2024 State of the DPG Ecosystem Report is now live!

In 2024, the landscape of digital public goods (DPGs) saw unprecedented thrust, shaping change across key sectors, from healthcare and education to climate action and sustainable agriculture. The release of the 2024 State of the DPG Ecosystem report by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) Secretariat captures the breadth of progress made by over 40 global members in advancing open and scalable digital solutions. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) remains committed to a DPG-first approach in the digitalization of agrifood systems. Championing DPGs, FAO ensures that in the making foundational and inclusive digital technologies become widely available for agrifood systems through open, safe, and scalable digital solutions. This approach calls on stakeholders across the agrifood ecosystem to adopt digital public goods for systemic transformation. 

FAO continues to expand its a DPG-first approach by adding several verified solutions to the DPG Registry. These include the AGROVOC Multilingual Thesaurus, Agrontology, FAO Agricultural Stress Index System, FAO Digital Services Portfolio, Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform and WaPOR. FAO provides ongoing support to product owners seeking DPG certification, ensuring that more digital solutions align with open and scalable standards. To integrate DPG-First across its initiatives, FAO is institutionalizing the DPG certification process and building a network of project formulators who reinvest and reuse DPGs in FAO projects. 

This approach prioritizes standard DPG solutions over custom-built alternatives, encouraging the use of existing technologies rather than developing new ones from scratch. It focuses on strengthening product maturity by prioritizing long-term investment over short-term outputs while improving access to proven and scalable digital solutions. Engaging local expertise and open-source communities remains a core principle to sustain and enhance these solutions over time. Through these efforts, FAO reinforces its commitment to making digital public goods a central element of agrifood system transformation.

FAO has actively championed DPGs by co-hosting Reboot the Earth 2024, an initiative under the Global Network of Digital Agriculture Innovation Hubs led by FAO’s Office of Innovation. This global series of social coding events convened young innovators in the United States, Morocco, India, Ethiopia, and online to develop technology-driven solutions for climate challenges. Winning teams received funding, mentorship, and opportunities to present their innovations at Open-Source Program Offices (OSPOs) for Good in New York and at the Science and Innovation Forum (SIF) 2024 in Rome. As these solutions continue to develop, they should evolve into fully recognized digital public goods, ensuring broader access and long-term sustainability in addressing global climate challenges.

In the report related initiatives carried out by FAO are mentioned, like the presence at SIF 2024, of the session “Digital Agriculture Changemakers in Action" that brought together experts, policymakers, and pioneering farmers to showcase the real-world impact of digital tools in tackling global agricultural challenges. A central theme was the role of DPGs and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in promoting resilience and inclusivity in rural farming communities. A key highlight was the collaboration between Digital Green and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture, which leverages Open Content Collections and Open AI systems to improve advisory services for farmers. This initiative has led to the development of an open knowledge-sharing architecture based on FarmStack and Farmer.Chat, enabling seamless access, contribution, and dissemination of agricultural knowledge through the integration of a chatbot. 

FAO continues to drive its DPG agenda through policy discussions and knowledge-sharing platforms. In November 2024, the Organization hosted a webinar on “Digital Public Infrastructure for Agrifood Systems”, bringing together global experts, including the 50-in-5 initiative, to explore opportunities and challenges in digital agriculture. In 2025, FAO will continue to advance its DPG roadmap through initiatives, such as “Reboot the Earth”, and by providing guidance and tools to support the discovery and reuse of DPGs in transforming agrifood systems.