New York – 18 June 2025
The United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) is pleased to announce its membership in the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), marking a strategic step forward in its mission to enable inclusive and sustainable digital transformation across the UN system, other international organizations, and governments. The DPGA brings together governments, international organizations, and other partners to cultivate a collaborative global environment for digital public goods, contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The announcement was made during the “Accelerate SDG Impact, Scaling Open Source” side event of the UN Open-Source Week. The gathering, hosted at the NYU campus, was co-organized by the NYU School of Professional Studies, the Permanent Missions of the United Kingdom and Spain to the United Nations, the Generalitat Valenciana, and UNICC, in collaboration with the Digital Public Goods Alliance.
Through this collaboration, UNICC commits to actively advancing the discovery, development, and deployment of digital public goods (DPGs). According to the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, digital public goods are open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content that are freely accessible, adhere to privacy and other relevant international laws and standards, and aim to do no harm. These tools are designed to advance sustainable development by enabling equitable access to digital solutions while fostering collaboration, transparency, and inclusion in the global digital ecosystem.
“Joining the DPGA is a natural extension of our mission to support the UN system’s digital transformation journey,” said Sameer Chauhan, Director, UNICC. “Our technical and strategic contributions can help ensure that digital public goods are developed and deployed in a way that reflects the values, needs, and standards of the UN system.”
As the largest strategic partner providing digital foundations across the entire UN system, UNICC plays a central role in operationalizing digital public infrastructure (DPI) that supports its clients and partners’ mandates and impact. By joining the DPGA, UNICC brings decades of experience delivering trusted, scalable, and secure digital foundations that empower UN entities, international organizations, and governments to co-create and deploy digital public infrastructure and goods for global public benefit.
“We are proud to welcome UNICC to the DPGA. Their membership not only supports the United Nations’ digital transformation journey but also strengthens the DPG ecosystem by contributing potential new solutions to the DPG Registry. Beyond advocating for open, scalable solutions across the UN system, UNICC helps expand the adoption of DPGs where they’re needed most, ultimately accelerating digital cooperation efforts to achieve the SDGs.”, added Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO, Digital Public Goods Alliance Secretariat.
As part of its engagement with the Alliance, UNICC will undertake three core initiatives:
- Assessment of UNICC digital products for DPG Registry nomination: UNICC will assess its portfolio of digital solutions for potential inclusion in the DPG registry, ensuring compliance with open standards, accessibility, and interoperability.
- Institutional Advocacy and Capacity Building: UNICC will promote the DPG Standard and raise awareness internally and among its partners and clients, including UN agencies, other international organizations, and Member States. UNICC will promote the value of open-source, vendor-neutral, and scalable solutions.
- Accelerating DPG testing, production, and deployment: UNICC will facilitate rapid testing and deployment of DPGs through developing open-source hosting platforms, neutral sandbox environments, and digital solutions reference implementations. These efforts aim to reduce deployment time, support government digital transformation, and promote shared digital building blocks.
This milestone aligns with UNICC’s Strategic Framework 2024–2030, which fosters open-source innovation by developing and maintaining scalable and secure digital components that can be easily adapted and reused. Under this strategic framework, the UNICC Management Committee has entrusted the organization with managing a centralized repository for UN-wide open-source solutions, facilitating collaboration and the reuse of software components across entities.
UNICC acknowledges the valuable support of the Digital Public Goods Alliance and recognizes its leading role in advancing the global adoption of open-source digital solutions that contribute to sustainable development. This announcement reinforces UNICC’s ongoing commitment to digital inclusion, openness and collaboration as key enablers of systemic transformation in support of the UN system’s digital agenda.
For more information, please contact:
At UNICC: [email protected]
At DPGA: [email protected]