Key Users and Business Processes

Social Registries (SR) are information systems that support the outreach, intake, registration, and needs/eligibility assessment of potential beneficiaries for social programs. In contrast, Integrated Beneficiary Registries (IBR) track and coordinate actual beneficiaries enrolled in social assistance or social protection programs, recording benefit history, program participation, and service delivery. Both are typically part of a broader social protection information ecosystem, interfacing with payment, case management, and grievance mechanisms (Leite et al., 2017).

A Social Registry thus ‘casts a wide net’ to include the target population (even if many of them may not ultimately receive benefits), whereas an Integrated Beneficiary Registry focuses on those already enrolled, facilitating monitoring of who receives which benefits (Barca and Chirchir, 2020).

Examples:

• Brazil’s Cadastro Único is a large Social Registry serving ~70 million people for over 30 federal programs (Lindert et al., 2020).

• Kenya’s National Single Registry is primarily an Integrated Beneficiary Registry consolidating data from multiple cash transfer programs (Barca and Carraro, 2020).

The Social Registry (SR) and the Integrated Beneficiary Registry (IBR) serve distinct but interdependent roles in social protection. An SR centers on potential beneficiaries, encompassing outreach, intake, and assessment. It provides a foundation for identifying and prioritizing those in need. An IBR, conversely, concentrates on actual enrolled beneficiaries, coordinating benefit delivery, tracking payment histories, and supporting cross-program analytics (Barca, 2017).

1. SR addresses the early stages of the delivery chain, bridging individuals to programs.

2. IBR supports ongoing program management, including benefit disbursement, compliance tracking, and transitions between programs.

By addressing diverse user needs—from local field workers registering remote populations to senior policymakers analyzing system-wide performance—SR and IBR systems ensure more inclusive, efficient, and evidence-based social protection. Real-world experience shows that integrating these registries with external government databases (e.g., national ID, tax records, etc.) amplifies accuracy and reduces administrative burdens. Countries such as Turkey, Chile, and Brazil demonstrate that well-designed SR/IBR systems can significantly streamline the social assistance landscape, enhancing both governance and citizen experience (World Bank, 2020; Lindert et al., 2020).