Ethiopia’s Digital Evolution: Tracing the Journey of Implementing DPGs and DPI, Guiding Principles & Lessons Learned
Authors:
Yodahe Zemichael, Executive Director, National ID Program, Ethiopia
Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO, Digital Public Goods Alliance Secretariat
Al Shiferaw, Technical Director, JSI
Exploring how Ethiopia has utilised digital public goods to drive positive outcomes
Ethiopia has long embraced open-source solutions, specifically digital public goods (DPGs), to help chart a new course for how the government is advancing their digital transformation efforts. Underscored by joining the Digital Public Goods Alliance in June 2023, these efforts are propelling the ‘Digital Ethiopia 2025’ strategy, which aims to use digital technology to streamline government operations, enhance citizen engagement, and promote digital inclusion.
DPGs offer a pivotal opportunity for governments to accelerate their digital transformation journey. By leveraging open-source software, open data, open AI systems, and other open resources that align with privacy standards and best practices, governments can not only ensure that their solutions are robust and tailored to their unique needs, but also work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More importantly, DPGs can be critical in enhancing digital sovereignty, enabling governments to maintain control over their digital ecosystems while fostering innovation and inclusivity. This strategic approach empowers countries to become more self-reliant and adaptive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Implementing DPGs in the health sector
In the health sector, the implementation of the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2), recognised as a pioneer among digital public goods, significantly helped improve the Ethiopia’s ability to facilitate and use health information. DHIS2 was first introduced in the country 2016 and achieved national scale by 2019. This deployment played a key role in improving health policy at a national level and decision-making at both district and facility levels. Similarly, by having DHIS2 in place pre-pandemic, the country was able to respond quickly to health needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly for distributing vaccines to millions of Ethiopians.
By leveraging the DHIS2 Tracker, Ethiopia has also made remarkable strides in the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The country’s health authorities have customised DHIS2 to monitor patients’ cases, which has led to a significant enhancement in the quality of data crucial for continuum of care. Impressively, 98% of patients are now registered on the DHIS2 Tracker with aggregate data electronically sent to the country’s health management information system, powered by DHIS2, dynamically improving data quality for programmatic decision making. This achievement is not only a testament to Ethiopia’s commitment to tackling a specific disease burden but also highlights the potential of digital health in improving public health programs.
Further, building on the successes made by using DPGs in the health sector, Ethiopia started customising and deploying iHRIS in 2021. iHRIS helps collect, maintain, and analyse health workforce data and manage health workforce resources; a key pillar to a robust and efficient health system.
Enhancing DPI through DPGs
As part of its commitment to the global 50-in-5 campaign, Ethiopia is actively engaging in a collaborative effort to revolutionize its digital public infrastructure (DPI) and sharing valuable insights gained with the international community. This includes not only how to leverage DPGs to not only enhance its own national capabilities but also to support other countries in accelerating their digital transformation journeys through DPI.
Ethiopia’s journey in enhancing its DPI is taking a significant step forward with the adoption of the DPG MOSIP, for its national digital identity program called Fayda. In late 2020, Ethiopia emerged as one of the pioneering countries to implement MOSIP, an identity management platform, for its national ID initiative. This early adoption of MOSIP, especially during its nascent stages, mirrors Ethiopia’s dedication to utilising DPGs to bolster its DPI but also as a catalyst for profound improvements in the quality of life for its residents.
This is because the absence of legal identity hinders access to crucial services in finance, education, and health, leading to societal exclusion. Digital IDs serves as a critical infrastructure upon which various sectors can build, becoming increasingly vital as government services transition online. Online authentication, enhanced by digital IDs, is crucial for delivering remote services effectively, underlining its growing significance in modern governance. Already, more than 3.5 million people have registered in Fayda, with 39 use cases in the pipeline. This wide-scale adoption has led to substantial changes: the National ID Law has been adopted by parliament, formally recognising digital ID as an official identity document. Key sectors including finance, health, education, and civil service have formally endorsed Fayda as an identity document for accessing various services they offer, marking a start to significant transformation in public service delivery and citizen engagement.
Ethiopia also benefited from lessons learned from global experiences and practices of other countries. This has resulted in the intentional integration of built-in safeguards and ‘do no harm’ principles from the onset of the program design, rather than having to apply them later. To facilitate this, Ethiopia engaged in extensive consultative sessions with various stakeholders, including diverse sectors of its society, geography, civil society organisations, and internal and external groups. The country also sought insights and feedback from international legal experts, which significantly contributed to the development of its legal proclamation.
The Ethiopian Digital ID Proclamation No.1284/2023 establishes a comprehensive framework emphasising the security and protection of personal data within the national ID ecosystem. It adheres to the principle of data minimization, which ensures that only data needed is collected. The proclamation also mandates the implementation of appropriate technical and organisational measures, including encryption, to secure personal data against various risks. These measures are aimed at maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of processing systems and services.
