Welcome to the United Nations
Language:
  1. Home
  2. France Becomes First Government to Endorse UN Open Source Principles, Joined by 19 Organizations

France Becomes First Government to Endorse UN Open Source Principles, Joined by 19 Organizations

The United Nations Open Source United community is proud to announce a major milestone: The Government of the French Republic became the first national government to endorse the UN Open Source Principles. 

Additionally, 19 organizations joined France in endorsing the principles, underscoring growing international support for open source collaboration within the UN system. The following 19 organizations endorsed the principles:

  1. Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication

  2. Creative Commons

  3. Drupal Association

  4. F-Droid

  5. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team

  6. INFOTEC

  7. OpenProject GmbH

  8. OpenUK

  9. OW2

  10. Senckenberg Society for Nature Research

  1. SMILE

  2. SUSE 

  3. The Apereo Foundation 

  4. Mercedes-Benz AG 

  5. Mifos Initiative 

  6. The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) 

  7. The Upanzi Network at Carnegie Mellon University Africa 

  8. The WordPress Foundation

  9. XWiki SAS

The new endorsements bring the total number of supporters, including France, to 36.

The UN Open Source Principles, recently adopted by the UN Chief Executive Board's Digital Technology Network (DTN) provide guidelines to promote collaboration and the adoption of open-source technologies within the UN and globally. Open Source United, a community of practice established by the DTN, works to advance open source technologies across UN agencies, funds and programmes. It encourages collaboration and scalable solutions to support the delivery of UN mandates.

The UN Open Source Principles consist of eight guidelines that offer a framework for the use, development, and sharing of Open Source software across the organization.

The UN Open Source Principles

  1. Open by default: Making Open Source the standard approach for projects.
  2. Contribute back: Encouraging active participation in the Open Source ecosystem.
  3. Secure by design: Making security a priority in all software projects.
  4. Foster inclusive participation and community building: Enabling and facilitating diverse and inclusive contributions.
  5. Design for reusability: Designing projects to be interoperable across various platforms and ecosystems.
  6. Provide documentation: Providing thorough documentation for end-users, integrators and developers.
  7. RISE (recognize, incentivize, support and empower): Empowering individuals and communities to actively participate.
  8. Sustain and scale: Supporting the development of solutions that meet the evolving needs of the UN system and beyond.
We invite other organizations to join in support of the UN Open Source Principles and in contributing to a future of open, inclusive digital solutions worldwide.

To Endorse the UN Open Source Principles, Submit Your Organization's Information Here.

For more information, contact: opensourceunited@un.org

Published 14 May 2025