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Kyle Chua

Singapore Joins UN-Sponsored Digital Public Goods Alliance to Open-Source Impactful Digital Solutions

Singapore wants to make digital government products more accessible to government agencies and organisations that need them.


Credit: DPGA

The Open Government Products (OGP) on Thursday, 7 March announced it has joined the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) on behalf of Singapore. The DPGA is a UN-endorsed initiative launched in 2019 focused on the discovery and deployment of open-source technologies to foster a global ecosystem for digital public

goods (DPGs).


“Undergirding Singapore’s participation in the Alliance is our firm belief that tech must be for the public good for Singapore and the world," said Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity. "Many of Singapore’s digital government products today are already open source, but through our participation in the established platform of the DGPA, we hope to encourage further adoption of our open-source products that have benefitted the Singapore society and which we are very proud of."


As part of its membership, Singapore is committing to deploy scalable and impactful digital solutions and redouble efforts across three focus areas.


First, it will prioritise open sourcing a set of high-impact Singapore government products as DPGs. The objective of which is to make public sector technology from the country more accessible for government institutions and other relevant organisations on a global level as DPGs. With this, Singapore hopes to address critical needs in areas such as data collection (FormSG), information accessibility (Isomer, GoGovSG) and trustworthy communication (Isomer, Postman).


Second, Singapore will share DPGs and open-sourced products to other countries to meet their government technology needs. The country previously demonstrated success in working with the likes of Sri Lanka and Cambodia to deploy products like FormSG. It now looks to replicate that success to other countries around the region and the world. The planned deployment of these products promises to be an enabler for digital transformation in these countries, and exemplifies what a modern technology enabled government can look like.


Last, Singapore will also look to help other countries accelerate their digital transformation through sharing and training on best practices around digital public infrastructure, which is also part of its participation in 50-in-5. Upcoming exchanges and sessions involve other Southeast Asian countries as well as broad global panel discussions.


Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information. Credit: The Straits Times

"The Alliance also offers Singapore a valuable opportunity to learn from global peers and experts, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and innovation, especially within the public service so that we can all serve our peoples better," added Mrs Teo.


OGP is the designated team within the government that builds technology products for Singapore and advocates its innovations and organisational practices across local and international communities. Through this work, the OGP was introduced to the DGPA with an invite to share its knowledge to the initiative's member countries and organisations. Current DPGA members include government agencies from Germany, Estonia and India, among others. In November 2023, OGP represented Singapore at the DPGA Annual Members Meeting (AMM) in Addis Ababa, sharing about Singapore’s approach to building tech for public good in the government.

 
  • OGP has joined the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) on behalf of Singapore to help make digital government products more accessible to government agencies and organisations that need them.

  • As part of its membership, Singapore is committing to deploy scalable and impactful digital solutions by prioritising open sourcing a set of high-impact Singapore government products as digital public goods.

  • Singapore will also share these open-sourced products to other countries to meet their government technology needs, as well as provide training on best practices around digital public infrastructure.

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