Social protection @ Your Fingertips - using information and communications technologies in social protection

At the beginning of the 21st century, worldwide spending in information and communications technology (ICT) passed the threshold of U$S 2 trillions. In this context, ICT spending in low- and middle-income countries has grown faster than in the developed countries, over recent years. The Bank has raised awareness on the importance of using ICT for development, and some eighty percent of Bank-financed projects, include ICT components throughout all regions, and sectors, including the Social Protection (SP) sector. ICT offers the potential of moving from existing, traditional automation processes, and organizational structures of SP agencies, to transformation, i.e., aligning processes, organizational structures, and new technologies along the goals of social policies. Innovative approaches may also include the use of integrated ICT systems across government agencies, and the customer-centered delivery of social services through electronic channels. Using the potential of ICT can provide value added in the process of social risk management. The costs and benefits of major ICT projects may be analyzed for each project phase, in order to verify the overall value, and decide for the appropriate ICT system. Nevertheless, non-measurable costs/benefits may have an impact on managing social risk, and therefore, be evaluated accordingly; but, major ICT projects in SP have experienced considerable overruns, and thus, lessons in this report include common, and specific key success factors in the context of ICT project design, and implementation.