In the r/opensource subreddit, a really good question was asked by u/Fandekasp
Is there an awesome list of open source projects dedicated to tackling global challenges?
I promised to set one up here at Pangloss Labs and as we’re not far from the United Nations in Geneva I’ve used the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as categories. Here it is, a list of open source hardware and software projects from around the globe that are helping to make the world a better place.
If you know of one that we missed please just tell us and we’ll happily add it. Thanks!
SDG1 No Poverty
- MIfos We provide the end to end set of technologies whether you’re a user looking for software out of the box, a partner looking to resell Mifos X, or a developer looking to build your own solution for mobile banking or digital financial services.
- OpenCBS an innovative platform offering an Open Source Core Banking System as well as other value-added solutions for the microfinance and financial services industry
- Mojaloop Mojaloop is open-source software for financial services companies, government regulators, and others taking on the challenges of interoperability and financial inclusion.
SDG2 Zero Hunger
SDG3 Good Health & Well-Being
- Safecast Safecast is a global volunter-centered citizen science project working to empower people with data about their environments.
- Careables Platform that enables citizens to co-design and deliver people-centered health products through means of digital fabrication.
- GNU Health A Free/Libre project for health practitioners, health institutions and governments. It provides the functionality of Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Hospital Management (HMIS) and Health Information System (HIS).
- MOTECH Mobile Technology for Community Health
- OpenBCI Open Source Brain Computer Interfaces
- OpenMRS The world's leading open source enterprise electronic medical record system platform.
SDG4 Quality Education
- OER Commons OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
- Kolibri makes high quality education technology available in low-resource communities such as rural schools, refugee camps, orphanages, non-formal school systems, and prison systems.
- Moodle Open-source learning platform
- Kiwix lets you access free knowledge – even offline. Store Wikipedia or any website on your mobile phone or computer, easily
- Wikipedia the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
SDG5 Gender Equality
- Wikigender Your online platform to share research, data and solutions to advance gender equality.
- Open Gender Project Creating and promoting a practical and inclusive way to handle gender in software.
SDG6 Clean Water & Sanitation
- OHorizons Open Source Water Purification Systems
SDG7 Affordable & Clean Energy
- OSeMOSYS – Home Open Source Energy Modelling System
- OpenEMS Open Source Energy Management System
- OpenEnergyMonitor Open source monitoring for understanding energy. Exploring the context of renewable energy and zero carbon
- Open Energy Models Open Source Energy Modelling Systems
- ONSSET Open Source Spatial Electrification Tool
- LF Energy Open Source for Energy Transition
SDG9 Innovation, Industry & Infrastructure
- OpenHab Software for smart home management
- Safecast Safecast is a global volunter-centered citizen science project working to empower people with data about their environments.
- Open Source Ecology Open Source Blueprints for Civilization. Build Yourself.
- Open Data Kit Free and open-source software for collecting, managing, and using data in resource-constrained environments.
- OpenBuilds Build an open source machine for building things
- openTCS The open transportation control system
- WikiHouse is a digitally-manufactured building system. It aims to make it simple for anyone to design, manufacture and assemble beautiful, high-performance homes that are customised to their needs.
- Oasis Loss Modelling Framework An open source catastrophe modelling platform, free to use by anyone.
- Open Robotics ROS for building robots, Gazebo for simulating them
SDG10 Reduced Inequalities
- Enabling The Future A Global Network Of Passionate Volunteers Using 3D Printing To Give The World A "Helping Hand."
- Electric wheelchair conversion kit An open kit to bring electric drive to any existing wheelchair for cheap (and -hopefully- safe)
- Mighty House Mighty House is an open source tool kit that enables everyday people to create transitional shelter for those experiencing homelessness.
- MOTECH Mobile Technology for Community Health
- Open Data Kit Free and open-source software for collecting, managing, and using data in resource-constrained environments.
SDG11 Sustainable Cities & Communities
- OpenHab Software for smart home management
- FarmBot Open-Source CNC Farming
- OpenDroneMap Drone Mapping Software. Generate maps, point clouds, 3D models and DEMs from drone, balloon or kite images.
- WikiHouse is a digitally-manufactured building system. It aims to make it simple for anyone to design, manufacture and assemble beautiful, high-performance homes that are customised to their needs.
- Open Source Ecology Open Source Blueprints for Civilization. Build Yourself.
- OpenFarm Grow Your Food. Farm and garden through knowledge sharing
- CityOS Open source city software available to all
- OSGeoLive a self-contained bootable DVD, USB thumb drive or Virtual Machine based on Lubuntu, that allows you to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.
- CiviCRM Open source constituent relationship management for non-profits, NGOs and advocacy organizations.
- QGIS A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System
SDG12 Responsible Consumption & Production
- Open Source Circular Economy Days A global ecosystem of resilient local circular economies bound by the spirit of openness, collaboration, diversity and motivation for a thriving planet and fairer society.
- RepRap – RepRap RepRap is humanity's first general-purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine.
SDG13 Climate Action
- OS-°C an Open Source collaboration community to build a software platform that will dramatically boost global capital flows into climate change mitigation and resilience.
- Public Lab Public Lab is a community where you can learn how to investigate environmental concerns.
- ffem Foundation for Environmental Monitoring
- Apache Open Climate Workbench An effort to develop software that performs climate model evaluation using model outputs from a variety of different sources
- xanthos Xanthos is an open-source hydrologic model, written in Python, designed to quantify and analyze global water availability.
SDG14 Life Below Water
- FishBase A Global Information System on Fishes
- FAO Fisheries OPEN ARTFISH stands for Open Approaches, Rules and Techniques for Fisheries statistical monitoring.
- Open-Source Ocean Acoustics open source tools and resources in ocean acoustics
- WikiWatershed A web toolkit designed to help citizens, conservation practitioners, municipal decision-makers, researchers, educators, and students advance knowledge and stewardship of fresh water.
- FOCUS The FOCUS (Fisheries Open Source Community Software) community has been established with the purpose to create and maintain free software dedicated to the management and preservation of the fishery resource.
SDG15 Life On Land
- OpenDroneMap Drone Mapping Software. Generate maps, point clouds, 3D models and DEMs from drone, balloon or kite images.
- Open Foris Free open-source solutions for environmental monitoring
- Open Source Seeds Protecting seed as commons – the alternative to monopolies and corporate power!
SDG16 Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions
- MySociety Tools for democracy. Our code is open source
- bellingcat Tools for open source investigations
- Oasis Loss Modelling Framework An open source catastrophe modelling platform, free to use by anyone.
- ContraxSuite Open Source AI powered Legal Software
SDG17 Partnerships For The Goals
- Toolkit: Activating the 2030 Agenda An open source kit to build your own multi-stakeholder SDG lab
I’m sure I missed a whole bunch. If you know of one that we missed please just tell us and we’ll happily add it. Thanks!
