icts in social protection systems – making the strategic choices first

8/8/2019 ICTs in Social Protection Systems Making the Strategic Choices First

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IT for Change Policy Brief

Social protection requires a complex governance system. There are many obvious challenges in devising a

system which aims to reach and identiy a very large number o people spread across huge geographies

and diverse social groups, and provide a variety o services in a exible and context specifc manner. Equally

important is the need to generate awareness o these services and entitlements, and ensure community

engagement with them. Theoretically, ICTs (Inormation and Communication Technologies) are very eective

in addressing the requirements o complex systems. In practice, however, employing ICTs eectively insocial protection systems has not been an easy task. ICTs, and their actual use and impact, change too

ast to be easily mastered by those involved in designing governance systems. Furthermore, application o

ICTs very oten have unpredictable consequences, specifc to the context, which could be both positive and

negative.

ICTs are general purpose and constitutive technologies, and their impact can cumulatively spread and

diverge greatly rom original boundaries and intentions o the project. In other words, it can induce mission-

creeps. In such a socially and politically important area like social protection, technology-induced mission

creeps, especially when they become evident only once they are systemically entrenched, can be very

problematic i taking place in socio-politically undesirable directions. The paradox with using ICTs is that it

is difcult to plan too much too early, but, at the same time, it is not desirable to leave holistic system design

planning to very late. However, one must look beyond simplistic statements about advantages o using ICTs,

like reduced response time, increased transparency, better workow, efcient inormation management

through shared databases, eective identity management, and accountability through transaction tracking.

The overall objectives and context o the social protection programme and the real on-the-ground impacts

being obtained need to be the main drivers and markers o using ICTs in social protection programmes.

A discussion on the use o ICTs in social protection can be had at three levels: tactical, strategic and

transormational.

Tactical use o ICTs insocial protection

The advantage o employing ICTs

in social protection programmes

tactically, in a one-o manner,

is that one has things under

control. Even though some parts

o the programme or the system

are incorporating ICTs, inbuilt

redundancies in the orm onon-ICT backups remain. Such

piecemeal and phased application

o ICTs also helps accumulate

ICTs in social protection systems Making the strategic choices rst1

Parminder Jeet Singh

2010

valuable learning about how ICTswork and contribute in dierent

situations.

In planning such uses o ICTs,

there is a tendency to think in

technical categories like smart

cards, mobiles, Geographic

Inormation Systems (GIS),

Management Inormation

Systems and shared databases,and now perhaps also, Web 2

and cloud computing. It would,

however, be much more useul

Neutral technicalapproaches to theuse o ICTs or socialprotection oten serveto accentuate theideological dividescharacteristic o

the domain o socialprotection.


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IT for Change Case Study, Mahiti Mitra kiosksIT or Change Policy Brie, ICTs and social protection

to see such tactical application

o ICTs in terms o the specifc

unctions/objectives being

served by ICT use. Such an

approach can help realise

possible limitations o any

specifc ICTs with regard to the

desired unctions/objectives,

and an unbiased exploration o

a dierent set o ICTs, as well

as other methods, targeting the

objectives as closely as possible.

Some o these unctional

categories o ICT use in social

protection are listed below.

Efective targeting and leakage

prevention through identity

and transaction authentication

ICT-based solutions, like

smart cards and networked

UID (Unique Identifcation)

system, are being used to

ensure that the person obtaining

a social protection service is

the same as who is entitled toit. Such technologies cannot

only authenticate identity but

also transactions, attesting

to the proximity o the two.

The transaction details can

be digitally stored and viewed

synchronously or asynchronously

by anyone authorised to do so

(e.g. the portal o the National

Rural Employment GuaranteeAct in Andhra Pradesh, and the

online tracking o transactions

at the hospitals in Rashtriya

Swasthaya Bima Yojna2 or RSBY).

These systems are end-to-end

digital. However, other mixed

or part-digital systems also

supply authentication services,

like using a Single Window

system to deliver caste or incomecertifcates much aster by

reerring to digital data available

at multiple points. These Single

Window systems also digitally

record transactions, like the

submission o an application,

which can have an important

accountability enorcing impact.

Such systems have been piloted

and run in many Indian states.

Accountability through process

transparency

Digital recording o transactions

enorces accountability on

government workers by making

the process visible to the higher

management, and possibly to

the benefciary or even to the

general public. For more than

a decade now, all government

departments have Citizen

Charters with service delivery

perormance parameters. These

charters can become really

meaningul with widespread

availability o digital data

indicating actual perormance

against the listed standards

(urban and rural eSeva projects

in Andhra Pradesh did some

pioneering work in this regard).

