civil registration ecosystems in 35 countries. Many of these systems are likely to be implemented on DPGs. Informal conversations with funders indicated support running into several billion over the next few years. However, we sensed crucial gaps and interviewed government leaders, funders, SIs, and open-source leaders.
These are our findings:
Low awareness of existing DPGs among governments. Government leaders said that despite implementing DPGs, they are not familiar with the concept of DPGs or the myriad of DPG solutions that may meet their needs. DPGs like MOSIP have seen significant adoption, but there is limited awareness of the “building block” and “whole-of-ecosystem” approach of DPGs. Further, most DPG content is in English and unsuited to non-English speaking countries.
DPGs are not a purely technical issue but an ecosystem issue that encompasses governments, civil society, citizens, think tanks, and academics. DPGs drive efficiencies, reuse of resources, interoperability, and scalability while protecting digital sovereignty and avoiding vendor lock-in. This is a step change from older siloed, proprietary solutions that solve specific problems and do not interoperate with other software systems. Creating awareness around DPGs does not figure in to-do lists of funders, DPGs (except for creating awareness of their specific DPG), SIs, or countries. It may just slip through the cracks.
Outdated, exclusionary procurement guidelines. Procurement documents are usually for procuring roads and bridges or for acquiring proprietary software licenses. This automatically excludes DPGs as competitive options. DPG-friendly procurement processes should focus on services like support, development, and consulting rather than software licenses. DIAL has done a deeper dive into procurement, which is available here.
Low involvement of SIs in the DPG ecosystem. SIs work with governments and connect DPGs and individuals who ultimately benefit from DPGs. SIs are so crucial that experts opine that vendor ecosystem failure means DPG ecosystem death. Therefore, it is important to establish a highly competitive marketplace of SIs with DPG implementation capabilities. Interviewed SIs said they need visibility into near-term and long-term business opportunities before investing in building their DPG implementation teams.
Lack of sustainable funding for DPGs. While DPGs take years to be established, funders have time horizons of 2-3 years. Most DPGs depend heavily on funder support. Countries, DPGs, and SIs worry about funder support running dry. One solution is to charge governments that save enormous sums by using DPGs instead of costly proprietary software. However, this changes a DPG from a trusted government advisor to a vendor. DPGs are not willing to accept this. Therefore some sustainability questions to consider are:
Can countries and SIs benefitting from the DPG ecosystem be charged membership fees?
The Linux Foundation (LF) hosts more than 750 Open Source Software (OSS) projects and has hundreds of member companies and an annual operating budget of $140 million. Can DPGs learn from LF’s successful model?
LF estimates that it hosts 1.15 billion lines of code and the total shared value created by its community at around $54.1 billion. Can DPGs learn from OSS projects that have built vibrant communities and succeeded across Create, Deploy, Sustain, and Evolve stages?
Lack of investment by DPGs in key areas for uptake. Commercial Open Source Software (COSS) players, proprietary software companies, and cloud computing players have received incredible returns on investments in developer ecosystems, training, and partnerships. DPGs, however, have not yet succeeded in capacity building, training, documentation, and SI partnership programs. Lack of training and documentation in global languages is a concern among countries implementing DPGs.
Key DPG Ecosystem Action Items
With the SDG deadline looming large, there is an urgent need for tighter collaboration and prioritisation of resources to bridge the gaps in the ecosystem. Listed below are action items for ecosystem players:
Invest in creating awareness of DPGs in the ecosystem: Institution(s) existing in this space should be tasked with creating greater awareness of DPGs and funded and staffed accordingly.
These institutions can:
Work with DPG Ambassadors, COEs, think tanks, academics, and SIs to raise DPG awareness
Help DPGs across lifecycle stages by disseminating research, convening Communities of Practice, and enabling sharing of experiences, business opportunities, and best practices
Train government leaders, SI management, and think tanks on the “building block” and “whole-of-ecosystem” approach while DPGs focus on training and product capacity building
Make programs available in major world languages
2. Fix broken procurement processes: Procurement rules need to recognize that procuring OSS and DPGs involves the purchase of services rather than software licences. The DPG community needs to create DPG and OSS-friendly procurement processes and implement them by working with multilateral agencies and other organisations that influence procurement processes.
3. Create business opportunity roadmaps for SIs: Barring early DGP adopters like Protean, SIs usually are follow-the-money actors who respond to market demand. SIs need to be incentivized through joint Go-to-Market programs, and by channeling DPG demand to them through marketplaces like MOSIP and the DIAL Catalog.
4. Create new sustainability models for DPGs: DPGs and funders must prioritize the creation of open-source communities that keep the project moving. They must also convene the Communities of Practice to identify sustainability frameworks for DPGs (e.g. membership fees).
Funders must also:
Create programs that align closely with the DPG lifecycle
Be able and willing to sustain prolonged funding
5. Invest in capacity building, training, documentation, and SI partnership programs: DPGs can learn from established COSS players, proprietary software companies, and cloud computing players about building developer ecosystems, training, and partnerships. DPGs can also build a peer-learning network to share what works and what doesn’t and think through common challenges like building effective SI programs. They should make their training and documentation available in major world languages.
The above points need to be addressed as part of the DPG value chain. Much research, institution-building, and collective action are required to address gaps. We look forward to working with our ecosystem partners to ensure effective deployment of DPGs to meet SDGs by 2030.