Digitalisation is the key to achieving USP2030 goal
Written by Zita Adamson on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ)
Experts from around the world gather at virtual side event of the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development to hear about efforts to support the digital transformation of social protection systems to make them more adaptive, efficient and inclusive.
More than a hundred social protection and ICT experts gathered at a virtual side event at the HLPF on Sustainable Development on July 9, 2024, to discuss how human-centred digitalisation in social protection could contribute to improving people’s lives.
Digitalisation transforms the provision of social protection services. It helps identify people in need, reach them faster and serve them better. Reaping these benefits, however, relies on seamless communication between social protection management information systems and other systems, such as Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Identification (ID) systems, payment systems and other registries. The Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) was set up to help countries achieve these benefits and meet the USP2030 goal. Launched in 2021, it supports the digital transformation of social protection systems globally and also, through a participatory approach, builds consensus on standards for interoperability between systems. (Read this earlier article in Healthy Developments to find out more.) By focusing on digital transformation, the initiative also aligns with the EU’s Global Gateway investment agenda. This supports partner countries in their economic, green, and digital transitions and is anchored in European values, norms, and democratic principles.
This virtual side event was organised by the EU and the DCI’s implementing partners - Germany, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Bank – to announce significant new EU funding for the DCI and openIMIS, two flagship initiatives moving digitalisation in social protection forward globally.
The event was moderated by Luis Frota, Programme Manager, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Universal Social Protection Department, ILO.
Attendees at the side event, on the topic of ‘Supporting the Digital Transformation and Interoperability of Social Protection Systems Globally towards Achieving the Goal of Universal Social Protection 2030’, heard how digitalisation has the potential to close gaps in social protection and enable inclusive delivery at scale.
In her opening remarks, Shahra Razavi, Director, Universal Social Protection Department, ILO highlighted that digital technologies are key enablers of USP2030’s ambition to accelerate progress towards inclusive, rights-based, gender-sensitive social protection that leaves no one behind.
This age of profound and accelerated technological change brings enormous opportunities for developing countries to be able to leapfrog their social protection systems, reach new people and ensure these people are effectively enjoying their social protection rights.
Shahra Razavi, ILO
However, in far too many countries, fragmented social protection information systems are still unable to ‘talk’ to other systems. ‘This lack of harmonisation and lack of interoperability not only impacts on social protection outcomes but also leads to a wastage of precious public expenditure,’ she said.
The DCI offers a unique opportunity to bring countries together to share best practice, learn from one another and develop a global consensus on technical standards.
EU announces 18m EUR support for Digital Convergence Initiative
In his opening remarks, Martin Seychell, Deputy Director General, DG-INTPA, European Commission, agreed that digitalisation offered huge potential to increase coverage of social protection and announced new EU support of 18m EUR for the Digital Convergence Initiative. He also announced EU support for the open-source software openIMIS, the sector’s leading Digital Public Good.
The new EU funding will bring in France and Spain in a Team Europe approach alongside Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), ILO and the World Bank which have jointly steered the DCI since its inception. This expanded partnership will enable the initiative to support more countries in their journey to digitalise their social protection systems.
Mr Seychell emphasised that the Covid-19 pandemic had demonstrated the power of digital solutions to give social assistance to those who most needed it. Within six months of the start of lockdowns, more than 200 countries rolled out more than 1,000 social protection programmes, he said. Over 60% of these programmes offered direct cash transfers and more than 80% of these transfers involved digital delivery.
The importance of consensus-based standards
In her presentation, Anita Mittal, Lead Digital Convergence Initiative, GIZ, gave attendees an update on the initiative’s achievements to date including the process it had developed to build a global consensus on standards.
Developing consensus-based standards will help create an ecosystem of innovation.
Anita Mittal, GIZ
Common standards will reduce the time and cost to build systems because people will be able to mix and match, picking components from different providers that work best in their context, and ensuring that their system is future-proofed by design. Welcoming the new EU support, Ms. Mittal said this support would enable the Digital Convergence Initiative to support ten countries over three years (10 in 3).
