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Shaping policy

Strategic communications that shape policy outcomes: translating complex, multilateral initiatives into intentional narratives that reach governments, institutional leaders, private entities, and the public, drawn from my most recent work with a global development organisation.

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About the work

 

  • The Digital Public Goods Alliance is a UN-endorsed, multi-stakeholder initiative that facilitates the discovery and deployment of digital public goods in service of the Sustainable Development Goals. Its flagship campaign, 50-in-5, calls on 50 countries to commit to safe, inclusive, and interoperable digital public infrastructure by 2028.

    DPGA’s work spans standard-setting, a global registry of vetted digital public goods, and flagship convenings that routinely draw a high-level, institutional audience spanning organisations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank, alongside government ministries and delegations from member countries.

  • As an independent consultant, I lead content strategy for the Annual Members Meeting 2025 and the 50-in-5 Awards at the UN General Assembly 81, translating technical and policy-driven materials such as DPI implementation, open-source standards, and multi-country commitments into content built for different audiences at once: government officials, specialists in the room, and the broader public watching four-minute videos with no prior context. This messaging work shapes how DPGA's achievements get framed for an audience that includes government ministers and heads of major development institutions, alongside the DPG product owner community.

    For the Annual Members Meeting, this means stories that capture discussions and set up future collaboration between member states and organisations. For UNGA 81, I’m producing video narratives highlighting the progress of 50-in-5 member countries, built specifically for presentation in an UNGA side-event setting.

  • The core challenge of communications work for DPGA is translation with clear narratives: a technical, standards-driven initiative needs to be legible and memorable to government officials, development bank leadership, and the public. This kind of storytelling goes beyond awareness. It’s the difference between a minister seeing DPG as an abstract technical standard versus a concrete investment worth making.

    These contents get repurposed on LinkedIn and other public channels, and resurface at DPGA's other convenings throughout the year, events like UN Open Source Week and 50-in-5 Milestones. Repeating these narratives is often the on-ramp for real policy decisions: whether a country joins DPGA, pursues DPG certification, or chooses an open, collaborative DPI approach.

  • Narratives produced for AMM 2025 and UNGA 81 help shape what comes next, feeding into DPGA's priorities for 2026, which include deepening DPG sustainability so countries can adopt, adapt, contribute to, and maintain digital public goods for the long term, accelerating climate action through the forthcoming Climate DPG Collection, advancing public-interest AI, and exploring public-interest platforms that foster safety and trust online. The work reinforces DPGA’s agenda for the year ahead.