Efficient delivery of social protection: Leveraging interoperability with CRVS systems

This paper provides an overview of the importance of interoperability between Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems and social protection (SP) programs to improve the efficient delivery of social protection benefits. It highlights the Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) and its efforts to create global standards for SP information systems. This paper is useful for understanding the value of integrated systems in social development.

Key Insights

The Need for CRVS and Social Protection Interoperability

Countries around the world implement Social Protection (SP) programs to address various situations. Determining the eligibility of potential beneficiaries necessitates information exchange across different social protection information systems and foundational platforms such as Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS), identification system, and payment system, as well as with systems from other sectors. However, these systems often operate in silos, making interoperability a challenge.

Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI)

To address the issue of interoperability, the Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) was launched in September 2021 under Universal Social Protection (USP2030) as a collaborative effort by USP2030 members, governments, development partners, civil society, and the private sector to develop integrated and interoperable social protection delivery systems. DCI aims to create consensus based global standards for promoting interoperability of SP information systems with other systems for effective and efficient delivery of social protection programs.

CRVS Role in Determining Eligibility

One of the workstreams of DCI studies the interoperability of SP systems with CRVS, considering that CRVS is a source of truth on various attributes that are important for decision making on beneficiary eligibility for SP programs. As SP programs serve people at various stages of life, from the womb to the grave, CRVS interoperability facilitates checks on birth, death, and marital life events, as well as family relationships, to determine eligibility for programs such as child grants, widow support programs, and old age allowance.

Priority Social Protection Schemes

The data analysis identified a list of priority SP schemes that seem to be widespread, leveraging interoperability between the CRVS and SP systems which included old age allowance, widow allowance, and child allowance programs.

Key Statistics & Data

• Only 73% of countries, territories, and areas register at least 90% of births.
• Only 68% of countries, territories, and areas have at least 90% death registration coverage.
• Targets for 2030, according to the Scaling Up plan include:
• 100% of births in given year are registered
  • 90% of children whose births are registered have been issued certificates
  • 80% of deaths in given year reported, registered, and certified with key characteristics
  • 100% of maternal and newborn deaths reported, registered, and investigated
  • 80% of deaths in children under 5 reported, disaggregated by age and sex
  • 100% cause of deaths in hospitals reliably determined and officially certified
  • 80% countries have community assessments of probable cause of death determined by verbal autopsies using international standards

Methodology

The research methodology involved the following phases:

• Data Collection
• Data Analysis
• Ideation and Prototype
• Workshops for Validation
• Documentation of Results

The data collection methods include:

• Literature Review
• Talking Interoperability Dialogue Series
• Study of Software solutions for CRVS
• Expert Interviews

Implications and Conclusions

The case studies in the six countries studied for this paper concluded that the interoperability of social protection programs with CRVS can nudge people to update their data in CRVS in a timely manner, resulting in quick decisions on service delivery, as seen in the case of Chile. The case studies report concludes that birth registration in Latin America could not have increased so sharply in such a short time without the link to civil registration and identification and social protection programs. This had an important impact on poverty reduction. The Namibia case demonstrated that interlinking civil registration and social protection can provide mutual benefits. However, while an effective civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system is critical for planning and monitoring programs across several sectors, still over 110 low-and middle-income countries have deficient CRVS systems. Countries and multilateral organizations are working on strengthening their CRVS systems as they realize the need and potential of these systems for legal identity, administrative functions as well as statistical function.