What is a Digital Public Good (DPG)?

The DPGA is guided by the release of the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, defining a digital public good as open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to the DPG Standard and are of high relevance for attainment of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Digital Public Goods Standard (DPG Standard)

The DPG Standard establishes the baseline requirements that must be met in order to earn recognition as a digital public good (DPG).

A Digital Public Good must meet the DPG Standard's 9 Key Indicators (more details on the indicators here):

Advance the SDGs;
Use of an approved open license;
Clear Ownership
Platform Independence
Documentation
Mechanism for Extracting Data
Adherence to Privacy and Applicable Laws
Adherence to Standards & Best Practices
Do No Harm by design (including steps to address privacy, security, inappropriate and illegal content, and protection from harassment)

Meeting and utilizing the DPG Standard and the DPG Registry is essential to a successful DPGA country engagement pilot, as doing so helps inform future country engagement activities and test the DPG Standard and DPG Registry in action. These concepts are described in more detail below.

You can also have startups take this eligibility questionnaire to see if their solution is ready for nomination yet.

The Digital Public Goods Registry (DPG Registry)

The DPG Registry includes digital public goods that have either been nominated directly or have been pulled together from partnership databases. Once a nominated DPG has been reviewed against the DPG Standard, it is considered a DPG and labeled as such in the registry.

Therefore, the DPG Registry is an important starting point to see if there is already an existing DPG (or startup solution) that is similar in nature that can be reused for the particular problem the startup is trying to solve for.

On the DPG Registry, you can use the data explorer to filter by:

Status: to see nominated projects vs. confirmed DPGs;
Type: Software, AI Model, Content, Data, Standard; or
Sustainable Development Goal.

How does a startup or project become a digital public good?

Anyone can submit a DPG nomination, but we highly recommend that the project owner submits, as they have access to required resources, documentation, and information about the project.

For more details on the DPG Nomination process, and what documentation is required, please head to the "Nominating a DPG" section of the guide.