What will the Cashew-IN Platform Do?

The Cashew-IN platform is currently being developed by DG and will include data on the cashew sector in the five implementing countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria (referred to as the Cashew-IN countries below).

Some stakeholders interviewed after the launch of the prototype in December 2021 and during the various interactions (i.e., user feedback sessions, platform presentation, etc.) reiterated the crucial role of the Cashew–IN platform. According to responses given during the stakeholder interviews, some actors will use the platform to help to foster a better culture of statistical data production and dissemination and others will use it to raise awareness, guide, and influence decision-making of cashew stakeholders (such as researchers, producers, traders, and policy-makers) who are working within the production, processing, marketing, and consumption sectors.

Data and information generated from the platform can also support decisions of member states on policy issues as well as public and private actors to increase and secure investments in the sector.

What Does the Cashew-IN Platform Include?

Key informants and co-design workshop participants agreed on three themes to include in the Cashew-IN platform: production, processing, and trade. Participants also expressed specific and detailed data needs for each theme, which were similar across the five Cashew-IN countries with small country-specific differences:

• At the production level: participants articulated data needs around several themes including research studies, good agricultural practices, production costs, access to land, access to agro-processing supplies, and phytosanitary treatments;
• At the trade level: the data needs are the publication of international markets import-export statistics, information on national and international demand, processing countries customs statistics, and best practices from different cashew producing countries as well as current standards impacting the different cashew markets;
• At the processing level: in addition to locating the different processing units with the Cashew-IN countries, knowledge of almond grades, technological innovations and requirements to access international markets are needed, as expressed by workshop participants ; and
• Other identified needs include a national directory of service providers across the value chain, information related funding opportunities, organization of the cashew sector in each country of implementation, and women’s involvement in the sector.

The software development team included the following aspects in the design and the conception of the Cashew-IN platform:

• The platform is in English and French. Each country’s official language will be the default language, although users can switch languages at any time using the toggle available in the platform’s interface.
• The platform will accept indicator data from 2015 onwards for users to get familiar with the platform’s charts and graphs that display indicator progress over time.
• A data entry and/or update can be done directly from the user interface or by uploading Excel worksheets in the platform.
• All charts, graphs, tables, and maps will display the official source of the data being shown. This information will be embedded in all download functionalities.
• The platform supports two user modes: an authenticated mode for all users designated to enter and/or update data in the platform and a public user mode for general users to access the Cashew-IN public interface and associated content.
• Several user profiles have been configured for authenticated users to streamline the information flow while promoting and supporting national data ownership and appropriation. These user profiles include:
  • System administrator (SA): the user responsible for the overall platform settings and maintenance with read-only access to country data;
  • Country administrator (CA): the user responsible for country data management with full access rights to country data and country specific parameters and settings, including users management; and
  • Focal point (FP): the user responsible for data entry and/or update. Each FP will have to be officially designated by their responsible organization and will only be entitled to enter and/or update data pertaining to their organization.

Additional profiles and/or data management rules (e.g., data review and validation) can be configured as needed for each of the Cashew-IN countries.

Lessons Learned During the Data Ecosystem Assessment and Stakeholder Engagement

Throughout the implementation, the DG team learned several lessons related to the need for the Cashew-IN platform to be consistent with national policies and the importance of engaging national partners from the start of the project. 

More specifically, DG learned the importance of tailoring the Cashew-IN platform to meet the country’s national data disclosure framework and that the data included on the platform needs to remain the property of the original source. Implementing this approach helped to alleviate stakeholder concerns regarding the management and confidentiality of their data. 

DG also learned the importance of transparency, specifically we identified the need to ensure national stakeholders are included in the development of a new tool, beginning at the assessment phase of the project. Additionally, DG found that stakeholders engagement early in the project led to deepened buy-in and commitment to sharing data needed on the Cashew-IN platform. 

Next Steps

The technical development of the Cashew-IN platform is currently ongoing with the addition of further pages and features on trade and processing. One of the key activities in 2023 will be adding regional and country-specific data to the Cashew-IN platform. 

To learn more about how stakeholders will use the platform, check out our blogs: Voices of the Cashew Sector.

