This brief aims to clarify the critical links that must be created between adopting emerging technologies in digital transformation strategies, open data, and data governance to strengthen the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Governments, especially in the Global South, can establish more sustainable data governance based on participatory and citizen-centric processes, multi-stakeholder business models, and performance management. Data governance has become a pillar of digital transformation. This document supports policymakers and public managers, particularly in the Global South, in the complex task of digital transformation and adoption of emerging technologies to better integrate open data and establish data governance to promote sustainability.