Developmental Dimensions of Activating the National Social Registry - Background Paper Round Table (2)
Governments around the world are investing in social protection, in order to reduce poverty and protect their populations from risks and shocks. Given the wide variety of social protection systems and typically uncoordinated arrangements for their management, ensuring that the right type of support reaches the right people - at the right time - is a major challenge.
Digital information systems that integrate and manage large amounts of data can greatly improve the targeting of social assistance. These systems often rely on records that contain demographic and socioeconomic information on citizens who are already receiving social assistance (recipient records), or who may be eligible in the future (social records). Since these registries contain valid, qualitative data, they can act as a facilitator for poverty alleviation through categorized targeting.(1)
Conceptually, social registries can be viewed as social policy tools that provide a gateway to potential inclusion in a governmental social protection program, in addition to operating as information systems with operational and functional advantages. As a system of social inclusion, social records have evolved in their scope and inclusivity over time.
However, coverage of social records varies across countries. In some countries such as Pakistan and Chile, social records cover a large segment of the population. In other countries such as Montenegro, Indonesia and Turkey, coverage extends to a third or a half of the population (Azad 2020). However, the admission and registration of new applicants faces numerous challenges, such as potential beneficiaries’ low levels of literacy, the costs and design complications of outreach programs, building admission and registration mechanisms in resource-poor environments, non-availability of fiscal space and conflicting political priorities (Ibid).
In Palestine, the Social Protection Sector Strategy for 2021-23 adopted numerous principles: from relief to development, rights-based approaches, concepts of multidimensional poverty and case-management methodologies. The vision of the social development sector was as follows: “A strong, solidified, productive and creative Palestinian society that affords a decent and sustainable life for all families and individuals, liberating their energies and promoting rights, equality, justice, partnership and inclusion.” (2) Three basic objectives emerged from this vision, namely: reducing poverty across its various dimensions, comprehensive and effective social protection measures, specialized and responsive social development institutions relevant to the needs of society, and promoting social accountability.
In order to realize the above, the Palestinian Ministry of Social Development announced its intention to launch the unified, National Social Registry, approved by the Council of Ministers at the end of 2021. (3)This Registry falls within a comprehensive plan of action adopted by the Ministry of Social Development to build a unified social protection network in Palestine, capable of challenging poverty across its multiple dimensions. The Ministry aims to launch this Registry to secure access to the services it provides, in line with the principle of justice and equality. It also ensures the unification of work methods across all programs provided by the Ministry, to all target groups. The Ministry began working on the Registry at the end of 2019, as part of the social protection program funded by the World Bank, commencing in 2017. The Registry serves as a base - or basic infrastructure – for achieving the vision of the Ministry of Social Development, by shifting from relief work to development, while adopting the concept of multidimensional poverty.
Registries in all their forms are indispensable to the implementation of social protection schemes and systems. In this paper, we explore the developmental dimensions of the unified, National Social Registry, a type of Registry that is increasingly utilized in low- and middle-income countries to implement poverty-targeted social protection programs. Although this type of Registry is rarely discussed, it is another technical issue in social protection that is deeply political, affecting the degree to which large numbers of men and women, girls and boys, are included or excluded from social protection. We believe that this issue should not be left to technical experts to solve or debate – it needs the full participation of policy-makers.