Mobiles are increasingly being

used or SMS-based transaction

tracking, providing periodic

inormation on the progress o

individual cases. Apart rom

the accountability actor, this

saves the trouble or the citizenso having to visit government

ofces requently to inquire

about the stage o the process o,

say, a social protection scheme

application (e.g. the DRISTI

project in West Bengal).

Web-based systems or end-

to-end process view, also

accessible through mobiles,

are easily available today.

The only real limitation to

their ull-scale employment

in tracking governance

processes is the readiness o

the Indian governance system

to take on such a high degree o

transparency and accountability.

Inormed decision-makingthrough decision support

systems

Comprehensive digital household

data over a large number o

variables has enabled state

governments o West Bengal

and Gujarat to go beyond

the system o scheme und

allocation based on district-

based fxed quotas, to one based

on actual numbers o qualiying

benefciaries. While increasing

and better targeting coverage,

the new digital system has also

helped remove the intererence

o local politicians in beneft

allocation. In West Bengal, it

helped devise an entirely new

scheme covering destitutes

(the very poor) by selectivelyusing some felds o the existing

comprehensive household

database to determine the list

o benefciaries, without having

to do specifc data collection all

over again. This digital database

can be dynamically accessed and

updated rom Panchayat3 levels,

allowing more requent auditing

by the community.

Empowering the rontline

workers

In many developed countries

(e.g. UK and Denmark), ICTs

have been used eectively or

empowering the rontline public

sector worker. This is achieved

through employing appropriate

ICT-based systems or improveddecision-making support, reduced

reporting requirements and

regular on-job capacity building.

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IT or Change Policy Brie, ICTs and social protection

An empowered rontline worker

can be one o the biggest assets

or eective delivery o social

protection. Unortunately, in most

developing countries, the ocus

is oten on dis-intermediating

service delivery, and reducing

the relevance o the rontline

government worker, rather

than empowering her. Thereare, however, some notable

exceptions to build on. For

instance, the Health Inormation

Systems Project did some very

useul pilots in Andhra Pradesh

and Karnataka or digitally

empowering health feld-workers

using Personal Digital Assistants

(PDAs); and satellite based two-

way communication programmesare being used in many states to

do regular capacity building o

panchayatunctionaries.

Single Window delivery

Single Window delivery o

services, mentioned above, is

now practised at many district

and taluk4 ofces. Community

level IT-enabled centres ordelivering a comprehensive

range o public services have

been tried in some states. The

Government o Indias Common

Service Centres (CSC) scheme is

well on its way to set up a CSC in

each panchayatin India. Most o

the state government-led pilots

and schemes have employed

village level entrepreneurs to runthe IT-based service centres,

who are supported by a district

level government agency. The

CSC scheme, on the other hand,

is based on a corporate entity

supported village ranchisees.

In this scheme, the eort by

the central government is to

provide not only a technical

inrastructure state data centre

and state-wide area networks

but also an organisational system

that can neutrally deliver ahost o governance and business

services. By converging service

delivery through the such Single

Window systems, government

agencies can both decrease the

cost o reaching communities, as

well as proessionalise citizen-

state interactions. This can

reduce the burden on the citizen

o running around trying to fndthe services, apart rom the

accountability enorcing impact

mentioned earlier, especially

when ICTs are used or tracking

transactions.

Community monitoring

Social auditing is increasingly

a mandated part o many

government schemes. Eectivesocial audits require easy and

ongoing availability o public

data. For example, the National

Rural Employment Guarantee

Scheme in Andhra Pradesh has

shown that using digital data can

transorm the rapidity and scale

o social auditing.

Building awareness and rights

consciousness

Call centres can work to

provide relatively standardised

inormation on social protection

on demand. Computers at village

kiosks managed by volunteers

or NGO workers are used in

numerous places to provide

inormation on government

schemes on demand, in a context

specifc way, as well as or

pro-active promotion o useul

inormation, going door to door.

People do not engage that well

with public inormation packaged

in standardised orms, like or

instance happens with most

videos prepared by government

publicity departments. Theyrequire a linguistic and cultural

localness, with a touch and

eel quality to the inormation

that is provided. Inormation

has to be contextualised so

that communities can relate

and possibly recognise things,

people and places. Further, such

inormation needs to become

a part o their local publicdiscourse in order or them to

internalise a rich awareness and

build a sense o rights vis--

vis social protection schemes.

