Bridging early warning and social protection: how can we improve interoperability?

This event took place on July 23, 2026. You can watch the recordings and download the materials below.

Overview

This webinar was the second edition of Pressure Test, a practitioner series produced by the SPIAC-B Working Group on Linking Humanitarian (Cash) Assistance and Social Protection and hosted by socialprotection.org.

The DCI was developing technical interoperability standards designed to contribute to closing the interoperability gap between Early warning systems and SP systems. These standards would enable early warning systems and social protection delivery systems to exchange data directly through machine-to-machine APIs.

The team was exploring questions on governance, suitability and adoption. How can early warning systems be leveraged for timely humanitarian as well as social protection assistance to the poor and vulnerable? A flood forecast, a drought index, or a displacement signal rarely triggers a response on its own — the systems sit in separate institutions, separate legal regimes, separate communication channels and separate data infrastructures, so every shock still depends on ad hoc coordination to connect warning to social protection action. So how can early warning systems exchange data with HA-SP systems in a secure, standardized, and interoperable way?

Your expert and practitioner inputs were highly appreciated in building consensus, as early warning systems are also leveraged by Humanitarian sector systems.

Presenter

• Anita Mittal, Component Lead – DCI, GIZ / Digital Convergence Initiative

Co-contributors

• Veronika Wodsak, Social Protection Policy Specialist, ILO/ Digital Convergence Initiative
• Valentina Barca, Independent Consultant