Digital public goods (DPGs) are crucial building blocks for enabling countries to build safe, trusted and inclusive digital public infrastructure (DPI)*, and are increasingly becoming critical levers for helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike many one-off digital solutions — that are designed and implemented in a vacuum, and then maintained until decommissioned — DPGs by default are open for anyone to study, adapt and replicate in different contexts.

Whilst DPGs also include open data, open AI models, open standards and open content, this research is mostly focused on open-source software. More specifically, it seeks to explore the necessary ingredients for developing, implementing and replicating open-source software at scale in a sustainable way.

The report is divided into two sections: SECTION I presents synthesized findings from five case studies. They represent distinct digital solutions that have been successfully implemented and are helping to provide society- wide benefits. Among them, MOSIP, Primero and UN Biodiversity Lab are accredited DPGs.