Series Part 1: Meet our Co-Founders, iSPIRT
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In our newsletter last week, we kicked off a four part series to introduce the work of the Digital Public Goods Alliance Co-Founders. In each part, we will share exciting work from one of the Co-Founders and in this, our first week we’re featuring iSPIRT.
During the digital public goods roundtable event in mid-September Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond, Special Adviser on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary, shared that, “The digital world is a decentralized world and that is one of its virtues.” However, there must be some sense of coordination and access to this decentralized system and a unifying platform for digital public goods is a high priority.
One of the fundamental strengths of the Digital Public Goods (DPG) Alliance is its decentralized, yet coordinated structure. Each member of the current Interim Strategy Group (ISG) – consisting of iSPIRT, Norway, Sierra Leone and UNICEF – brings their own areas of expertise and interest to the DPG Alliance which makes it stronger and more diverse in its reach and potential impact.
As the DPG Alliance is built out over time, membership will expand and change to include more stakeholders. In this four part series, we’re pleased to offer a snapshot of the exciting work being led by each of the current ISG members. This week we focus on iSPIRT.
iSPIRT
iSPIRT (Indian Software Products Industry Round Table) is a non-profit think tank that builds public goods for Indian product startups to thrive and grow.
India is fast tracking digital development. In the last 10 years alone, over 400 million bank accounts were opened in India while at the same time it built up and delivered one of the most advanced payment systems in the world. All of this is thanks to accessible digital public goods.
Now, the Indian government is working on data empowerment and protection architecture to enable citizens to share their data to get a loan, apply for a visa etc. all in a seamless way via an open credit system. You can read more about it in this paper, prepared by iSPIRT.
Extensive work has also begun in the healthcare sector with the creation of a public health registry that gives people the right to move their health data from one provider to another. As this process becomes standardized, turnaround times in the health care sector will be greatly reduced.
As a part of the Digital Public Goods Alliance, iSPIRT is leading by example in the Financial Inclusion Community of Practice and can share learnings and best practices from their work with other governments.
Visit their website or follow iSPIRT on Twitter to learn more.
Since its launch, the Digital Public Goods Alliance — an initiative co-founded by iSPIRT, Sierra Leone, The Government of Norway and UNICEF — has been working to identify, support and promote digital public goods to implement recommendation 1B from the June 2019 Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation.
Get Involved
Only by working together can we make this happen. The Digital Public Goods Alliance is, itself an open project, and we seek engagement and support from any governments, businesses, civil society, technology providers, donors, and experts wishing to help us achieve our aim.
Learn more about the Digital Public Goods Alliance on our website.
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