With the growth in bilateral and multilateral international social security agreements, establishing secure data exchange mechanisms is crucial. The International Social Security Association (ISSA) is developing standards and supporting tools for this area.
For international social security agreements to function efficiently, Information Communication and Technology (ICT)-based mechanisms for the secure exchange of data between institutions need to be established and operated according to agreed specifications and procedures. A key issue is the communication between liaison offices, including the transmission of benefits requests and documentation. Also required is periodical information exchange on changes to civil status, as well as benefits received by the beneficiaries and their deaths. This information is required to avoid incorrect payments and fraud.
The ISSA Standards and Tools for International Data Exchange project aims to provide the means to facilitate the implementation of inter-institutional data exchange internationally. The objective is to provide institutions with a ready-to-use data exchange standard as well as generic and modular tools to facilitate the implementation of ICT solutions for international agreements. The standards and tools developed by ISSA should reduce the complexity and costs, and speed up the process, of implementing international social security agreements.
This project is being developed in consultation with the ISSA Working Group on International Social Security Agreements and Data Exchange.