Global impact of openIMIS software
Attendees also heard from Saurav Bhattarai, Lead openIMIS, GIZ, about the achievements of the free, open-source software openIMIS. Thanks to its diverse community of practice and strategic partnerships with the World Bank and ILO, this software is now being used in 12 countries to manage 15 different social protection programmes, benefiting more than 23.7 million people worldwide.
Being a true digital public good and being open source allows different implementations to build on top of each other’s achievements and really grow the software.
Saurav Bhattarai, GIZ
Mr. Bhattari explained that the strategic partnership with the World Bank had broadened the scope of openIMIS to social cash transfers, as a result of merging the Bank’s Core MIS software with openIMIS. He said the partnership with the ILO was also proving fruitful, with four implementations of openIMIS around the world supported by the ILO, particularly in social security settings.
Chile and Pakistan already reaping benefits of digitalisation
In the panel discussion, Verónica Achá Alvarez, Head of Social Information Division, Ministry of Social Development and Family, Chile, shared insights on Chile’s work to create an interoperable social protection registry that brought together everyone in the country, even those who could only potentially benefit from social protection support. To achieve this, Chile transferred the burden of collecting data to the state, using a range of administrative records to understand a family’s income.
Chile was ready in terms of both technology and connectivity. This allowed us to develop and to implement this interoperability. Before 2016, it would have been impossible to have a registry like this – unthinkable.
Verónica Achá Alvarez, Ministry of Social Development and Family, Chile
She urged countries at the start of the digital transformation journey to begin by reviewing the common standards developed by the DCI. ‘Don’t start with a blank page. Look at the proposed standards and the tools to implement them. This will enable you to start with a solid base,’ she said.
Naveed Akbar, Director General, National Socio-economic Registry and CCTs, Benazir Income Support Programme, Pakistan, emphasises that his country’s National Socio-economic register serves as the central pillar of Pakistan’s digital transformation. He added that the dynamic register was used as a single targeting platform to identify people eligible for a range of different interventions, from cash-based support to in-kind programmes. Digital transformation started in 2019, with digitalised data collection including the use of GPS co-ordinates to list households. Inter-operability with other databases including the civil registry allows for real-time validation and verification, ensuring that the information being collected is accurate.
Our digital transformation has really paid off during crisis situations. For example, when a flood happened in 2022, with the help of GPS co-ordinates we were able to identify the affected population living below the poverty line and roll out a programme of support within ten days.
Naveed Akbar, Benazir Income Support Programme, Pakistan
Digitalised social protections more resilient
Jamele Rigolini, Senior Advisor, Social Protection and Jobs, World Bank, concurred with his co-panellists on the transformative impact of digitalisation. ‘It’s been a game-changer, a true revolution in delivery,’ he stated. Rigolini shared that 60% of the World Bank’s work in 70 countries supporting 280m people either directly or indirectly, now involves some form of digital delivery. He highlighted several benefits including enhanced speed and efficiency in collecting and managing information, improved identification of eligible beneficiaries, better understanding of available benefits by social service departments, and greater resilience to climate shocks and other crises. Many countries could now integrate their social protection systems to the Disaster Risk Management early warning system, he added, enabling them to react faster and more accurately in the face of events such as flooding.
Digitalisation has become part of our DNA.
Jamele Rigolini, World Bank
But he cautioned that technology also comes with inherent risks and emphasised the importance of maintaining a people-centric approach. ‘We cannot afford to move to a situation where the answer becomes “the system doesn’t allow it.” The system should be at the service of people.’ he stressed.
Closing the event, Kathrin Oellers, Head of Division “Social Protection and sexual and reproductive health and rights”, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), said the discussion had demonstrated the positive impact that digitalisation was already having on social protection systems.
She added: ‘We can only succeed if all of us – development partners, governments, civil society organisations and private businesses – step up to this challenge. Germany remains committed to this goal and looks forward to continuing to cooperate with existing DCI partners and to welcoming new ones so that together we can achieve the goal of USP2030.’
