Welcome to your Digital Principles training course!
This self-paced course introduces each of the nine Digital Principles, contextualises them in a digital health program case study, and showcases tools and resources that can be applied to all stages of a project life cycle.
By the end of the course you will have a good understanding of the Digital Principles and how you might apply them in your work.
The nine digital principles are:
- Design with the User
- Understand the Exisiting Ecosystem
- Design for Scale
- Build for Sustainability
- Be Data Driven
- Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source, and Open Innovation
- Reuse and Improve
- Address Privacy and Security
- Be Collaborative
This course was designed by DIAL (Digital Impact Alliance), and adapted for Sparkblue by UNDP.
DIAL is a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Swedish government, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the United Nations Foundation.
Read more about the Digital Principles here: https://digitalprinciples.org/
Why have Digital Principles?
With the advent of accessible digital technology more than a decade ago, international development organisations began seeking new ways of including digital tools in their programming for improved outcomes. These efforts were initially quite successful; significant advancements occurred in various sectors such as health and agriculture, more communities around the globe were connected, and underserved populations were reached in a way that had not been possible before. However, some digitally-enabled programs failed – and quite often that failure was for reasons that were both predictable and preventable.
The Principles are not meant to be stagnant, nor compulsory. They are a set of living guidance intended to help practitioners succeed in applying digital technologies to development programs.
Thank you for taking this step towards increasing your skills and awareness of responsible digital practices! You are a true champion for positive change.