Interoperability as a Cornerstone of Resilient Digital Systems

How many apps do you have sitting unused on your phone – once downloaded to meet an urgent need but since then left unused? If you needed them again, would you even remember they were there?

Now, imagine your phone is a government system, and those apps are digital solutions meant to address public service challenges. Over time, as more platforms, dashboards, and tools are introduced, they pile up in silos: disconnected, hard to navigate, and ultimately less effective at delivering long-term impact for the people they were designed to serve.

Governments, the private sector, and NGOs have more digital tools and data at their fingertips than ever before, yet much of it remains untapped, underutilized, or completely unused. Trapped in silos, these data cannot be effectively leveraged to drive evidence-based decision-making or improve public services. Beyond limiting the sustainable impact of these solutions, siloed systems also hinder AI readiness and reduce the value data could add to digital public infrastructure (DPI) – both of which depend on interoperability and open data flows to achieve digital transformation.

At Development Gateway: An IREX Venture (DG), interoperability is central to how we approach digital transformation and design solutions that remain useful and usable long after the lifecycle of a program. In this blog, we unpack what interoperability means to us, drawing on insights from our ‘a Livestock Information Vision for Ethiopia’ (aLIVE) program, before highlighting why interoperability is more needed than ever before.

Solving Data Silos in Africa: Insights from aLIVE

DG has a long history of developing and implementing interoperable digital solutions across a wide range of sectors in Africa. Drawing on Steele and Orrell’s 2017 definition of interoperability as “the ability to join-up data from different sources in a standardized and contextualized way,” we see it as the most effective pathway to transform siloed systems into integrated ecosystems while safeguarding data sovereignty and ensuring local ownership.

But solving data silos is not just a technical challenge. As we‘ve seen in Ethiopia through our aLIVE program, it requires building trust among stakeholders, aligning global best-practices with local priorities, and designing systems to last past a program’s lifecycle. In other words, interoperability is as much about people and processes as it is about technology.

Through aLIVE, we are working with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen the country’s livestock data ecosystem. Rather than layering yet another digital tool on top of existing platforms, the program focuses on connecting what already exists; standardizing livestock data to ensure systems can “talk” to one another. This makes data more usable and timely, while simultaneously fostering a shift from fragmented reporting to collaborative, evidence-based planning and stronger service delivery.

Some key insights from aLIVE’s work in Ethiopia’s livestock sector include:

• Build trust first: Interoperability depends on collaboration, not just between different systems but among the people involved, too. By bringing government agencies and technical experts to the same table, aLIVE has opened a space for dialogue, transparency, and shared ownership of solutions.

• Prioritize the local context: While global standards provide guidance, they only succeed when rooted in local priorities. aLIVE’s co-design process ensures the digital solutions put forward are practical, relevant, and usable within Ethiopia’s unique context.

• Design for sustainability: Technology is only as strong as the ecosystem that supports it. By investing in capacity building – training system owners and data users on how to get the most out of the standardized livestock data – aLIVE is ensuring that the improvements in livestock data will outlast the program itself.

Together, these insights show that interoperability is not only about connecting technical systems, but also about empowering the people and processes behind them to work toward achieving shared goals. By embedding trust, local ownership, and sustainability into its design, aLIVE demonstrates how data silos can be transformed into interoperable ecosystems that strengthen decision-making, improve service delivery, and prepare systems for the future.

It is through ensuring that systems are future-ready that interoperability further sets in place the foundations for AI readiness. With interoperable livestock data, Ethiopia can harness AI tools to predict disease outbreaks, improve food security, and strengthen climate resilience. And because livestock data connects to wider systems – trade, public health, environmental management, and economic planning – it becomes part of the country’s broader digital public infrastructure (DPI). In this way, aLIVE is not only transforming Ethiopia’s livestock data systems but also contributing to a stronger, more resilient digital foundation for the country as a whole.

Why Interoperability is More Needed Than Ever Before

The funding freeze from USAID and other US government agencies in early 2025 sent shockwaves through the international development sector. Its immediate effects were devastating: 34,880 metric tons of emergency food aid bound for Ethiopia sat rotting in shipping containers off the coast of Djibouti, while more than 20 million people worldwide lost access to life-saving HIV treatment and services.

But beyond these visible crises, the longer-term systemic consequences may prove just as damaging. The sudden halt of humanitarian projects destabilized fragile data ecosystems, disrupted data collection efforts, and undermined many of the digital systems that governments and NGOs rely on to deliver essential services. While less headline-grabbing than the rotting of emergency food aid or interruptions to lifesaving treatments, the erosion of data for service delivery is a hidden systemic crisis – one with the potential to weaken development and humanitarian efforts for years to come.

This moment underscores why interoperability is more important than ever. As aLIVE demonstrates in Ethiopia, interoperable data systems are not just about connecting platforms, but about ensuring that countries can build resilience, harness AI, and extend the value of their data across multiple sectors. In the face of funding volatility, interoperability becomes a safeguard against systemic fragility, helping countries sustain service delivery even when donor support diminishes.

Disruption also creates opportunity. The withdrawal of funding has highlighted the need to move away from historic overreliance on external funding toward more country-led, localized, and whole-of-system approaches. As our CEO, Josh Powell, along with the CEO of Results for Development, Gina Lagomarsino, and the former CEO of Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, Claire Melamed, wrote in a recent blog on the data crisis following USAID’s withdrawal, interoperability can be a powerful vehicle for achieving this form of digital transformation.

At this moment of uncertainty for the international development sector, interoperability should not be an afterthought, but a cornerstone for ensuring digital resilience. By enabling open data flows, strengthening local ownership, and embedding sustainability into design, it offers a path for countries to withstand funding shocks, protect sovereignty, and drive long-term digital transformation.

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Read our white paper titled ‘Demystifying Interoperability, which discusses in practical terms what goes into implementing interoperable solutions in partnership with public administrations.