Session II: Summary of inputs and discussion

Introduction to approaches of digital solutions and technical features

openIMIS Initiative (Speaker: Saurav Bhattarai)

The collaboration and interoperability of openIMIS with other digital public goods has always been a key factor. For the linking of openIMIS with other networks such as OpenHIE, a core factor has been the use of standards. Saurav Bhattarai: “We want to be a part of an eco-system and not a tool run in silo”.  This is why, right from the beginning, openIMIS has always had focused on implementing established standards and following existing guidelines for its developments. A standard that openIMIS implements is HL7 FHIR which is a widely recognized and used within digital health systems. Given that openIMIS is expanding into new ventures in social protection, it is looking into how to engage with other partners and understand existing standards, as well as contribute to the development of new ones. As an immediate undertaking, openIMIS’ is seeking for ways to have standardised interfaces/connections to systems managing (digital) payments as well as social registries.

CORE-MIS by World bank (Speaker: Ubah Thomas Ubah)

CORE-MIS implementation by World bank started when COVID-19 hit. It is a software that was created “with the aim of leapfrogging digital implementations between countries”, explains Ubah Thomas Ubah. The CORE-MIS provides a quick foundation and assists the partner governments to easily deploy digital tools which can help them to grow their (social protection) programmes, while being able to further develop the digital system within their countries. It is a web-based application, which is currently implemented and piloted to support safety-net interventions such as emergency cash transfers in response to shocks that were brought by COVID-19. Implementations at different stages are ongoing in Zambia, Mozambique, Togo, and Sierra Leone. The solution offers modules ranging from implementation of the beneficiary registries for the targeting of social protection, payment and reconciliations, governance, and citizen engagements (GRM). It offers integration services to third party applications to broaden implementations (data collection tools, mobile network services).

HOPE by UNICEF (Speaker: Alexis Boncenne)

HOPE is a system used by the UNICEF for the management of humanitarian cash transfers. It started in 2021 and is currently rolled-out in five countries (Sudan, South-Sudan, DRC, Central African Republic, and Afghanistan) the sixth coming up in December 2021, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. HOPE is web-based developed in Python, and focuses on leveraging existing global good tools being used in humanitarian responses and beyond, e.g. for the registration functionality, HOPE interoperates with the http://www.kobotoolbox.org , instead of having a separate registration module. Similarly, HOPE connects to existing payment systems developed by UNHCR, which enables the added functionality of allowing to manage the full flow of cash transfers to beneficiaries even under dire conditions.

HOPE has very specific targeting modules meaning that despite being a humanitarian response, it can also identify the need among beneficiaries and ensure that the benefits are provided to those in need. Keeping along those lines, HOPE also has grievance and feedback modules that allow for better payment verification. These modules can be integrated to external solutions (eg. SMS) which allows the system to be in touch with the beneficiary, final service provider and the community leaders conducting the registration of beneficiaries. The goal of HOPE is to become a public digital good within the next 2-3 years. In the framework of 5 years it plans to reach out to most of the countries where UNICEF is implementing humanitarian cash transfer including the biggest operations e.g. Yemen. The HOPE initiative plays a role in monitoring of funds for cash transfers and that the right beneficiaries receive them, but UNICEF also has a role as implementer of cash transfer schemes especially where the social protection system is still very nascent.

Needs for standards and interoperability for users (Speaker: Rodrigo Asumpcao)

Looking at the software from the user’s perspective is no longer just the perspective of the user but about the society as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic has made societies to understand why building data infrastructures and information & data management are very crucial. Data is being collected, processed, analysed, used, and even commercialized everywhere, there is need therefore for this data to be used securely.

Within this context, data and information are the fundamental assets of openIMIS and most other social protection organisations that enable for decision making and operation. This data does not inherently belong to the organisations but to the users and society (individual and collective data rights). Data as described by Rodrigo “is a strategic public asset and part of a national data infrastructure”. We need to define these processes. openIMIS has helped many institutions in building of these infrastructures.