Eective use o community

radios and community videos

in many NGO-led projects in

India has shown great potential

in this regard. Accordingly,

government departments maybe well-advised to spend their

publicity budgets through

such decentralised strategies

o awareness generation and

demand building.

Supporting community sel-

help and co-production

ICTs are being used to

strengthen sel-help groups(their accounting systems, peer-

to-peer networking possibilities,

etc.), which can not only help

The way to navigate between the imperatives o adigitally inclusive and active citizenship and thoseo protecting privacy and preventing undue statecontrol needs to be consciously decided by everypolitical community.

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IT for Change Case Study, Mahiti Mitra kiosks

in service delivery, but also or

awareness generation, seeking

accountability and general social

mobilisation. For example, in

Kerala, the E-Krishiinitiative,

while providing an agriculture

produce sale support system,

as well as helping deliver other

agro-services, has also been

able to inspire the ormation

o local armers clubs around

these services. LabourNet

provides a digital platorm or

unorganised workers to access

employment opportunities, and

other benefts. Digital communitydata developed by theAbhiyan

Collective in Gujarat was used by

the state authorities to distribute

benefts under a new scheme or

which government data was not

yet available.

Strategic choices in ICTsuse or social protection

In time, most o the abovementioned piecemeal uses o

ICTs tend to extend ar beyond

their initial objectives. I a

rontline worker is using a PDA

or decision support, soon there

can be the temptation to track

her movements and interactions

or enorcing accountability.

This could have the unintended

impact o rendering her workbehaviour transactional rather

than context-rich. Similarly,

ICT-enabled Single Window

service delivery outsourced to

the private sector may soon tend

towards much greater promotion

o services and activities that are

more proftable to the business

partner, rather than those most

required by the marginalisedgroups. This is not to advise

against enorcing accountability

on the rontline worker or against

using private agents in public

service delivery. These examples

o possible mission-creep are

provided only to illustrate how

use o ICTs in social protection

programmes can involve much

larger strategic implications than

may be immediately evident. On

the positive side, an opportunistic

use by government agencies o

community-generated digital

data or service delivery may

lead towards institutionalising

such co-production methods.

This can, possibly, result in a

greater decentralisation andcommunitisation o government

programmes. It is best to

be aware o these larger

implications o dierent kinds

o ICT use, articulating them

and making them explicit to

all stakeholders, in ollowing

a deliberate path o designing

ICT-based social protection

programmes based on thedesired socio-political objectives.

There is a general tendency

to see ICT-based designs as

neutrally efciency-inducing

or all purposes, and thus best

led by techno-managerial teams

ocusing on technology expertise

and project management

issues. ICT-based new

systems, however, can have anumber o very dierent paths

and outcomes depending on

the chosen system design.

Appropriate socio-political

leadership in designing new

ICT-enabled social protection

systems, with clear articulation

o the outcomes that are sought,

is thereore essential. In order to

illustrate this all-important point,

the impact o use o ICTs on

some important choices involved

in designing social protection

systems is discussed below.

Remotely-managed versus

community-based social

protection schemes

Identifcation o benefciaries

as well as accurate recording o

transactions normally require

human proximity. This work is

done by feld level government

workers, and the best way to

make them accountable has been

to increase the communitys

involvement in every process.

This has lead in a trend towards

what can broadly be called

increasing communitisation o

government programmes. Digital

means, however, enable accurate

remote biometric identifcation

(through fnger prints, iris

scanning, etc.) o individuals and

remote recording o transactions.

Does this mean that governments

should now move towards more

remotely managed schemes,

especially in the ace o a very

mixed record o community-

based approaches?

Choosing between remote

management-based and

community-based accountability

mechanisms, or adopting a

combination o them, which will

require dealing with the trade-

Techno-centric implementation o new schemesis likely to tend towards remotely-managed social

protection over alternative possibilities using ICTswhich enable greater community role even thoughthey are more complex to design and manage.


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os that may be involved at

various points, is a decision to

be made consciously. It should

not be an automatic creeping

result o employing ICTs in

social protection. While digital

authentication can enorce

transparency and accountability

and thus reduce leakage, the

ultimate guarantee o these

outcomes is still an aware, active

and responsible community.

