As part of a strengthened focus on transformation and innovation in social security management and service delivery, the International Social Security Association (ISSA) launched the Special Distinction for Innovation as a new award category for the 2023–2025 triennium. The first of four regional competitions was organized in Africa and attracted a record 137 entries from 46 member institutions in 30 countries. With the good practice “Electronic medical records”, CNAS of Algeria has become the first ever winner of the ISSA Special Distinction for Innovation.

“We are very happy to deliver this first ever ISSA Special Distinction for Innovation to the National Social Insurance Fund for Employees of Algeria for their important project on the digitalization of medical records”, said Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, ISSA Secretary General.

The electronic medical records

The electronical medical records (EMR), which are challenging to implement worldwide as they involve advanced expertise and data management capabilities, are part of the CNAS’ overall objective to continuously improve the quality of services provided to insured persons and their dependants through process digitalization.

The paper-based system was no longer fit-for-purpose, as insured persons had to travel to their home branch for medical checks, sharing information between medical advisers in different locations became impossible, the processing of claims was unnecessarily long, and filing and storage required a lot of space and resources.

By the end of 2023, CNAS aims to have digitized 100 per cent of social-insurance-related medical records. This will improve the quality of care for insured persons and their dependants by reducing the time it takes to process benefit claims and the number of trips that beneficiaries need to make. It will also provide reliable statistical data for studies as well as referrals for medical checks.

In its comments, the international jury noted that “The solution is cost effective and takes advantage of institutional adaptations to integrate digital solutions in recording medical diagnoses based on a standardized taxonomy of the medical and social security ecosystem.”

Relevance of the ISSA Guidelines

The ISSA Guidelines are the only recognized international standards in social security administration and cover 15 different areas. In this project, CNAS refers in particular to the ISSA Guidelines on Service Quality, and specifically: Guideline 11, Delivering excellence; Guideline 12, Creating an effortless experience; Guideline 17, Moving towards digital by default; Guideline 25, Embedding innovation and change management; Guideline 26, Continuous improvement.

As social security delivery becomes increasingly digitized, ensuring equal access to digital skills and tools is crucial. The United Nations has dedicated this year’s International Women’s Day to the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, which strongly aligns with priorities and the ongoing work of the International Social Security Association (ISSA).

According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 63 per cent of the world’s female population uses the Internet, compared to 69 per cent for men. The digital gender divide is most marked in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific, while access is relatively equally divided in the Americas and Europe. Across regions, the more developed countries are in terms of income, the lesser of a digital gender divide.

Both gender equality and digital inclusion are at the heart of ISSA’s agenda. In 2022, ISSA and the United Nations University, Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV) published the report Digital inclusion: Improving social security service delivery. Based on a survey of social security organizations, it showed that 52 per cent of organizations saw that women face challenges accessing online content and services, compared with only 30 per cent for men. One of the recommendations of the report was to promote digital inclusion, gender inclusion and digital empowerment. The ISSA has also run a digital inclusion webinar series with the same aims.

“In our efforts to achieve social protection for all, we need to bridge both the digital divide and the gender divide in society, and too often these are two sides of the same coin”, said Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, ISSA Secretary General.

The ISSA Technical Commission on Family Benefits has worked on gender mainstreaming in social security and published a report on the issue in 2022. All the technical commissions are currently developing their workplans for the 2023–2025 triennium, as they gather for the 17th ISSA Forum for Technical Commissions. During the opening session of the Forum, Secretary General Caetano highlighted International Women’s Day and the importance of bringing gender equality into their plans.

María del Carmen Armesto González-Rosón from the National Social Security Institute (Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social – INSS) in Spain, who chairs the Technical Commission on Information and Communication Technology, said “while the digital gender divide continues to be of importance, it is encouraging to see that it is disappearing among the youngest age groups. When these reach an advanced age, we may be able to celebrate the end of the digital divide between women and men.”

Isabelle Sancerni from the National Family Allowances Fund (Caisse nationale des allocations familiales – CNAF) in France, and who chairs the Technical Commission on Family Benefits, said “on this 8 March, I feel solidarity with the women who fight for their social rights. In a context of growing digitalisation, digital inclusion represents a fundamental issue to guarantee their effective access to all benefits, in particular those that allow to conciliate family and professional life, as for example maternity leave, parental leave and child care.”

Digital training solutions are also covered in a working paper on long-term care, jointly published by the ISSA and the International Labour Organization in 2022. The paper points to the important gender-dimension in long-term care, as women represent the majority of both users and care providers, and emphasises the need to build rights-based, inclusive and financially and socially sustainable long-term care systems.

This year’s International Women’s Day also puts a spotlight on innovation, which is key to overcoming societal barriers, including barriers to social security, not least when it comes to digital  technology. The newly launched ISSA Collaborative Innovation Hub will seek to develop innovative projects and strengthen the innovation capacity among member institutions. While the projects are still to be defined, the gender dimension is likely to become part of the discussions in many of them.