Verified digital public good

Why Is SMILE Open Source?

Because life-saving health technology should be freely available to any country that needs it. SMILE is a verified digital public good in the registry of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), and it is already deployed across two continents, including as eHIN in Malawi.

Verification

The DPGA lists SMILE as a verified digital public good. The registry describes it as “a Digital Public Health Platform to Strengthen National Health Supply Chain and Logistics Management.”

SMILE verification details from the DPGA registry
StatusVerified digital public good
CategoryOpen Software
ScopeCore solution
DPG IDGID0093129
Registry ownerUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Issued
LicenseAGPL-3.0
Sustainable Development GoalsSDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being (primary), SDG 9, SDG 12
Registry profiledigitalpublicgoods.net/r/smile

Source: DPGA registry, checked 9 October 2026.

What Is a Digital Public Good?

A digital public good (DPG) is open-source software that meets the DPG Standard and contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The DPGA keeps the DPG registry, which helps governments, donors, and organizations find digital solutions that are freely available, privacy-preserving, and built for the public good. In the DPGA's words, its work is about “promoting digital public goods to create a more equitable world.”

Sustainable Development Goals

The DPGA registry lists three Sustainable Development Goals for SMILE, with SDG 3 as the primary one. The points below summarize what the registry says about each goal.

Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being
SDG 3

Good Health and Well-Being

Primary
  • Improves the availability of vaccines, medicines, and medical supplies, and reduces stock-outs, overstock, and wastage.
  • Monitors cold chain conditions so vaccines stay effective.
  • Supports national programs for immunization, TB, HIV, malaria, rabies, and environmental health.
  • Strengthens preparedness and response for health emergencies.
Sustainable Development Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 9

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

  • Strengthens digital public infrastructure for health logistics.
  • Runs as a scalable cloud platform for national health supply chains.
  • Interoperates with other health information systems.
  • Promotes open, reusable digital solutions in the public sector.
Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 12

Responsible Consumption and Production

  • Supports efficient and responsible management of health commodities.
  • Reduces wastage from expiry, damage, and temperature excursions.
  • Supports inventory planning and forecasting.
  • Tracks and reports medical and pharmaceutical waste.

Self-reported by the owner in the DPGA registry. The goals themselves are the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG icons: United Nations. The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States. un.org/sustainabledevelopment

Badr Interactive built SMILE in partnership with UNDP and the Ministry of Health of Indonesia (Kemenkes RI), and contributes to these goals through that work. The registry lists UNDP as the owner of the digital public good.

Principles and Open Standards

The registry names the Principles for Digital Development as a best practice SMILE follows. It does not map SMILE to each of the nine principles, and neither do we. What the registry does record is the following.

Open standards
JWT, JSON, HTTPS, TLS, CSV, and OAuth2.
Open source
The core solution is released under AGPL-3.0, which the DPGA verified. The GitHub repository has a code of conduct.
Privacy and security
GDPR compliance, encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access control, audit logging and monitoring, and secure credential management.
Interoperability and open data
Works with other health information systems. Non-PII data can be exported in non-proprietary formats: CSV, API, JSON, and XLSX.

The DPG Standard also requires digital public goods to do no harm and to meet privacy requirements. SMILE passed the DPGA review against that standard.

Self-reported by the owner in the DPGA registry, except the DPG Standard review, which is the DPGA's.

Why It Matters for Public-Sector Buyers

Health ministries and donors often end up tied to one software supplier. A verified digital public good is open source and listed in a public registry, so a buyer can read the code before committing and is not locked into a single vendor afterwards.

USD 8.8 trillion estimated global savings from reusing open-source software
3.5x more spent on software by firms if open source did not exist

Both figures are from the DPGA report Sustaining Digital Public Goods: Moving Beyond Adoption (November 2025) and describe open source in general, not results achieved by SMILE.

Global Accessibility

Any country can adopt SMILE without licensing fees or vendor lock-in. That removes a financial barrier for countries that need the technology most.

UN SDG Alignment

Registered against SDG 3 (primary), SDG 9 and SDG 12, which gives donors and governments a common reference when they assess the platform.

Open Source

The core solution is released under AGPL-3.0. The codebase is open to audit, so a buyer can check what it runs.

Proven Replicability

Already deployed in two continents (Asia and Africa), so it has run in more than one country's health system.

Our DPG Journey

1

Open Source Release

SMILE's core solution is published under the AGPL-3.0 license and freely available for adoption.

2

DPG Application

The application was documented against the DPG Standard indicators and submitted to the DPGA for review.

3

DPG Verification

The DPGA verified SMILE as a digital public good on 11 August 2026.

4

Global Adoption

Making SMILE available through the DPG registry for adoption by UN agencies, governments, and NGOs worldwide, with implementation support from Badr Interactive.

Adopt or Support SMILE

Interested in adopting SMILE, partnering on a deployment, or funding rollout in new countries? We'd love to hear from you.

Get in Touch View the DPGA Registry Profile

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