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Digital Public Goods Ecosystem Engagement

Who are the main stakeholders involved in supporting DPGs on a country and global level? Who do I need to speak with in order to support startups who are looking to take their product as a Digital Public Good? It is key for accelerators to understand who is supporting DPGs.

List of global accelerators: https://www.startupblink.com/accelerators

Engaging Governments​

Entrepreneurship development funds/agency​

These are government agencies or entities that works with the startup ecosystem in terms of policy development, funding other partners in the ecosystems such as incubators and accelerators.

Why are development funds/ agencies an important stakeholder?

  • They can connect you to other ecosystem players including relevant funding firms, such as private funding, angel investors, and make connections to other relevant startups
  • Open up opportunities to potentially co-fund your program to support DPGs.
  • Provide introductions to relevant ministries that can support the DPG or find a use case for the startup solution

How can I bring value to this stakeholder and conversation?

  • Provide pipeline and expertise for their ongoing programmes, including by presenting startup case studies and evident DPGs public solutions deployed in other countries & success
  • Visibility for the local start-up ecosystem and related programmes, through the global profiling that DPGs receive DPG
  • When relevant, provide connections to other entrepreneurship government agencies through UNICEF & DPGA network

See case study in the section of "Accelerator Case Studies - UNICEF Kazakhstan and Astana Hub" in the guide.

Ministries​

These can be specific ministries that are implementing efforts to digitize the programmes and services they are responsible for. DPGs can accelerate these efforts. These ministries may include Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation or equivalent, Ministry of Education or equivalent, Ministry of Economy and Finance or equivalent, Ministry of ICT or equivalent.

Why are ministries important stakeholders?

  • Opportunity for startups to be implemented within government programmes, whether it's municipal, provincial or national.
  • Access to resources to adapt and scale DPGs

How can I bring value to this stakeholder and conversation?

  • Presenting to them case studies of digital solutions deployed in other countries & success to illustrate their value
  • Presenting DPGs to support digitalisation efforts in the country
  • Illustrate how local development, adaptation and deployment can support local economic development and strengthen the business sector
  • Potential promotion for a call for digital public goods to identify solutions that can be implemented - in collaboration with your accelerator
  • Potential for local startups to be highlighted as DPGs, including with media outlets that focus on innovation & startups
  • Potentially connecting to other ministries leading efforts on DPGs globally through the DPGA network

Engaging with Private Sector​

Corporations or Small Medium Sized Enterprises (SME)​

These are private sector companies that can be sector agnostic, but have a corporate social responsibility or social innovation arm.

Why are corporates important stakeholders?

  • Corporations can be partners to help fund the programming in monetary or other non-monetary benefits, such as technical capacity.
  • Collaborating or partnering with a corporation may give more visibility and branding to your accelerator.
  • They can bring specific expertise to your accelerator, on business strategy and other areas, and can provide access to networks, suppliers, distributors and other key partners for start-ups.

How can I bring value to this stakeholder and conversation?

  • Present partnership and sponsorship opportunities for the corporation to meet their business, social responsibility or sustainability goals (including employee engagement in your accelerator program)
  • Present DPGs which are supported by your accelerator - these could potentially solve relevant challenges of the corporate or SMEs.
  • Corporates, especially technology and software companies, often rely on open source solutions and libraries for their own products – supporting the development of DPGs and building capacity among technologists can support corporates’ own business goals

See case study in the section of "Accelerator Case Studies - ING & UNICEF Fintech cohort" in the guide.

Engaging with Local Community​

Open Source (OS) Developers & IT Community​

Why are OS developers & the IT Community important stakeholders?

  • They are potential product developers for DPGs – the more developers working on projects that align with the DPG standard, the greater the number of DPGs in the registry. This can serve as a pipeline of startup developer talent and potential founders who are developing DPGs in your accelerator program.
  • By accessing open source developer groups, they could potentially contribute to DPGs - the startups benefit from community contributions with feedback on product cycles, thereby increasing the quality of the startup's product (DPG).