A Vulnerable Population: Why We Need Data on Adolescent Tobacco Use

African countries have some of the youngest populations in the world; for example, more than half of the population of Nigeria is under the age of 18.¹ Most of the available evidence captures data from 13- to 15-year-olds even though evidence from SSA shows that the age of smoking initiation among young people ranges from as young as 7 years old to about 16 years old.^2,3 In countries such as Kenya, among all psychoactive substances, tobacco is the most widely known and readily available and used by those aged 14 years and younger who are in primary school.⁴ For our three focus countries, the available data is either outdated (2012 for Nigeria⁵ and 2014 for Kenya⁶) or doesn’t exist (for DRC), making this data collection a priority for the African tobacco control community.

Additionally, adolescents are especially vulnerable to taking up tobacco use at a young age in some African countries because the tobacco industry aggressively markets to them: advertising near schools and playgrounds, providing free products, and selling youth-oriented flavors in novel tobacco products.  

Where are We?: What Data We Know is Missing (so Far)

The lack of data on adolescent tobacco use in African countries limits policymakers’ ability to make data-informed decisions on tobacco control policies. Through the implementation of our Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI) program, DG has become increasingly aware of the limited data on adolescent tobacco use. Three specific types of data that we know to be missing are:

• Data about out-of-school adolescents and females: The Global Youth Tobacco Survey, a predominant source on youth-focused tobacco data, focuses on adolescents who are still in school. This means that data on out-of-school youth is missing and female adolescents tobacco use is likely underrepresented, since the adolescents who are most likely to begin smoking are those who are not enrolled in school and males in urban areas are most likely to be in school (see footnote 7);
• Data on certain age groups: Most of the available data is related to 13- to 15-year-olds. However, studies in SSA show that adolescent tobacco use begins as young as 7 through age 16 (see footnote 8). Therefore, the age of adolescents surveyed needs to be expanded in order to capture more comprehensive data; and
  
• Tobacco products included in surveys are limited: Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products are the most commonly surveyed products, despite the rising prevalence of shisha and e-cigarettes. Policymakers will be able to create more robust tobacco control policies and better regulations once these products are included in surveys.

DaYTA: Helping Inform Policy on SSA’s Adolescents

In the initial stage of the DaYTA program, DG will work with stakeholders in Nigeria, Kenya, and the DRC to conduct a rapid assessment to confirm the data gaps and identify what areas need to be prioritized. The assessment findings will be validated in a series of DG-hosted workshops with stakeholders, during which research questions and methodologies for conducting the primary research will be finalized. 

After priorities are established, DG will conduct primary research and gather country-level data on tobacco use among adolescents aged 10- to 17-year-olds in all three countries. DG aims to capture data on the following: 

• Type, frequency, and quantity of tobacco use; 
• Use of novel tobacco products (e.g., electronic nicotine or non-nicotine delivery systems); 
• How tobacco products are accessed;
• Lifestyle factors associated with tobacco use (e.g., attending or not attending school, family history of tobacco use, etc.); and
• Any other data gaps identified as a result of the assessment.

Once this data is finalized, it will be integrated into the relevant TCDI Country Dashboards and disseminated to stakeholders. 

Stay tuned for more about DaYTA! In the meantime, learn about the TCDI program by following the links below.

Development Gateway : Une filiale d’IREX Venture’s (DG’s) et notre partenaire d’exécution, Women in Mining (WIM) Guinée, ont organisé un atelier de validation dans la région de Boké le 22 octobre 2022 pour présenter et confirmer les résultats d’une enquête  conduite par WIM Guinée  dans les sous-préfectures minières de Boké et Boffa en avril 2022. Les données  collectées visaient à évaluer l’impact des Fonds de Développement Economique Local (FODEL),¹  des fonds  constitués à partir des contributions financières des sociétés minières et distribués aux communautés touchées par l’activité minière. Les résultats de l’enquête ont révélé certains aspects qui pourraient être améliorés pour permettre aux femmes et aux associations de femmes des communautés minières de mieux capitaliser sur ces fonds et de mieux les utiliser pour soutenir leur développement local.

L’histoire de FODEL : Qu’est-ce qu’un fonds FODEL ? Et comment est-il utilisé ? 

Le  fonds FODEL est un type de prêt accordé par le gouvernement local aux communautés minières. L’administration locale distribue ces fonds après les avoir reçus du gouvernement national, qui les perçoit auprès des sociétés minières à titre de taxes et de redevances.

