Uzbekistan’s government last month set up a new Agency for Social Protection. This means that all social protection activities will be coordinated through a single Agency, rather than via multiple ministries – with the aim of improving coordination and minimising gaps in the system.
The ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank welcomed the development. The Development Pathways team has been working with the government and multilaterals in Uzbekistan on social protection issues for ten years, most prominently in developing the country’s social protection single registry.
Our senior digital technology specialist, Boniface Kibicho, explains the benefit of having the technology primed ahead of the setup of this new Agency:
“The Social Protection Single Registry (SPSR) will help the new Agency in linkages with over 20 external databases. This means they will have well-established oversight of the various cash transfer programmes, and increased efficiency across the entire process: in registration, eligibility assessment, payments and beneficiary updates. Moreover, the Agency is well equipped to respond to shocks both vertically and horizontally using the SPSR.”
Our Head of Digital Technology, Richard Chirchir, recently shared some of the reasons why Uzbekistan’s social protection work has been so successful to date.