J.4_Appendix_4.0_Principles_for_Digital_Devt..pdf

PRINCIPLES FOR DIGITAL

DEVELOPMENT

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.

1. UNDERSTAND THE ECOSYSTEM

● Participate in networks and communities of like-minded practitioners.

● Align to existing technological, legal, and regulatory policies.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. USE OPEN DATA, OPEN STANDARDS, OPEN SOURCE, 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.

1. 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.

1. ADDRESS PRIVACY & 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.

1. 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.