Les fonds FODEL sont répartis entre les préfectures minières en fonction du niveau d’impact que les communautés ont subi du fait des activités minières. Les fonds du FODEL sont également distribués à des groupes spécifiques au sein de ces communautés. Par exemple, 20 % des fonds reçus au niveau communautaire vont à des projets initiés par des femmes, des projets soutenant les femmes et les jeunes, des entreprises ou des groupes d’intérêt économique (GIE). Globalement, l’objectif des fonds FODEL est de soutenir des activités génératrices de revenus et de développement qui sont incluses dans les plans de développement des communautés.  

Afin de mieux soutenir les femmes dans le secteur minier, DG et WIM Guinée ont réalisé une évaluation des défis auxquels les femmes dans le secteur minier étaient confrontées avant, pendant et après avoir reçu des fonds du FODEL. L’évaluation a porté sur environ 700 femmes qui travaillent avec des associations de femmes dans les sous-préfectures de Boké et Boffa.

Ce que nous savons jusqu’à présent : L’atelier  d’évaluation et de validation

Sous la supervision de WIM Guinée, huit agents de collecte de données ont administré le questionnaire à un total de 11 communautés – cinq à Boké et six à Boffa.

Les résultats de l’évaluation ont permis de dresser le profil des femmes qui ont reçu des fonds du FODEL dans les deux localités. Ces femmes ont des diplômes d’études secondaires et la plupart d’entre elles s’adonnent à des activités de développement telles que le maraîchage, la pêche, la teinture, la saponification (c’est-à-dire la création de produits à base de savon ou d’alcool à partir de graisses et d’huiles) et la transformation de matières premières (par exemple, le beurre de karité, l’huile de palme, les cultures, etc.)   

Les résultats de l’évaluation ont révélé que :

• Les femmes estiment que les FODEL sont bénéfiques pour leurs associations. Cependant, les fonds sont insuffisants pour aider les femmes à atteindre leurs objectifs (par exemple, pour les associations de femmes travaillant à l’amélioration des performances agricoles, les fonds du FODEL sont trop faibles pour obtenir des intrants et des engrais appropriés, des équipements, ou pour sécuriser et protéger l’exploitation des parasites et des maladies) ;
• Les répondants à l’enquête ont éprouvé des difficultés à préparer des propositions viables pour recevoir des fonds du FODEL et ont eu du mal à gérer les fonds une fois qu’ils ont été accordés ; et
• Plus important encore, de nombreux bénéficiaires du FODEL ne savaient pas que les fonds du FODEL sont des prêts sans intérêt et non des subventions.

Malgré cette confusion, la plupart des associations ont pu rembourser un maximum de 70% du montant prêté. Elles ont attribué leur faible taux de remboursement à l’impact négatif des activités minières sur leurs sols et leurs eaux, aux prix élevés des engrais et des intrants agricoles, ainsi qu’au contrôle limité des parasites et des maladies au niveau de leurs exploitations agricoles

Lors de la réunion de validation, 30 femmes des communautés minières ont participé et confirmé les résultats de l’enquête ci-dessus. Les participantes ont également confirmé qu’elles n’ont pas reçu de documentation indiquant les modalités de remboursement des fonds du FODEL y compris  les délais de remboursement.

Au cours de la réunion, les participants ont également discuté de l’impact négatif qu’ils ont subi en raison de la production industrialisée – et de la main-d’œuvre et des produits moins chers qui en découlent – qui a supplanté leur méthode de production locale et traditionnelle. Par exemple, les femmes locales qui teignent des tissus ont constaté que la demande pour leurs produits se déplace vers la demande de tissus moins chers qui sont teints industriellement par des groupes qui sont venus dans la région avec les compagnies minières internationales.

Prochaines étapes

Parallèlement à la publication prochaine du site web rassemblant toutes les données appropriées recueillies par DG et WIM Guinée, nous publierons un rapport présentant des recommandations sur nos diverses conclusions tout au long de ce projet. Restez à l’écoute !

Pour l’instant, les leçons tirées de l’évaluation de l’utilisation des fonds FODEL sont les suivantes :

• Les administrateurs des fonds FODEL doivent créer et/ou réviser les efforts de communication avec les bénéficiaires du FODEL notamment en ce qui concerne le remboursement des échéances et le calendrier y afférent ;
• Il serait très bénéfique, si possible, d’augmenter le montant des fonds accordés aux bénéficiaires du FODEL ;
• La réglementation des biens et services locaux afin de promouvoir la production locale conformément au code minier peut soutenir davantage l’association des femmes ; et
• Il est nécessaire de renforcer les capacités des femmes locales en matière de gestion de projet.  

