Break-out Session II.3: Disability Management Information System - The case for an open DMIS
Type of contribution: 60 min break-out session
Moderator: Sofia Af Hallstrom, program officer UNICEF Nepal
Presenters:
Alexandre Cote, Disability Policy and Systems Specialist - Global Program Division, UNICEF;
Badri Karki, Under Secretary Ministry of Women, Children, Gender and Sexual Minorities, and Social Security, Nepal.
Beuthor Tongpaothor, Head of Disability Development Division, Department of Policy for Devotees, Disabilities and Older Persons, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Lao PDR
Jigme Dorji, Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF Bhutan
Quick teaser:
This breakout session will explore why countries need Disability Management Information Systems (DMIS) to support disability identification, assessment, registration, referrals, access to benefits and services, and planning for disability inclusion. Drawing on examples from Lao PDR, Bhutan and Nepal, the session will discuss how an open-source DMIS solution through openIMIS could help countries avoid starting from scratch while ensuring national ownership, configurability and interoperability with social protection, health, education, CRVS and local service delivery systems. Participants will be invited to share feedback on priority country use cases, core functions, interoperability needs and safeguards.
Description:
Why DMIS is needed
Countries increasingly need reliable disability-related information systems to support identification, assessment, registration, referrals, access to benefits and services, and planning for disability inclusion. Administrative identification and registration processes for children and adults with disabilities are becoming central to access to social protection, education support, health and rehabilitation services, assistive technology, care and support, and CRPD monitoring. Yet many countries still rely on paper-based processes, isolated registries or ad hoc databases that are costly to develop and difficult to connect with social protection, health, education, CRVS and local service delivery systems.
Why an open-source solution matters
Many countries face similar design needs: intake, disability and support-needs assessment, validation, registration, referrals, interoperability, reporting, appeals, safeguards and data governance. An open-source DMIS solution would reduce reinvention and duplication of efforts, lower costs, support country ownership, and provide a configurable architecture rather than a rigid global model.
This breakout session will explore the rationale for Disability Management Information System (DMIS) through example from Laos, Bhutan and Nepal and the case for developing an open-source solution through openIMIS. The objective is to help countries avoid starting from scratch, while supporting national ownership, configurability and interoperability across systems. UNICEF, GIZ, DCI and openIMIS are initiating this process and will use the session to share emerging country use cases, discuss progress and perspectives, and gather feedback from participants on this initiative.
Presentation
Related inputs during the Community Meeting:
Rapporteur
Jamuna Subedi UNICEF
Background:
Countries use different administrative processes to identify persons with disabilities and assess their disability-related needs. These may include disability certification, disability status determination, registration in a disability registry, assessment of functional difficulties or support needs, and referral to benefits and services. A Disability Status Registry usually records who has been officially recognized as a person with disability, sometimes including disability category, severity level, certificate status or eligibility information.
A Disability Management Information System (DMIS) is broader. It can include or connect with a Disability Status Registry, but its purpose is not only to record disability status. A DMIS can support the wider administrative pathway: identification, intake, disability and support-needs assessment, certification or status determination, registration, referrals, eligibility for benefits and services, and interoperability with other systems, reassessment, reporting, appeals, and safeguards.
Countries need DMIS because disability-related information is often fragmented across paper files, isolated databases and different sector systems. This makes it difficult for persons with disabilities to access social protection, humanitarian assistance, health insurance, rehabilitation, assistive technology, education support, employment injury insurance, care and support services, and other programmes. It can also force people to repeat the same assessments several times, while governments lack reliable data to plan services, monitor access, coordinate referrals and budget for disability inclusion.
A well-designed DMIS can help make disability inclusion more practical and systematic. It can support fairer and more transparent administrative identification processes, improve referral and follow-up, connect disability data with social protection, health, education, CRVS, humanitarian and local service delivery systems, and strengthen accountability. It can also help ensure that disability-related support needs are considered across schemes, rather than treating disability as an isolated issue managed by one ministry or programme.
An open-source DMIS solution is important because many countries face similar system design challenges but often have to build expensive bespoke systems from scratch. An open-source solution through openIMIS could reduce duplication, lower costs, avoid vendor lock-in, and provide a configurable architecture that countries can adapt to their own legal frameworks, institutional mandates, assessment processes, benefit schemes and service delivery arrangements. It would also support knowledge sharing across countries and create a community around continuous improvement, interoperability, data protection and inclusive design.
This table will discuss what core features a DMIS should include, how openIMIS could support these functions, what can be learned from country experiences such as Lao PDR, and what partnerships, funding and technical support are needed to develop and sustain an open-source DMIS solution.