5 Surprising Truths We Learned About Open Source in Government

In order to help governments implement open-source technologies, we must first understand the global policy implementation landscape. To support this effort, the DPGA launched the Global Open-Source Policies and Practices Survey in June last year as part of our Call for Collaborative Action. The initiative culminated in a report published in November 2025 by the researcher Melissa Muñoz Suro, which outlines four key policy recommendations to strengthen government When we talk about digital transformation in government, it’s easy to imagine a single, sweeping decision: a new national policy is signed and open-source software is formally embraced. This clean, linear narrative is appealing, but the key finding from the research was that it rarely reflects the complex reality of how public institutions actually change.To follow up on last year’s report, we spoke with digital leaders from eleven different countries and organisations. A different picture emerged; one that is far more pragmatic, incremental, and interesting. We discovered that the real story of open source in government isn’t written in formal policy documents, but in the unwritten rules of procurement offices, the strategic choices of agency-level teams, and the evolving motivations of countries.

Reflections from the 2025 Annual Members Meeting in Brasília

Last week, the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) concluded its fourth Annual Members Meeting (AMM)— its first ever in South America—with three energising days of collaboration, shared learning, and collective momentum. Taking place in Brasília and held in partnership with the Government of Brazil, represented by the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU), the Ministério da Gestão e da Inovação em Serviços Públicos, and DATAPREV, this year’s AMM served as a capstone to 2025’s steady global progress and growing interest in digital public goods.Over the course of this year’s Annual Members Meeting, more than a hundred representatives from DPGA member organisations - including country governments, in addition to digital public good (DPG) product owners, explored how DPGs can help countries and development partners, including multilateral development banks and UN-agencies, navigate geopolitical and technological shifts while delivering real benefits for people’s lives and for the planet. It also served as an opportunity to welcome Co-Develop, co-coordinator of the 50-in-5 campaign, as the newest member of the DPGA.This year’s AMM reflected how far the DPGA has come, and the role it is increasingly poised to play amid rapid advances in technology and significant geopolitical change.The gathering opened with reflections on key achievements from the past year, including:Growth and maturity across the DPG ecosystem, seen through continued expansion of the DPG Registry—now with well over 200 verified digital public goods—and increased collaboration among DPGs themselves, demonstrating how open, interoperable digital solutions can drive scale and impact.Strengthened global alignment, with DPGs front and centre at major convenings including COP30, UN Open Source Week, the Internet Governance Forum in Norway, and the annual 50-in-5 Milestone Event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Continued advances in understanding how DPGs can be used for DPI implementation, including the launch of the DPG4DPI Collection, which is already helping countries more easily identify DPGs that enable safe, inclusive, and interoperable DPI.Significant progress on climate, marked by a new framework to identify DPGs for climate action and Brazil’s announcement of a newly shared open-source module derived from its Rural Environmental Registry (RER).Strengthening efforts to sustain DPGs, with growing alignment on the need for upstream maintenance, flexible financing, and stronger contribution pathways to ensure that governments and partners can adopt, adapt, and maintain DPGs over time.Together, these achievements created a strong foundation for workshops and roundtable discussions that unfolded in Brasília.“We believe that open technologies and global digital governance contribute to better governments, but also to stronger democracies and enhanced sovereignty. These joint activities and collective sharing really embody that spirit. Let us all work together in that direction to promote inclusive and sustainable development, powered by open technology strategies.” - Cristina Kiomi Mori - Vice Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Government of Brazil

Four Policies That Can Unlock the Promise of Digital Public Goods

Digital public goods (DPGs) are open-source technologies that countries can freely adopt to accelerate digital transformation, improve residents’ lives, and drive economic growth. For governments and large organisations, DPGs hold the promise of increasing efficiency and technology transparency while preserving their digital sovereignty, and avoiding costly lock-ins.However, in order to better facilitate the potential of DPGs to deliver on these benefits, governments and organisations should prioritise implementing policies, principles and frameworks. Doing so could allow them to more effectively implement DPGs that address country needs which may include evolving their digital public infrastructure.For this reason, the DPGA Secretariat included dedicated emphasis on this as part of the Calls for Collaborative Action that were launched in November 2024.

Launching the Global Open-Source Policies & Practices Survey

Today the DPGA Secretariat, in coordination with twenty-four organisations, is launching the Global Open Source Policies & Practices Survey. Directed at governments and organizations, this survey aims to significantly improve understanding of the current landscape of open-source policies, principles, and frameworks among governments and organizations.

Why Open Source?

The Digital Public Goods Alliance has spent the last several months developing the Digital Public Goods Standard, and working with stakeholders from across sectors to determine criteria that allows us...

UNICEF’s Open Source Approach to Innovation

Yesterday, DPGA Co-Founder UNICEF published this article outlining UNICEF’s various tools and platforms that operationalise its commitment to open source. Please find an excerpt below. UNICEF has a 70...

Series Part 3: Meet our Co-Founder, Sierra Leone

This is the third in a four-part series featuring exciting work from the Co-Founders of the Digital Public Goods Alliance. This week we’re featuring Sierra Leone. If you missed it, check out Part 1 on...

Series Part 2: Meet our Co-Founder, Norway

NEW: Follow the Digital Public Goods Alliance on Twitter @DPGAlliance 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 P...

Setting a Standard for Digital Public Goods

In June 2020 the Secretary General of the United Nations published the “Roadmap for Digital Cooperation” which defined digital public goods as “Open source software, open data, open AI models, open st...

Digital Public Goods Roundtable Update

This morning the Digital Public Goods Alliance participated in a roundtable organized by the United Nations Secretary General’s Office on the implementation of recommendation 1B from the Report of the...

Announcing the First Vetted Digital Public Goods for Foundational Literacy and Early Grade Reading

We are excited to announce the first set of vetted digital public goods, a list of openly licensed platforms, content, and technologies focused on Early Grade Reading that have been reviewed by a grou...