Development Gateway: An IREX Venture’s (DG’s) and our implementing partner, Women in Mining (WIM) Guinea, held a validation meeting in the Boké region of Guinea on October 22, 2022 to present and confirm the findings of a data collection initiative that WIM Guinea conducted in the country’s Boké and Boffa mining subprefectures in April 2022. The data was collected in order to assess the impact of the Fonds de Développement Economique Local (FODEL)¹ or, in English, local economic development funds. These funds are created from mining companies’ financial contributions and distributed to communities impacted by the mining activity. The results of the survey revealed certain aspects that could be improved to further enable women and women’s associations in mining communities to capitalize on these funds and better use them to support local development.

A FODEL Tale: What is a FODEL fund? And How is it Used?  

A FODEL fund is a type of loan provided by the local government to mining communities. The local government distributes these funds after receiving them from the national government, who collects them from the mining companies as part of the companies’ taxes. 

The FODEL funds are distributed among the mining prefectures in accordance with the level of impact the communities have experienced as a result of the mining activities. FODEL funds are also distributed to specific groups within these communities. For example, 20% of the funds received at the community level go to women-initiated projects, projects supporting women and youth, enterprises, or economic interest groups (EIG). Overall, the aim of FODEL funds is to support income-generating and development activities that are included in the communities’ development plans.  

In order to better support women in mining, DG and WIM Guinea conducted an assessment of the challenges women in mining faced before, during, and after receiving FODEL funds. The assessment surveyed about 700 women who worked with women’s associations in Boké and Boffa subprefectures. 

What We Know so Far: The Assessment & Validation Meeting

With WIM Guinea’s supervision, eight data collection agents administered the questionnaire to a total of 11 communities—five in Boké and six in Boffa. 

The results from the assessment offered a profile of the women who received FODEL funds in both locations. These women have high school diplomas and most engage in such development activities as vegetable gardening, fishery, dyeing, saponification (i.e., creating soap or alcohol products from fats and oils), and processing of raw materials (e.g., shea butter, palm oil, crops, etc.).   

The assessment findings revealed that:

• Women believe that FODEL are beneficial to their associations. However, the funds were insufficient to help the women meet their objectives (e.g., for women’s associations working at improving agricultural performance, FODEL funds are too low to get proper inputs and fertilizer, equipment, or to secure and protect the farm from pests and diseases); 
• The survey respondents experienced challenges in preparing sustainable proposals to receive FODEL funds and had difficulty managing funds once they were given; and 
• Most significantly—many FODEL recipients weren’t aware that the FODEL funds are loans with no interest and not grants. 
  • Despite this confusion, most associations were able to reimburse a maximum of 70% of the lended amount. They attributed their reimbursement rate to the negative impact of mining activities on their soils and waters, high prices of fertilizers and agricultural inputs, and limited pest and disease controls. 

In the validation meeting, 30 women from the mining communities participated and confirmed the above survey findings. Participants also confirmed that they did not receive documentation stating that the FODEL funds they received are loans that must be reimbursed. They received no information about the expectation or timeline for paying the FODEL funds back. 

During the meeting, participants also discussed the negative impact they have experienced as a result of industrialized production—and the subsequent cheaper labor and products—that have displaced their localized, traditional method of production. For example, local women who dye fabrics reported finding that demand for their products is shifting to demand for the less expensive fabrics that are industrially dyed by groups that have come to the area with the international mining companies.

Next Steps

Alongside the upcoming release of the website collating all appropriate data gathered by DG and WIM Guinea, we will release a report offering recommendations on our various findings throughout this project. Stay tuned! 

For now, lessons learned from the assessment of FODEL funds use include:

• Administrators of the FODEL funds need to create and/or revise communication efforts with FODEL recipients to ensure that the nature of the loan is clear—namely, that FODEL funds are loans and therefore, must be repaid and the timeline requirements for this repayment;
• Increasing the amount of funds given to FODEL recipients would be highly beneficial, if possible; 
• Regulating local goods and services to promote local production in accordance with the mining code can further support women’s association; and
• There’s a need to strengthen local women’s capacities in project management.  

How do you expect to use the TASAI-VISTA Dashboard?

“[The TASAI-VISTA Dashboard] will avail us to better and prompt information when we need it. And it means the work is there [for] comparison between countries. And it helps you to also have a link that you can share with your seniors—those above you—to say ok this is what I’m talking about…In Africa, seeing is believing, and it’s what we see that moves us.

