Driving Sustainable Digital Public Goods: Lessons from Guiding Companies to Embrace Open Source

The UNICEF Office of Innovation Venture Fund collaborates with innovators on the ground in UNICEF programme countries to build and test new solutions at the pace required to keep up with the rapidly evolving challenges facing children. The UNICEF Venture Fund makes $50–100K early stage investments in technologies for children developed by UNICEF country offices or companies in UNICEF programme countries. By providing flexible funding to early-stage innovators, it allows UNICEF to quickly assess, fund and grow open source technology solutions that show potential to positively impact the lives of vulnerable children. Digital public goods (DPG) are open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm by design, and help attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This definition is operationalised through the DPG Standard, a set of nine indicators that is used to determine whether a solution is a digital public good. Once a solution is recognised as a digital public good it is discoverable on the DPG Registry. In this talk, we will explore the challenges and learnings from guiding companies to embrace Open Source and become sustainable digital public goods (DPGs). We will discuss how UNICEF promotes Open Source methodologies and culture within its portfolio companies and the broader community. Attendees will gain insights into the strategies and best practices that UNICEF uses to overcome challenges in Open Source adoption and work toward long-term viability of DPGs.