Brief
The MPA countries are digitising fast, but without shared standards each new system risks becoming another island of data. This policy brief makes the case to ministers and financiers for regional interoperability: common data standards, agreed exchange protocols and a governance model that lets country systems share the minimum data needed for regional situational awareness while keeping ownership national. It draws on the POE V2 deployments and the surveillance-system work to show what is already possible and what is blocked by the absence of standards. It recommends a concrete, sequenced set of decisions — adopt a core data dictionary, mandate exchange for a defined regional dataset, and establish a light governance body — that ECSA-HC and member states can act on within one planning cycle.
The islands problem
Rapid but uncoordinated digitisation produces systems that cannot exchange data, undermining regional situational awareness.
What interoperability requires
A core data dictionary, agreed exchange protocols and a light governance model are the minimum ingredients.
Recommendations
Three sequenced decisions let ECSA-HC and members move within a single planning cycle without waiting for perfect systems.
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