Dear valued colleagues, stakeholders, and stewards of global digital transformation progress,
We, digital public good product owners and supporters, are writing to you today with shared and urgent concern. Recent shifts in the international funding landscape have placed unprecedented strain on the organisations and communities that maintain and nurture digital public goods (DPGs). These digital solutions—open source, inclusive, and built to advance the sustainable development goals—serve as the foundation of digital transformation in countries all around the world. From energy access to health management, rights protection, and beyond, the solutions we maintain empower governments and citizens alike to address urgent issues, improve livelihoods, and strengthen economies.
But like gardens, if we only harvest and take from them without sustaining their growth, we risk a collapse, not only of the solutions themselves, but also of the many lives and systems that depend on them. As essential partners in the ecosystem, we are reaching out to you, countries and organisations that procure, implement, and advocate for DPGs to emphasise their critical importance and the need for sustained investment towards the ongoing maintenance and support of these valuable digital solutions.
As crucial stakeholders in the ecosystem, you represent a group whose vision makes our work possible and helps ensure the continued success of DPGs.
In many ways, DPGs are positively transforming lives. They are helping to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and because of them, marginalised communities are being reached, digital cooperation is more possible across borders, innovation is being fostered through shared infrastructure, and global frameworks, like the Global Digital Compact, are being realised in a tangible, people-centred way. Around the world, DPGs already serve as critical national infrastructure 1. They power health information systems in over 80 countries, enabling data-driven epidemic response and routine care 2. They provide secure, affordable foundations for national identity systems, giving millions access to essential services 3. They help governments deliver social protection benefits and vital registration efficiently and at scale 4. They enable low-cost, interoperable digital payments that advance financial inclusion. Many countries like Kenya already save close to 77,000 USD per quarter on printing tools and 480,000 USD in training costs, with the savings being channelled to other critical development areas 5. Likewise, in Italy, 7,000 public administrations—including municipalities, regional governments, hospitals, and universities, use some of our solutions to scale nationally and reduce the administrative burden of tools that empower anticorruption, reducing their total operational costs per year 6. These examples highlight just a fraction of the immense value DPGs bring across diverse sectors and countries.
Notably, many of our digital solutions play an integral part in countries’ digital systems across the world, serving as the backbone for nationally scaled programmes that touch a significant portion of the world’s population 7. Without them, decision-making would be less data-informed, less inclusive, and lead to inefficient policies and resource allocation, higher project costs, and slower progress toward development targets. For example, digitalised social protection programmes could revert to fragile, error-prone paper systems, leaving millions of people and their needs invisible 8. Thousands of public institutions, especially the smaller municipalities and regional offices that rely on some of our solutions to meet national obligations, will be left without viable, compliant, or affordable solutions 9.
We build and maintain DPGs because we believe in their power to fundamentally transform the way countries, organisations, and the private sector approach digital transformation. Our digital solutions are designed to be open, accessible, interoperable, and adaptable to unique geographical needs, providing sovereignty, agency, and enhanced public service delivery across sectors, including healthcare, education, finance, energy, agriculture, urban, and beyond.
But without your support now, the DPGs we have developed may fall short of delivering on their full potential, leaving a void that would profoundly impact the people who access the services enabled by our tools.
Therefore, we, DPG product owners, ask you to consider the following:
We, DPG product owners, are committed to building and maintaining vital digital solutions, but we can’t do it alone. We urge you all to join us in safeguarding the future of digital public goods. Together, we can ensure that digital public goods continue to empower communities and transform lives for many years to come.
Sincerely,
Supported by:
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