As shown by many initiatives

in India, ICTs can be very

eectively used or strengthening

community engagements thatenhance accountability. Techno-

centric implementation o new

schemes, however, is likely to

tend towards remotely-managed

social protection over such

alternative possibilities o ICTs

enabling greater community

role, which are more complex to

design and manage.

For instance, in theimplementation o the new

Unorganised Workers Social

Security Act (UWSSA) (2008),

what can be called as the ICT-

induced eciency pull may

result in a lopsided ocus on

digital systems involving UID-

based smart cards, remote

tracking o transactions,

Management Inormation

Systems, etc. Such remotely-

managed systems are no doubt

greatly relevant. However, they

should not shit attention away

rom use o ICTs or community

level activities, which may not t

nicely into well-ordered remote-

managed systems. Aspects o the

Act such as Workers Facilitation

Centres, and the use o ICTs to

enable their eective working

and community engagement with

them, including through possible

co-location and co-management

with other community-based

service provision acilities, should

be given equal importance.

Appropriate use o ICTs or

community-based strategies

o awareness generation,

accountability, and developing

a rights consciousness,

can improve demand whilst

also increasing community

responsibility to act against

leakages.

In absence o holistic and

deliberate system designs,ICT eciency pull may work

towards a greater ocus on the

supply-side over demand-side

issues. This would go against

the grain o much o the learning

in social protection over the last

ew decades.

Individualised versus

collectivist approaches to

social protection

Social protection schemes in

India have traditionally been

amily- or household-based.

It could be because social

protection was consciously seen

to operate best as a household

unit-based strategy. Or it may

have been because households

were easier to locate, identiyand work on as a category. Digital

systems help easy identication

and tracing o individuals; in

act even better than that o

households. What impact can

this have on the overall direction

in which our social protection

systems will evolve?

Targeted versus universalcoverage

Similarly, ICTs enable very

eective targeting. Does this

mean that governments should

shit completely to targeted

social protection? Maybe so, i

the main rationale or universal

coverage is that no current

method is able to ensure

eective enough targeting, and a

large number o deserving people

always get let out (it is though

relevant to note that remotely-

managed ICT systems can

decrease local level fexibility

and thus become less adaptive

to people coming in and alling

out o criteria ranges). However,

i universal coverage concernsa wider ecology o issues like

ood prices, continuation o

eective public health system,

value o common schooling, etc.

the act that ICTs could ensure

more eective targeting may not

by itsel be enough to abandon

universal coverage.

Standardised versus fexible

schemes

A very large number o workers

welare boards attend to

the needs o dierent kinds

o unorganised labour, like

beedi5 workers, silk weavers,

miners, etc. These boards may

admittedly have had limited

eectiveness in providing social

protection. Should standardised

umbrella programmes like the

new UWSSA, or large standard

health insurance (RSBY) and old

age pension (National Pension

Scheme) kind o schemes,

entirely or considerably subsume

and override these sector-specic

initiatives? The more ecient

the implementation o such

larger standardised schemes,the greater the potential danger

o reduced attention on sector

specic schemes.


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IT for Change Case Study, Mahiti Mitra kiosks

Instead, these existing welare

boards could be made more

eective by an imaginative use

o ICTs or sector-specic and

relatively micro initiatives, that

are fexible with regard to the

actual context and needs o

dierent categories o workers,

while subsuming just the

standard social protection covers

like health insurance and old age

pension that they seek to oer

to their targeted groups under

larger standardised schemes.

The standardisation versus

fexibility issue is centralto assessing the continued

relevance o community-based

micro approaches. It also

inorms choices like whether

to shit towards simplied

cash transer-based systems

rom more comprehensive

(but more dicult to service)

social protection schemes.

As mentioned earlier, ICTscan be as useul in managing

fexibilities as they are or

enabling standardisation, but this

may require more well thought

out and contextually situated

approaches.

Public versus private

production and delivery

ICTs enable better monitoringo private delivery partners. For

instance, RSBY scheme proposes

real time recording o transaction

in the private hospitals. Does

it mean that the state can

now completely shit towards

a private delivery o services

model? As discussed earlier,

ICTs can be used to empower

rontline government workers,as they can also help obtain

greater engagement o local

communities. It is important to

consider in relation to context

and broader objectives o any

specic initiative, what part o

service production and delivery

can be outsourced to private

parties, where the rontline

government workers can be

empowered using ICTs, and what

kind o community-based models

may be employed.

