Virtual workshop: Lessons on the Use of Digital Technology in Social Protection Systems: What Are the Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis and the Implications for the Future?

Context

Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as in other regions around the world, have turned to social protection systems to respond to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis laid bare the exclusion of many population sectors from social protection systems and the need to invest in universal, comprehensive, sustainable, and resilient systems.

Responses to the pandemic, many unprecedented in their scale and speed, have led to significant operating innovations, especially regarding the use of digital technologies for the identification and registration of the recipients of social protection systems. Some of the most remarkable innovations range from information exchange and the use of administrative records to registration on web portals and mobile phones.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) have jointly organized this event to promote sharing and dialogue about the role of digital mechanisms in social protection.

The present initiative is developed under the framework of the United Nations Development Account projects “Strengthening Social Protection for Pandemic Responses: Identifying the Vulnerable, Aiding Recovery and Building Resilience" and “Leaving no one behind in Latin America and the Caribbean: Strengthening institutions and social policy coherence and integration at the country level to foster equality and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”