So if you are talking to a very senior colleague about the report or the outcome of this study  of TASAI and you’re talking physically, they may not really believe you. Just send them the link and say, ‘Check the link and you’ll see what I’m saying.’ Then they can see for themselves.” 

In your work, which indicators or data do you find most useful to use? 

“In the previous results of TASAI, some data particularly [regarding] the number of breeders, for example, has helped in actually speaking to policy-makers that we need more breeders. It has helped to also speak to the donors to sponsor more people to start breeding, because we have a little number of breeders. And also, the number of companies—you know—the rate at which companies are getting breeders on their payroll, we were able to show that. […] The TASAI-VISTA portal will be able to show this gap.”

What kind of decisions are you making based on this data?

“We make policy decisions, particularly in dealing with new companies. One example is the aspect of counterfeiting (the faking of seeds). The TASAI report brought these out clearly some years back, and it was one of what helped push for donor intervention—to say, we need to stem or stop the nefarious demand for this for the farmers, and then to the introduction of the SEEDCODEX.

There are other things that the TASAI resource has brought out before. I mentioned the Garden Variety Protection—it’s one clear gap  in our seeds piece, and because of the report, we’ve been able to go to the government and say, ‘Yes, we need support.’”

How can the TASAI-VISTA Dashboard help you in your work, especially analysis and decision-making?

“For me, I’m very excited to start playing with the Dashboard. […]  When you get familiar with [the Dashboard] many things you cannot imagine can come to the fore. So, I see more flexibility. I see more promise in everyone getting information much easier than it was with the pdf version. So, [we’re] just waiting for the launch, so we can hit the ground running.” 

The Zambia Website 

Together, partners co-designed a publicly available website (zambia.tobaccocontroldata.org) that aims to address key decision-making needs. The website equips stakeholders in government, civil society, academia, and the general public with reliable and up-to-date evidence to promote tobacco control and public health. It draws on both primary and secondary data sources and presents tobacco control information in user-friendly formats such as graphs, infographics, myths and facts, and success stories. The website will feature five themes: tobacco prevalence, tobacco harm, illicit trade, taxation, and industry interference. The website will be updated with new information as this becomes available over the course of the program.

The Development Process

Before creating the TCDI Zambia website, the TCDI team assessed the existing data and stakeholder needs through hour-long interviews with key members of the tobacco control community. The learnings from the assessment were validated with stakeholders during a workshop in February 2022  before technical development proceeded. The website was created through an agile, co-design process in close consultation with key tobacco control stakeholders in Zambia, including Zambia’s Ministry of Health. (Find the full list of our stakeholders and partners here.) Initial mockups and website designs were shared back with stakeholders for their input and suggestions. As a final step before launching the site, user feedback sessions were led in November 2022. 

Development Gateway: an IREX Venture’s (DG’s) Open Contracting Portal (OC Portal) was designated as a digital public good (DPG) and added to Digital Public Goods Alliance’s (DPGA’s) Registry on September 8, 2022. The goal of the DPGA and its Registry is to promote DPGs in order to create a more equitable world, which is in alignment with the vision behind the OC Portal: to organize and archive procurement documents, improve data transparency and feedback by the public, and to help publish procurement information in the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS).

What are Digital Public Goods and Why Do They Matter?

The individual and societal need for clean water, electricity, and other commodities gave rise to the notion of the public good (i.e., a good or service provided freely to all members of a society by a governmental actor or civil organization). Similarly, the notion of the DPG arose from the need to address complex problems throughout the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries, coupled with the aim of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. 

Like public goods, DPGs are digital solutions that are meant to address specific societal needs (e.g., improving literacy rates and creating safe, reliable systems for electronic medical records). In addressing these needs, DPGs advance the equity, sustainability, and well-being of that society. Furthermore, DPGs advance a society’s development by creating a more robust digital infrastructure and by reducing the digital and data divides in that society while contributing to global efforts to reduce these divides.  

Generally, DPGs are software, AI models, standards, or content that are open-source, meaning their source code, design and/or data sets are publicly available and can be replicated, modified, and shared freely. DPGs listed on the DPGA’s Registry offer solutions on everything from detecting malnutrition in children under five to combating misinformation and hate speech. 

The OC Portal: Helping Governments Spend Better

Through our work, DG has consistently advocated for open source and open data solutions as a means of making technology more accessible and sustainable, prioritizing reuse and engagement from open communities. The OC Portal shows this advocacy in action, with its mission to provide procurement analytics that can be used to improve procurement efficiency and, in turn, reduce corruption and increase impact.

