About
Fragmentation, silos, and the lack of harmonisation: despite widespread recognition of the benefits that digital solutions can yield, countries are facing challenges to fully realise them. While social protection programmes follow a common set of processes, fragmentation and the inability to communicate among themselves hinder their full utilisation. This absence of harmonisation and interoperability not only impedes the attainment of social protection outcomes, but also results in the inefficient use of public funds. The healthcare sector has interoperability architecture and standards, such as OpenHIE 5 and FHIR standards. However, no such standards exist for the social protection sector. The DCI aims to address this gap.
A framework for interoperability standards is required to create an interoperable social protection delivery system. This framework must provide common terminology and a common structure for use across various social protection domains. With a well-designed interoperability framework, systems can be made interoperable and scalable for future transaction volumes, ensuring a smooth flow of information between different parts of the social protection information system, beneficiaries, private sector players, and governments. The DCI aims to create such a framework in a consensus-built manner.
Standards development process
DCI sets up Standards Committees, who facilitate consensus building on the draft standards created by Standards Drafting Groups, through an open and consultative process.
Once the review of the draft is completed by the Standards Committee, it will be submitted by its co-chairs to the DCI Steering Committee, which will subject it to Public Review. The Standards Committee and the Standards Drafting Group will support the analysis of the feedback and its incorporation in the standards. This standards would then be submitted to USP2030 for review and endorsement and mobilizing support.
Overall, the process involves three main steps:
- Creation & submission of draft standards by a Standards Drafting Group to the DCI
- Review & consensus-building on the standards by a Standards Committee, the Public, and the DCI Steering Committee
- Endorsement of the standards by USP2030 and other organizations
Standards Drafting Groups
Standards Drafting Groups draft the specifications for process, data elements and API for a chosen interface relevant for integrated and interoperable social protection delivery systems, as e.g. discussed in the Interoperability in Action workshops. These Standards Drafting Groups may be formed by any entity including a group of members supported by DCI, other initiatives, or independent entities. The Standards Drafting Group notifies the DCI about its intent to submit the draft standards at least four weeks in advance to enable setting up a standards committee to review and build consensus on the standards. The standards documentation would be made available open-source on GitBook and GitHub to ensure a transparent reviewing process.
Standards Committees
DCI sets up one Standard Committee (SC) per interface to review the draft standards by experts. Members originate from a wide range of backgrounds like academia, government representatives, DPG (Digital Public Good) and DPI (Digital Public Infrastructure) organizations, international bodies, and the private sector providing diverse perspectives for consensus building. The Standard Committee closely collaborates with the Standards Drafting Group, for feedback incorporation. Each Standard Committee is co-chaired by two members and has at least one facilitator managing the committee’s activities. A description of the distinct roles within the committee is depicted below.
