Data exchange platforms for interoperability: country approaches

This brief summarises key learnings from the dialogue on data exchange platforms for interoperability in social protection delivery systems of Karnataka (India), Uganda, and Chile held on 24 June 2025.

You can watch the recordings and download the materials on the event page.

Overview

This learning brief examines how Karnataka (a state in India), Uganda, and Chile have each advanced the interoperability of digital systems through different data exchange approaches to strengthen the delivery of social protection.

• Karnataka employs an Application Programming Interface (APO) based data exchange model without any separate data exchange platform component, whereas in Kutumba, the state’s integrated social registry facilitates data exchange by connecting with multiple departmental systems, each with its own API layer. The API layer performs many of the functions of the data exchange solution (e.g., authentication, access control, encryption, digital signing).
• Uganda has adopted a centralised architecture with a data exchange platform as the hub connecting the different systems and routing traffic of the different systems through the hub.
• Chile implements a decentralised approach based on its PISEE 2 platform. It relies on a distributed network of secure software “nodes”, with one node installed within each participating agency’s infrastructure and facilitating direct node-to-node bilateral data exchange among systems without any central hub.

The objective of presenting these three models is to demonstrate that the same interoperability standards can be applied across different data exchange architectures, whether decentralised or centralised. The choice of architecture and corresponding data exchange platform follows — rather than dictates — the implementation of interoperability standards. Each system adheres to these standards when communicating with others, exchanging data by following the protocols and message formats defined by the data exchange platform.