How to start working with OS Developers and the IT Community on DPGs

  • Find OS developer groups These groups are often found at ICT/Technology universities or faculties. Where these groups tend to be small sized, identifying a single person involved in the local OS scene can open access to the entire community.
  • Be included in OS-related events, for example Global Software Freedom Day
  • Basic desktop research is a good first step: search for institutions, government agencies, event speakers, technologists, developers, who over the last 2-3 years vocally supported OS in interviews, on LinkedIn, or on social media
  • Reach out to FSF (Free Software Foundation), inquire/search for communities/members focused on specific countries/continents. Again, usually one relevant person is enough for an exposure to an entire community.

Engaging with Investors​

Private Investors​

These can be venture capitalists, angel investors, accelerated funding or others that are looking for a return on their investment (not grant based). Although private capital funding has been limited to date, some DPGs that are for-profit social businesses have taken the interim steps to becoming investable.

For more information on engaging with private investors and investment cases for Digital Public Goods, please head to the section "Investment Cases of Private Funded Open Source Business Models" of the guide.

Why are investors an important stakeholder?

  • Private investors present a significant source of financing for the start-ups in your portfolio
  • Engage with them to understand which type of investors or investment thesis would be most applicable for the startup in your portfolio and build a network

How can I bring value to this stakeholder and conversation?

  • Provide them with a new source of pipeline that has the potential to scale and return on investment
  • Pitch companies from your portfolio in an investment case / pitch deck - based on evidence and previous investment cases of other DPGs and open source businesses.
  • Inform and engage investors to address any potential doubts or questions by investors about the return potential of DPGs and companies that scale them.

Engaging with UN Agencies​

The network of UN Agencies gives the ability for startups to be supported and opens up implementation opportunities of their solution.

  • UNICEF's Venture Fund - The Venture Fund invests exclusively in open source solutions. The Fund generates value by building open source IP and scalable DPGs, strengthening communities of problem solvers, and growing solutions that bring results for children and the world.
  • UNDP Accelerator Labs - The Accelerator Labs are designed to close the gap between the current practices of international development in an accelerated pace of change.
  • SDG Investor Platform - The SDG Investor Platform provides data, information and insights on investment opportunities with potential to contribute to sustainable development.
  • WFP Innovation Accelerator - The WFP Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide. They provide WFP staff, entrepreneurs, start-ups, companies and non-governmental organizations with access to funding, mentorship, hands-on support and WFP operations.
  • UN Innovation Network - The UN Innovation Network (UNIN) is an informal, collaborative community of UN innovators interested in sharing their expertise and experience with others to promote and advance innovation within the UN system.

Engaging with DPGA​

The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) is a multi-stakeholder initiative. Their technical review team can assist startups with nominating their solutions to become a DPG. To find out if the startup is ready for a DPG nomination, a quick eligibility questionnaire can be taken before nominating. The nomination process normally takes about 1-2 months depending on a number of factors. To become a DPG, it is important to understand and know that an open license is first and foremost required. Other factors include if the startup has the required documentation readily available and the measures currently being taken for privacy protection and data security. T. It is highly recommended that someone with in-depth product knowledge leads the nomination process, and they are available to collaborate closely with others on their team that can help provide evidence for the 9 indicators of the DPG Standard.

Why is the DPGA an important stakeholder?

  • DPGA’s team through the review process to become a DPG can help ensure solutions meet international standards.
  • The DPGA work with governments and experts globally looking to support DPGs. Being found on the DPG Registry allows for the DPGA to advocate your solution when speaking to experts and governments looking for relevant DPGs.

How can I bring value to this stakeholder and conversation?

  • Accelerators committed to making DPGs a requirement for startups could engage with the DPGA to discuss and explore opportunities to potentially join as members of the alliance. Member’s efforts are featured on the DPGA’s Roadmap, which is a transparent coordination, alignment, engagement and communication tool capturing activities that significantly advance the development, use and deployment of DPGs.
  • The DPGA is committed to creating a strong ecosystem of organisations advancing the use of DPGs. By prioritizing the use of DPGs, the DPGA can help advocate for new use cases and policies that can help ease adoption.