What is GovStack?

First time I read GovStack's material, I'll be honest: it felt a bit academic. A bit utopian, even.

Then I watched it do something very practical. It helped a government make decisions faster.

The short answer: GovStack is a multi-stakeholder initiative, founded in 2020 by Estonia, Germany, the ITU and the Digital Impact Alliance, that helps governments build digital services from reusable, interoperable components called building blocks. It publishes open technical specifications for building blocks such as identity, payments and registries, along with an implementation playbook, a testing sandbox and a marketplace. Governments use it to design, procure and build services without starting from scratch.

Key facts:

• Founded in 2020 by Estonia, Germany (BMZ), the International Telecommunication Union and the Digital Impact Alliance (BMZ)
• Its 2023 specifications covered nine key building blocks, including payments, registries and identification, with input from more than 80 experts across 40+ organisations (GovStack)
• Countries using the approach include Djibouti and Togo (GovStack)
• GovStack is a supporter of the 50-in-5 campaign (DPGA)

What is a building block?

A building block is a reusable software component that does one job well and can be shared across many government services. Think identity verification, payments, a registry, messaging or consent management.

Instead of every ministry building its own login, payment step and database, they all use the same blocks. A vehicle registration service and a business licensing service can share identity, payments and messaging, and only build what's actually unique to them.

It's the same thinking behind DPI, applied to the whole of government.

What does GovStack actually provide?

The specifications are the bit I'd point procurement teams to first. They describe the minimum a government should ask for, which makes tenders clearer and vendor comparisons fairer.

Academic or useful?

Both, and I don't mean that as a dodge.

GovStack can read as utopian. A world where every government service slots neatly together from standard blocks is not how most ministries look today.

But some of the work coming out of it is genuinely powerful best practice. In my work with OpenCRVS we work closely with GovStack, and I've seen its specifications do two very practical things:

1. Speed up decisions. When a government can point at an agreed specification, arguments about what "good" looks like get much shorter.
2. Show the value of DPI and DPGs. The building-block logic makes the case for reuse and interoperability in terms ministries already understand.

My take: don't read GovStack as a blueprint you must follow to the letter. Read it as the shared vocabulary that stops everyone talking past each other.

How GovStack relates to DPI and DPGs

• DPI is the shared national infrastructure: identity, payments, data exchange
• Building blocks are GovStack's way of specifying those and other reusable components
• DPGs are open source products that can implement building blocks, such as MOSIP for identity or OpenCRVS for civil registration

So GovStack describes what a component should do. A DPG is one way to get a component that does it. See how DPGs work together.

Sources

• GovStack, BMZ
• New digital building block specifications, GovStack
• 11 first-mover countries launch 50-in-5, Digital Public Goods Alliance

Using GovStack specs in a tender or architecture? Let's talk.