There is a need to discuss beyond a MIS, a master data management process, to focus on data quality in data collection and maintenance. Furthermore, there is a need to adopt international standards, best practices and to partner with multiple institutions.” As Rodrigo Asumpcao concludes “… we need to discuss the standards and commonalities that enables the operation, exchange and interoperability within management information systems, which is what the convergence initiative is about."

Social Protection Convergence Initiative (Speaker: Anita Mittal)

The variety of social protection programmes that assist people from birth to death whether be it social assistance, social insurance, or labour market programs, follow a common process that starts from registration, eligibility assessment, commissioning of goods and services, monitoring etc.  In order to achieve the goal of Universal Social Protection (USP), existing social protection systems and the information systems that are being used to manage them must be leveraged. These systems which are generally complex in nature can produce a lot of benefits and efficiency if they are integrated and interoperable. Anita emphasizes the importance of interoperability of MIS systems in delivering social protection systems.

The challenge of fragmentation of digital systems managing social protection can be solved with use of defined standards. Systems based on standards common interfaces can be developed, so that each system provider can integrate or relate to other systems and ultimately be ‘interoperable by design’.

Providing solutions which are “interoperable by design”, as was stressed by Anita, will reduce the time and cost for designing digital solutions in social protection and ensure that they are prepared for future demands. It would allow flexibility for governments and programs to choose the digital component(s) which best meets their demands. All of these without the worry of if a system is going to be interoperable or not.

Eventually, consensus-based standards and guidelines are key to advancing the meaningful exchange of data.

 The Convergence Initiative takes up the challenge and gathers partners to work towards joint standard and guidelines, with the following objectives:

• Foster an ecosystem for innovation by technology solution providers to build products that are interoperable, based on globally agreed standards and guidelines.

• Reduce the time and cost of developing solutions at the country or program level.

• Design systems that are prepared for future demands, beyond the current level of maturity of policy and information systems.

• Enable countries and programs to mix and match interoperable pieces from various vendors.

 The initiative was formed as a joint effort by USP2030[1] members, governments, development partners, civil society and the private sector towards creating integrated and interoperable social protection information systems. It presents an open, transparent, and virtual community working to build a global consensus around standards and guidelines for social protection information systems. The initiative runs as part of a working group under USP2030 which is chaired by ILO and the World Bank.

The Convergence Initiative calls on the support of  experts and organisations in social (health) protection to join, share knowledge, help draft these standards, create awareness, develop these standards and apply them in their respective digital solutions to help shape the initiative’s actions.

Panel discussion   

Olivier Praz kicks off the panel discussions by describing one of the commonalities among the three different software (openIMIS, CORE-MIS and HOPE), which is the fact that they are being developed with public funds and are non-profit making. All three are tools to be used in support of development projects, in order to reach those in need and have a positive impact.

In the discussion we want to look at where the synergies lie between the software.

The first aspect for discussion, as brought up by ILO, is data governance. With the background of the three software being somehow public goods, for all of them it is relevant to look at how data is dealt with and who has access to this data. In this light the panellists started discussions on the following questions:

Question 1: What are the rights regarding security and management of data?

UNICEF (HOPE): In the first place the collection of data is minimalised with only very essential data collected as we are talking about very sensitive data in potential conflict zones. This data is stored, and the system is regularly tested in security trials to ensure the data is not leaked. The consent of the beneficiaries are taken and a clear explanation of the terms of the consent is made. In terms of access, when working with partners who will have access to data - potential government partners, NGOs or other UN agencies – it is very important in any setting to have proper data sharing agreements in place before we actually implement. In many cases, access is not granted to all the data but only specifically to what will be needed in that implementation.

