Interoperability: Humanitarian Action in a Shared Space

KEY MESSAGES

• Interoperability describes the effort to optimize the response to the needs of affected people by making systems that are very different work better together in a predictable way, based on their respective comparative advantage, without co-opting them and while accommodating different values.

• The humanitarian response environment has changed and expanded tremendously in the past decade: It has become more multipolar and more deregulated. A greater role is now being played by a wider range of more em-powered, credible, and capacitated actors, such as affected people, Governments and local actors themselves, militaries, diaspora communities and the private sector. While this means greater capacity to meet the growing needs, it also bears the risk of incoherence, duplication, inefficiencies and fragmentation. We must therefore focus on connecting and working together better.

• By harnessing the comparative advantage and complementarity of different responders, we can optimize our collective efforts from preparedness to emergency response and recovery, and more effectively meet the needs of affected people.

• To strengthen interoperability between different actors engaged in addressing the needs of disaster – or crisis-affected people – humanitarian or other, some major shifts are needed in the way we work: How we assess needs, plan a response and coordinate, how we finance and recruit, how we manage information and share standards and best practices, and how we make connecting and enabling others a centre-piece of the field work of international agencies.

• Interoperability requires the role of the multilateral humanitarian system to shift from delivering to enabling an effective response. Affected people demand that we meet their needs better, while Governments increasingly want to choose “à la carte” from the national, regional and international tools and coordination services offered by an increasingly diverse set of actors – instead of having heavy structures imposed on them. The role of the multilateral humanitarian system may expand or contract depending on the context. In conflict situations, the multilateral humanitarian system may play a bigger role in leading the response while upholding humanitarian principles.