Nature o state-citizen

relationship

With the advent o the

digital era, some very basic

questions are being asked

about the social contract

that underpins the state. On

one hand, ICTs can extend

citizenship to the previously

excluded, or example, many

orest dwelling communities

participated enthusiastically

in the recent digital census in

Brazil, because they wanted

to be counted so that they are

not let behind. At the same

time, there is the ear o an

intrusive state, which has too

much data about its citizens,

thus threatening civil liberties.

How to navigate between

the imperatives o a digitally

inclusive and active citizenship

and those o protecting privacy

and preventing undue state

control needs to be a conscious

decision every political

community has to take. It is

best to articulate and debate

these issues openly, coming up

with clear political positions on

them, instead o hiding them

under technical layers. I done

so, a lot o political opposition

to plans or widespread useo ICTs in social protection

schemes may be able to be

eectively addressed.

Transormative useo ICTs or socialprotection

The last section highlighted how

apparently neutral technical

approaches to the use o ICTs

or social protection oten serve

to accentuate the ideological

divides characteristic o the

domain o social protection.

There is thus an urgent need

to move towards a more socio-

political approach to employing

ICTs in social protection.

The strategic objectives and

expected outcomes require to be

made explicit to guard against

both deault and deliberate

mission-creep. Such a holistic

socio-political approach to

the use o ICTs can indeed be

transormative in its impact.

While relying on the existing

knowledge on how dierent

ICTs operate and contributein dierent contexts, such a

new approach should take into

account all the major strategic

choices that are involved in the

use o ICTs or social protection.

Issues like centralisation against

communitisation, individualist

versus collectivist approaches,

standardisation requirements

against the need or fexibility,and privacy issues vis--vis

transparency obligations will

need to be explicitly dealt with.

One o the major new possibilities

o using ICTs in designing new

programmes is that one can

ocus rst on the community

level, and work backwards to

develop service productionand delivery systems. An ICT-

enabled community-centred

approach will seek to:


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- mesh community level

supply and demand dynamics

through new ICT-based

community institutions and

processes (common ICT-

based service centres that

also employ community

computing/radio/video

possibilities);

- acilitate community level

convergences with other

social service initiatives;

- provide useul cross-cutting

data rom shared databases,

including those co-produced

along with the community;- provide means or dynamic

coordination o the activities

o dierent departments

with a community-centric

orientation; and,

- continuously and dynamically

explore new technical

possibilities like GIS and

mobile-based systems.

While approaches o this kind

may prima acie look lessecient and measurable,

and more dicult in terms

o process design and

implementation, they are

necessary i ICT use in social

protection projects is to meet

their larger socio-political

objectives. It is dicult to take

complexity out o development,

or out o social protection. Suchcomplexity can however be

managed much more eectively

through imaginative uses o

ICTs that specically address

the context and objectives

o social protection, driven

by socio-political rather than

techno-managerial actors in

governance.

As discussed earlier, it is

only ater the basic strategicdecisions pertaining to

system design have been

taken, that common technical

inrastructures, like the UID,

the common citizen portal being

developed by the Ministry o

IT (Government o India), and

the CSC inrastructure, can be

leveraged appropriately. Such

technical and inrastructural

elements should not, by

themselves, be allowed to

dictate the direction o new

programme design.


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Endnotes

1 This policy brie was originally prepared as an expert inputor the Regional Conerence on Delivering Social Protectionto Unorganised Workers, held in Bengaluru (India) in

November, 2010, organised by the Department o Labour(Government o Karnataka) and GTZ (Germany).

2 A health insurance scheme underwritten largely by publicunds.

3 Panchayats (or gram panchayats) are village level sel-governance institutions in the Indian administrativesystem.

4 A taluk (also called mandal or block) is a sub-district levelunit in the Indian administrative system.

5 A kind o a cigarette.

Credits

Coordination : Chlo Zollman

Design : Varun Dhanda, Krupa Thimmaiah

Editor : Parminder Jeet Singh

Editorial support : Elaine Mercer, Chlo Zollman

Printed by : National Printing Press, Bengaluru

IT or Change is an India-based NGO working on inormation society

theory and practice rom the standpoint o equity and social justice.

Through our research, advocacy and eld projects, we seek to challengeapproaches that ail to address the structural exclusions in the

emerging inormation society. We also propose alternative models that

are participatory and equitable. Our work spans a range o development

arenas gender, education, community media and governance. IT or

Change is in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social

Council o the United Nations.

A digital version o this paper is available at www.ITorChange.net

Creative Common License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0

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