openIMIS supports the management of activities across the social protection delivery chain

Thanks to enhanced functionalities included in its latest release, openIMIS now offers solutions for the management of activities across the social protection delivery chain. The October 2024 release reflects the significant evolution of openIMIS as a mature digital public good which powers versatile solutions for the management of social protection programs as well as for health financing schemes.

Strategic alignment yields intended results

This advance has been made possible by the successful joining of forces between openIMIS and CORE-MIS, a digital platform developed by the World Bank for the management of cash transfers and public works programs. The decision to align efforts behind an integrated open source software was announced last year by the World Bank, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The global openIMIS Initiative has been financed by Germany and Switzerland since 2016. In April 2024 the European Commission (EU) joined in funding to support openIMIS’ contributions to developing and implementing international standards in social protection.

Thanks to its modular structure, openIMIS allows different functionalities to be flexibly packaged into solutions designed to meet specific program needs. These include modules for managing beneficiaries, benefit packages, and providers, for claims generation, review and processing, and for payments. The CORE-MIS solution for cash transfers is one such example, combining functionalities to cover the four phases of the social protection delivery chain (Assess, Enroll, Provide, Manage). It facilitates beneficiary intake, registration and update, enrolment in programs based on customizable criteria, and payment of benefits within a single solution.

These enhanced functionalities in openIMIS lay the basis for a full-fledged dynamic social registry which can capture and manage data about individuals. They also illustrate how openIMIS, with its interoperable design, both draws upon and contributes to Digital Public Infrastructure.

Continuous development:  A Grievance Redressal Mechanism

openIMIS is continuously growing and changing to provide better, more complete solutions. Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) functionalities are now available in the form of a ticketing solution which can record and manage grievances and other feedback. In the future this capability will be increasingly relevant for enabling citizen engagement and promoting accountability within the health and social protection sectors and beyond. Additional functionalities are also being planned along the social protection delivery chain.

Grounded in a dynamic community, committed to multilateral engagement

While some digital public goods are started and promoted by single organizations, openIMIS works closely with a vibrant community of users and developers and strategically engages international partners who are major actors in the social protection space. The openIMIS community fosters individuals and institutions to develop various business models using openIMIS for software customization, trainings or feature development, thereby creating a diverse ecosystem of service providers. International partners, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Social Security Organization (ISSA), the World Bank and the World Food Programme (WFP), support the delivery of social protection programs at a large scale. As part of the openIMIS Stakeholder Committee these partners also offer direction and guidance on the social protection challenges in the field. The openIMIS Initiative also contributes to the development and implementation of global standards through cooperation with OpenHIE, the Digital Convergence Initiative and GovStack.
 

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