The International Social Security Association (ISSA) handed out the Good Practice Award at the Regional Social Security Forum for the Americas, which takes place in San José, Costa Rica, 4–6 September 2023. 33 organizations in 17 countries across the Americas participated with a record 162 good practices in the competition.

The Auxílio Emergencial, or Emergency Aid, project was created in 2020, early in the pandemic, to guarantee a minimum income to vulnerable Brazilians. For DATAPREV, it was necessary to integrate available databases, implement data collection mechanisms and select the target audience for the emergency policy, in the shortest possible time. New technologies were adopted and processes simplified to share information between government entities. The first payment was made only six days after the law creating the programme was published.

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“The Emergency Aid not only provided crucial assistance to 56 per cent of the population during the pandemic, but it transformed the Brazilian State’s relationship with society on how services are delivered”, said Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, ISSA Secretary General.

Citizens could make their request online and monitor the process of eligibility and payment of the aid. This enabled the inclusion of thousands of Brazilians previously invisible to the State in terms of assistance, labour and social security. This was a complete turnaround from a situation based on the collection of documentation and services only by face-to-face interaction.

The project was cutting edge in the adoption of technological and business mechanisms that would allow society to respond in a timely manner. It had direct impacts on the social protection of beneficiaries and generated a technical and business capacity that supported and will enable the implementation of other public policies.

Relevance of the ISSA Guidelines

In the implementation of this project, DATAPREV made use of the ISSA Guidelines on Information and Communication Technology, the ISSA Guidelines on Good Governance and the ISSA Guidelines on Service Quality.

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