“Delivering digital transformation that works for governments requires reliable, scalable, and well-documented digital tools that are fit for purpose,” said Josh. “Our OC Portal has been successfully designed, developed, and deployed directly with multiple government partners.“

Launched in September 2018, the Government of Makueni County’s OC Portal (Makueni OC Portal) was created to implement open contracting in Makueni County, Kenya; it was the first iteration of the OC Portal that provides both data input and analytics capabilities. Developed by DG in collaboration the Government of Makueni County (GMC) and Hivos, Makueni OC Portal helped Makueni County benefit from procurement analytics that are designed to improve procurement efficiency, increase value for money, and reduce corruption. The Makueni OC Portal allows for the collection of procurement data and maps that data to the OCDS, which makes it usable at a global level.

DG developed the platform using (1) the Open Contracting Explorer (OCE) framework upon which several of DG’s open contracting tools are built and (2) the DG Toolkit, which is a flexible, customizable, and ready-to-launch set of code modules (based on the Spring Framework) that DG developed and often uses as a base from which we build new systems.

Since DG launched the Makueni OC Portal, we have continued to work closely with Makueni government officials and the Open Contracting Partnership to ensure that the final tool responds to the government’s needs. After three years of evaluating the effectiveness of the Portal, DG leadership saw the potential for the OC Portal to become a DPG, with the aim of allowing others to more easily learn about the OC Portal as well as implement or improve open contracting systems elsewhere.

“DG was excited at the opportunity to contribute its work to the Digital Public Goods Registry, since we feel that the OC Portal is a tool from which many users worldwide can benefit.” said Vanessa Goas, DG’s Chief Operating Officer. “We were also grateful to the Digital Public Goods Alliance team for providing us feedback and support for making our tools more usable.” 

Becoming an DPG: Expanding the OC Portal 

Digital solutions, like the OC Portal, can be given DPG status after (1) being nominated and (2) undergoing a three-stage technical review process. 

The first few steps in passing the technical review is ensuring the OC Portal meets the DPG Standard, which is the baseline requirement to ensure that digital solutions with DPG status encapsulate DGPA principles. 

“The DPG Standard helped us focus on not only making open source tools,” said Fernando Ferreyra, DG’s Director of Software Development, “but also guided us on how to distribute them more effectively, while taking into account all the privacy and data protection policies which ensure that our digital solutions are what we build is used properly, requires a low level of support, and encourages the community to improve upon the digital solution.”

To satisfy the DPG Standard, the OC Portal had to align with nine DPGA-defined indicators, which include ensuring that the digital solution: 

• Advances the United Nations’s SDGs; 
• Has an open license; 
• Has documentation outlining source code, use cases, and/or functional requirements; and
• Shows that it was designed to anticipate, prevent, and do no harm.

With these requirements in mind, the DG team adjusted the Makueni OC Portal, which included: updating privacy policy documents, checking assumptions about how user data is managed, and developing a dedicated website for the portal.   

Best Practices for Developing DPGs

Throughout the process of creating the OC Portal, DG identified several best practices for organizations looking to create DPGs and seeking to meet the DPG Standard, which acted as a guide in the process.

• Build with intention: It’s better to think of any potential open source tool as DPGs from the beginning stages of their design, since retrofitting can take a bit of time. Considerations about privacy, password storing, and personal identifiable information (PII) need to be taken into account from the beginning, especially for digital solutions  that collect and distribute data (personal or otherwise). These considerations are difficult to incorporate into an existing digital solution; therefore, best practice is to address them during the design phase.
• Adjust internal design principles: As additional digital solutions are designed, advocate that all digital solutions created meet DPG principles, even if they are not going to be submitted as DPGs. These principles are sound and protect the (PII) data.
• Obtain approval from clients and partners (if needed): Determine if the client or partner who is supporting the development of the digital solution is open to having the work be open source and submitted as a DPG.
• Maintain the appropriate licenses: Ensure that the licenses for any frameworks or libraries associated with the digital solution are consistent with the same licensing for the solution itself.
• Keep documentation updated: Ensuring all documentation related to the digital solution is up to date allows for a simplified DPG application process.
• Plan ahead: Allocate resources throughout the project to be ready for DPG submission at previously identified major milestones.

Going forward, we plan to review all of DG’s portfolio of open source applications to develop a strategy on retrofitting our digital solutions to submit others as DPGs (such as our Aid Management Platform).