ILO: In general, the first focus is protecting the data from fraud. You find yourself in an arms race – you advance in your data security instalments and stay reasonably safe for six months and then attacks to gain access to data start again. From this you can see, security is not a destination, security is a constant journey and protecting your data goes well beyond contracts and arrangements. It is a mixture of technical capacity, legal elements and mostly a lot of governance and management capacity that will keep the system updated for new uses and protected from new forms of attacks. The event of COVID-19 was a proof of this, where already existing data bases were harnessed to be used by countries for different purposes e.g. in the context of providing new social protection programs.

openIMIS: In a system like openIMIS e.g. when you look at a health insurance scheme, in an employment injury insurance or a cash transfer scheme, there is a lot of data that other people beyond the scheme operators might want to have access to and use. As the openIMIS initiative does not provide software as a service our first view on data protection is to ensure the security of the technical system. At the same time, we are constantly learning about the specific needs of a country and advise our potential users or implementers on the best practices for data security. For example during the openIMIS implementation in Nepal, similar to the discussion on data ownership, the question was where would the openIMIS server be placed, should it be cloud based (on an amazon server) or physically stored in the office of the scheme operator or at the national government data centre and what legal consequences would go with this. Eventually the decision went to hosting the server at the national government data centre, which could also assure all required back-up mechanisms that are necessary for a country prone to natural disaster.

Question 2: What is done to link your systems to existing, local social protection schemes/ How can the system link to existing service delivery schemes or software?

World Bank (CORE-MIS): One of the core features in architectural and technical design of the CORE-MIS is that it leverages on all open source tools. The CORE-MIS is designed based on the social protection delivery chain which allows the functionalities that follow the standards known within the social protection delivery systems. 

Inside the CORE-MIS you have application programming interfaces (API) which allow interoperability with systems like the http://www.kobotoolbox.org . Taking the example of Zambia, where the entry point to the scheme already had an existing Management Information System supporting the cash transfer program, the CORE-MIS was brought in to fill up the gaps that this program presented. The payment platform was already built with a payment gateway that was interoperable with a payment service provider in the country. The CORE-MIS, in this case, leveraged its interoperability module to connect with the other payment service providers.

Reacting to a question by Olivier Praz, Thomas Ubah explains “The initial idea was to connect with the World bank funded programs, but now the CORE-MIS is going beyond this scope”.

ILO: The use of openIMIS in Bangladesh and Pakistan started with the need to digitize and automate the existing employment injury and compensation schemes which were created after some major industrial accidents that injured several workers [2]. The system is now being expanded to cover workers within the "ready-made” garment industry. The goal is to provide a basis for the setting up of a universal employment injury scheme. Rodrigo Assumpcao refers to the example of Bangladesh’s LIMA software for labour inspection (run by the Ministry of Labour) to demonstrate the interoperability feature of openIMIS. openIMIS was connected to LIMA to get the data of registered enterprises (which are subjects to the inspections) instead of opting for the data that was provided by the ready-made garment association. This was in preparation for the expansion that was hoped for and the consolidation of data to one source for registered enterprises. Rodrigo Assumpcao concluded by saying “instead of building different databases to solve your immediate problems, try to contribute to the overall structure of the data environment or country of operation”.

Question 3: To what extent is your existing software allowing you to extend to in-kind solutions.

UNICEF: UNICEF provides in-kind assistance to compliment cash assistance such as the cash plus nutrition. HOPE is already being used to monitor the payments in cash transfers but in order to understand the impact all programs have, the goal is to get it to trace the in-kind solutions that have been delivered and how safely information can be exchanged.

Regarding interoperability between HOPE and local platforms, HOPE can be presented as a multi-outlet that many different systems can plug into. It is built so that HOPE can consume data from different systems and potentially send it to other systems. Consuming data is important to understand potential population of interest for the delivery of service (in a humanitarian crisis). Data protection is an essential component to be considered in interoperability. The exchange of data must happen in a very certain manner to avoid leakage and misuse of this data. “The connections between different systems are difficult to manage and involves a lot of protocols and that is why the use of standards is very crucial”, emphasis Alexis Boncenne - “The connections between the platforms have to be bulletproof.”

Further Resources

• Convergence Initiative in Social Protection flyer, Nov 2021 (PDF for download)

[1] USP2030: The Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals was launched at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2016.

[2] Bangladesh: 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse - Wikipedia; Pakistan: 2012 Pakistan factory fires - Wikipedia