From Principle to Practice: Implementing the Principles for Digital Development

“The Principles for Digital Development are a framework for considering both the possibilities and the challenges that digital development can present.” ~ Jens Karberg, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

This document, resulting from discussions by more than 500 individuals representing over 100 organisations working in international development, outlines the "Principles for Digital Development" in order to help organisations inform and guide the process of reforming digital policies and practices in development. The report is divided into three main sections: the Introduction; an explanation of each of the 9 Principles, including their definitions, why they are needed, community discussion, and resources; and the Conclusion. A further "two-page synthesis of the community-led articulation of what each Principle means in practice can be found in the Principles for Digital Development Community ...Interested parties are encouraged to join the ongoing discussion around the Principles for Digital Development...."

Introduction:

The Principles for "Digital Development... were created through the integration and refinement of" the UNICEF Innovation Principles and the Greentree Principles to aid development organizations in the use of best practices for using digital "technologies to make their own work more participatory, sustainable, and effective."  

The 9 Principles in Focus:

"Principle 1:  Design with the User

• Develop context appropriate solutions informed by user needs.
• Include all user groups in planning, development, implementation and assessment.
• Develop projects in an incremental and iterative manner.
• Design solutions that learn from and enhance existing workflows and plan for organizational adaptation.
• Ensure solutions are sensitive to, and useful for, the most marginalized populations: women, children, those with disabilities, and those affected by conflict and disaster."

"Principle 2:  Understand the Ecosystem

• Participate in networks and communities of like-minded practitioners.
• Align to existing technological, legal, and regulatory policies."

"Principle 3:  Design for scale

• Design for scale from the start, and assess and mitigate dependencies that might limit ability to scale.
• Employ a “systems” approach to design, considering implications of design beyond an immediate project.
• Be replicable and customizable in other countries and contexts.
• Demonstrate impact before scaling a solution.
• Analyze all technology choices through the lens of national and regional scale.
• Factor in partnerships from the beginning and start early negotiations."

"Principle 4: Build for Sustainability

• Plan for sustainability from the start, including planning for long-term financial health e.g., assessing total cost of ownership.
• Utilize and invest in local communities and developers by default and help catalyze their growth.
• Engage with local governments to ensure integration into national strategy and identify high-level government advocates."

"Principle 5:  Be Data Driven

• Design projects so that impact can be measured at discrete milestones with a focus on outcomes rather than outputs.
• Evaluate innovative solutions and areas where there are gaps in data and evidence.
• Use real-time information to monitor and inform management decisions at all levels.
• When possible, leverage data as a by-product of user actions and transactions for assessments."

"Principle 6: Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source, and Open Innovation

• Adopt and expand existing open standards.
• Open data and functionalities and expose them in documented APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) where use by a larger community is possible.
• Invest in software as a public good.
• Develop software to be open source by default with the code made available in public repositories and supported through developer communities."

"Principle 7: Reuse and Improve

• Use, modify and extend existing tools, platforms, and frameworks when possible.
• Develop in modular ways favoring approaches that are interoperable over those that are monolithic by design.

"Principle 8:  Address Privacy and Security

• Assess and mitigate risks to the security of users and their data.
• Consider the context and needs for privacy of personally identifiable information when designing solutions and mitigate accordingly.
• Ensure equity and fairness in co-creation, and protect the best interests of the end-users."

"Principle 9:  Be Collaborative

• Engage diverse expertise across disciplines and industries at all stages.
• Work across sector silos to create coordinated and more holistic approaches.
• Document work, results, processes, and best practices and share them widely.
• Publish materials under a Creative Commons license by default, with strong rationale if another licensing approach is taken."

Conclusion:  "Recommendations for Moving from Principle to Practice"

"This final section of the report looks beyond tips and insights related to implementing each individual Principle to begin answering" questions about why it can be difficult to put the Principles to use and what would make learning from "past successes and failures in digital development" simpler. It includes "Recommendations for All Development Actors", "Recommendations for Donor and Multilateral Organizations", "Recommendations for Development Implementers", as well as a section titled "Vision for the Future".