Ethiopia’s commitment to DPGs, as exemplified by its implementations of DHIS2 and MOSIP, goes beyond mere utilisation of these existing technologies. The country’s readiness to actively contribute to the evolution of DPGs, is further demonstrated by the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority’s (EFDA) initiatives. Since 2017, the Ethiopian FDA has developed and deployed an open-source regulatory information system, revolutionising key functions of the regulatory process.This innovation has not only increased efficiency within the agency, but also positively impacted the overall national supply chain management system. Ethiopia plans to share this system as a digital public good by making it compliant to the DPG Standard.
DPG Guiding Principles
Ethiopia’s approach to DPGs and DPI is underpinned by a set of guiding principles that shape its vision and strategy.
Digital Sovereignty and Tech Ownership: Ethiopia’s preference for DPGs is driven by a strategic focus on digital sovereignty and technology ownership. This approach extends beyond mere cost-effectiveness, emphasising the flexibility, transparency, and enhanced security that open-source products offer, while also aiming to reduce vendor lock-in. Moreover, this strategy is viewed as a pathway aimed at supporting local talent and contributing to the development of a skilled ecosystem.
Ensure Ability to Locally Maintain: Ethiopia recognises that simply adopting a DPG as a consumer is not sufficient. For successful implementation, it is essential that the country either already possesses the local skills necessary to maintain and evolve these digital products or has a clear pathway to develop such capabilities.
Effective software adoption requires local expertise and resources to ensure sustainable use and functionality. Opting to adopt a product without these local capabilities not only places a burden on end-users who may face delays and frustration from continually seeking external support, but also risks creating an unfair perception of the product as inadequate or unworkable. To solve this, Ethiopia is collaborating with universities and educational programs aiming to build and expand skills needed to maintain digital solutions. Using DPGs allows Ethiopia to receive insights and learnings from other countries that have deployed the same systems – shortening the learning and training curve.
Global Contribution/Two-Way Interaction: Ethiopia advocates for a reciprocal relationship between developers of DPGs and their users. The success of DPGs relies on collaborative global participation in design decisions, priority setting, and development, in contrast to the traditional producer-consumer dynamic. For instance, Ethiopian developers have been working in close collaboration with MOSIP developers for over three years now. Gaining a strong familiarity with code contribution is crucial not only for the country’s digital sovereignty but also as a means to continually inform the further evolution of the product. In turn, Ethiopian MOSIP experts have been involved in supporting other countries.
DPI as a Building Block: The government recognises DPIs as crucial foundational building blocks for future innovation. Encompassing identity, payment systems, data exchange, and cybersecurity, DPI can be designed to serve as a platform that allow for both the private and public sectors to build off providing a base for quickly creating solutions and services. Additionally, DPI can play a catalytic role in bolstering emerging digital startup communities, especially those led by young entrepreneurs. By leveraging DPGs for DPI, Ethiopia believes DPIs can be implemented faster, and in a more inclusive manner for future iteration and innovation.
Lessons Learned and Future Directions
First, a crucial lesson from Ethiopia’s experience with DPGs has been the significance of assembling a local team well before the formal launch of key initiatives, as done for MOSIP for the national ID program. This proactive approach provided the program with the necessary time to recruit talented professionals, navigate the initial substantial learning curve, and establish relationships with both local and global stakeholders. These efforts collectively led to a smoother project onboarding process and set the foundation for a successful implementation.
Second, the country’s educational infrastructure, with over 45 public universities and private institutions, has produced a large pool of candidates that can contribute to the maintenance and implementation of DPGs. In the post-COVID era, the marked increase in remote-work of Ethiopian professionals is signalling a rise in highly skilled talent. However, deliberate actions and interventions are essential to further cultivate and harness talent by creating space and opportunities in order to meet the demand for an increasingly larger pool of seasoned professionals.
Third, collaboration, particularly South-to-South, along with engagement with countries on similar developmental paths, both regionally and globally, is extremely valuable. Platforms like the DPGA and 50-in-5, which facilitate learning, sharing, and re-sharing of knowledge and innovations, play an integral role.
Lastly, practical implementation experience in Ethiopia has highlighted the need for continual evolution of DPGs. While prioritising DPGs offers numerous benefits, it is crucial that they consistently match the competitiveness of commercial products. Ultimately, end-users are focused on functionality, and being a DPG does not compensate for a shortfall for the end user’s need and demand.
Conclusion
In June 2023, Ethiopia’s membership to the Digital Public Goods Alliance DPGA marked an important step in its digital policy journey and underscored its firm commitment to DPGs. This was further highlighted when Ethiopia hosted the DPGA Annual Meeting from November 14 to 16, which saw participation from numerous countries and over 100 stakeholders, including government representatives, donors, and organisations. The event served as a forum for exchange and collaboration in the field of digital public goods and digital public infrastructure, reflecting Ethiopia’s engagement at both regional and international levels.
This commitment is integral to Ethiopia’s national strategy, as seen in initiatives like the adoption of MOSIP for its national ID program and the implementation of various digital systems in sectors like health and regulatory processes. Ethiopia’s approach emphasises digital sovereignty, technological ownership, and the need for local capability to maintain and evolve solutions, while also fostering global collaboration to enrich and sustain these advancements.
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