In its universal ambition to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity by 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) feature social protection prominently in five (1,3,5,8 and 10) of its seventeen global goals. Social protection programs are executed to assist poor and vulnerable individuals and families cope during emergencies and shocks, enhance productivity, invest in the health and education of children and in the protection of the ageing populace. When well designed and implemented, these programs can boost human capital and productivity, reduce inequalities, build resilience, promote inclusive economic development and break intergenerational cycles of poverty. The full potential of social protection programs has been slow in developing countries due to low participation in the formal economy, the nature of risks experienced in these countries and the high costs associated with insuring the poor.
The COVID-19 pandemic has awakened the urgency of social protection programs. In addition to workers falling ill, some worked fewer hours and others lost their jobs. Those who had no jobs prior to the pandemic faced prolonged hardships. Policymakers were in haste to implement crisis management responses. Those measures imperilled economic sectors risking the widening of social inequality and increasing poverty. As of April 2020, 151 countries had planned, adopted or introduced 684 social protection measures in response to the crisis. Cash and in-kind transfer programs were the most widely used protection measure especially in low-income countries due to their ease of implementation and ability to enhance resilience.
The scope of COVID-19 social assistance programs in terms of spending and a share of the population receiving assistance from these programs is unprecedented. In the implementation of COVID-19 Social Protection Programs, countries came up with ways to target vulnerable groups especially those in the non-formal sector and “missing middle” (such as migrant workers).
The pandemic exposed the supreme merit of possessing data (especially real-time data) on individuals and households. Governments trying to provide financial relief to its citizens faced infrastructural bottlenecks and the availability of data. Not only does good data permit rapid registration of new beneficiaries, but also facilitates digital payments.
The crisis has delineated how social protection systems are lacking in providing social protection and highlighted the need for comprehensive, coherent and universal systems. There is a need to improve social information systems and social registries to expand coverage levels, tackle errors of inclusion and exclusion, integrate data into a single social information system, increase levels of interoperability, optimize the construction of targeting instruments, incorporating new information and communications technology and developing the institutional framework associated with social protection systems at the different territorial levels. This will require data that is inclusive, current and relevant.
Social Protection has 3 pillars: social assistance, social insurance and labour marketing policies. Integration entails linking programs within the respective pillars and across pillars.
At the administrative level, different protection schemes can share data and monitoring systems, which can be linked to other civil registries. At operational level, social integration schemes can share enrollment and delivery systems. Finally, at the institutional level, a single administrative institution can be mandated to coordinate social protection activities across different sectors and ministries.
Social information systems should contain data that:
- Makes it possible to determine the characteristics of potential beneficiaries and to select applicants (social registries);
- Provides background information on the offering available in the different areas of social protection, which includes data on the number of individuals, families or households receiving social entitlements, their characteristics and the type of entitlement provided (registers of beneficiaries or users);
- Contains geographic and location information on users and potential users for the delivery of entitlements;
- Includes contact and bank data to facilitate the cash transfer payment process;
- Contains administrative data associated with the income and expenditure levels of the population.
Integrating data and Information management for social protection is an investment at a policy and operational level. At a policy level, it:
- Ensures universal coverage and support implementation of the social protection floor;
- Increases linkage to the complementary institutional framework and wider social and economic policies in place;
- Increases transparency and accountability as a program can be more easily shared and compared;
- Improves ‘image’ of the social protection system and Increases knowledge on issues around poverty and vulnerability.
At an operational level, its merits of integration include:
- Facilitating oversight of multiple schemes and reporting to policymakers;
- Improving budget planning and ability to model and test policy changes;
- Decreasing burden on staff;
- Decreasing the burden on potential applicants and the potential to establish a ‘common entry point’ for social protection;
- Avoiding duplication of effort (and cost-saving);
- Establishing common systems across all schemes.
To strengthen the socio-economic outputs of social protection policies, Integrated social protection interventions are imperative. Moreover, it offers outstanding opportunities for improvements in gender equality through influence on employment and education, maternal and child health, relationship dynamics, fertility, domestic violence and accessibility to resources. The post-COVID-19 period presents an opportunity to abandon “individual” programs and invest in “systems” that consolidate a range of social assistance programs and social insurance components. An opportunity to shift from ‘benefits’ towards right-based ‘entitlement’.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7458781/#CR25
- https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/46868/1/S2100029_en.pdf
- https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/integrating-data-information-management-social-prote ction-s5.pdf
- http://ipcig.org/sites/default/files/pub/en/PIF47_What_s_next_for_social_protection_in_light_of_CO VID_19.pdf
- https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/655201595885830480-0090022020/original/WBG2PxScal ingupSocialAssistancePaymentsasPartoftheCovid19PandemicResponse.pdf
- https://www.povertyactionlab.org/case-study/designing-social-protection-program-during-covid-1 9
- https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/integrating-data-information-management-social-prote ction-a1-kenya.pdf
- https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/supporting-livelihoods-during-the-covid-19-c risis-closing-the-gaps-in-safety-nets17cbb92d/