Solving for scale – why the Digital Public Good ecosystem needs to focus on product maturity

Fui Meng Liew and Carolin Frankenhauser , UNICEF's Information and Communication Technology Division.

In the last few years, there has been a trend for governments, UN agencies and implementing partners to recognize the potential and importance of leveraging digital public goods (DPGs) to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This also drives the growth of the DPG ecosystem. In 2022 alone, the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), co-hosted by UNICEF, added more than 67 new products to the digital public goods registry, illustrating the increasing popularity and adoption of DPGs in the market. At UNICEF, we are constantly experimenting with identifying, growing and supporting deployments of proven DPGs.   

Yet, persistent challenges to the DPG ecosystem remain. Lack of proper funding, scale, and sustainability have long been identified as key obstacles to widespread DPG adoption. Only a handful of DPGs have achieved the level of product maturity required for implementation at global scale. The urgency to tackle the question of scale has been recognized by the ecosystem. A range of multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the DPG Charter, are already underway to mobilize partnerships, joint funding, and advocacy for supporting priority DPGs. In 2021, the DPGA convened a range of partners to discuss the difference between DPGs and Global Goods, a more mature subset of DPGs.  

Yet, as DPGs are increasingly recognized as more equitable, fair and transparent alternatives to proprietary solutions for the implementation of foundational and population-scale systems or digital public infrastructure, focusing on DPG maturity becomes more important than ever. Risks related to a lack of data protection, cybersecurity, and responsible use of data, are particularly high in foundational systems, that often handle sensitive data such as personal identifiable information (PII).  

To truly reach the scale and sustainability with DPGs, DPG stewards need to focus on putting in place the framework, structures, roles, and accountabilities that are needed to manage a digital product along the entire digital product lifecycle. This goes beyond open-source community management. Focusing on issues such as data breach protocols, release management and decommissioning/ end of life planning is equally important. As cybersecurity incidents are becoming increasingly costly, and damaging, we cannot risk implementing DPGs with limited ongoing maintenance, especially where children’s data is being processed. 

At UNICEF, we have identified four key pillars of indicators to assess the maturity of a DPG from a product lifecycle management perspective. These indicators can guide scaling and funding decisions and ensure sustainable deployments with clear accountabilities.  

• Product stewardship: Indicators related to product strategy, demand management and prioritization, user support and training. 
• Technical product development: Indicators related to software releases, vendor management, software solutioning and delivery, test and updates.  
• Deployment and operations: Indicators related to sys/devops, data backups, data compliance, security and legal clearances.  
• Product monitoring: Indicators related to monitoring of user engagement, dependency updates, business continuity and end of life planning.  

UNICEF is working with partners incl. product managers to test and refine the indicators. Defining these will not solve funding challenges, which are often the main reasons for lack of maintenance and ongoing support. However, by refocusing the discussion on what is required for a DPG to be mature for implementation, we aim to debunk the myth of “free” open-source software and focus investments on where they are needed most. At the same time, we are experimenting with new modalities and funding structures for scaling DPGs, such as Oky App’s new social franchising model. Stay tuned for our next blog and share your feedback in the comments below or at dcoe@unicef.org.