Series Part 2: Meet our Co-Founder, Norway
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Last week we kicked off a four part series. In each part, we will share exciting work from one of the Co-Founders of the Digital Public Goods Alliance. This week we’re featuring Norway.
If you missed Part 1 on iSPIRT last week, you can see it here.
As we said last week, one of the fundamental strengths of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) 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 DPGA which makes it stronger and more diverse in its reach and potential impact. As the DPGA 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 Norway.
Norway
Norway believes in the deployment of digital public goods as a means to help countries accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and is a proud champion and co-founder of the DPGA together with the government of Sierra Leone, UNICEF and iSPIRT.
Their work funds high-impact digital public goods in several sectors including health, early grade reading, climate and weather services, and plant pest management.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Norway has worked on expanding existing digital public goods in both the health and education sectors. One example is DHIS2, an open source, web-based software platform for data collection, management, and analysis, used by governments and NGOs in more than 100 countries. Starting with a pilot in Sri Lanka, more than 30 countries have deployed standardized DHIS2 COVID-19 surveillance digital data packages since the pandemic began.
Norway has also seen a rapid scale up in the use of the Global Digital Library platform for openly licensed early grade reading resources, and together with ADEA and UNESCO are also supporting a number of countries in translating early grade reading books into local languages, and fast-tracking the availability of learning resources.
As the DPGA develops, Norway would like to engage other bilateral and philanthropic donors in conversations on how each can best contribute to supporting the global architecture around digital public goods.
You can find out more about Norway’s commitment to digital public goods by reading their white paper for Digital Transformation and Development Policy or watching this address from Prime Minister Solberg.
Norway is co-hosting the DPGA and will engage at the forefront of the Climate Adaptation Community of Practice.
Visit their website or follow Norway 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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Nominate digital public goods through this form.