The pivotal role of Disability Information Systems and SP Systems Interoperability

Overview

As countries seek to strengthen disability-inclusive social protection systems and implement their commitments under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), increasing attention is being given to how persons with disabilities are identified, their support needs assessed, and their access to benefits, services and other forms of support facilitated.

This requires not only appropriate approaches to tools used to carry out individual assessment but all the policy decision related to disability status certification, as well as effective administrative and digital systems capable of managing information, supporting decision-making and connecting persons with disabilities to relevant programmes and services.

This webinar will present two complementary areas of work:

• The Roadmap on Identification of Persons with Disabilities for Inclusive Social Protection, developed by UNICEF and partners with support from BMZ, provides practical guidance to countries on the policy, institutional, operational and digital considerations involved in establishing or strengthening administrative identification systems, including disability status certification and DMIS.
• The work of the Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) on interoperability between disability registries and social protection information systems, exploring how digital architecture, data exchange and interoperability standards can facilitate access to benefits and services, reduce administrative fragmentation and support more coordinated delivery.

Drawing on country experiences, including Cambodia and potentially Sierra Leone and Armenia, the webinar will examine the processes and stages to develop coherent, inclusive and sustainable systems, adapted to their institutional capacities and policy priorities.

Key Objectives and Guiding Questions

The webinar will present the UNICEF-led Roadmap and DCI’s work on interoperability, drawing on country experiences to explore three key questions:

1. What are we trying to achieve? What purposes should administrative identification of persons with disabilities serve within disability-inclusive social protection systems and What are the key policy and operational decisions involved in developing administrative identification, assessment and disability status certification systems?
2. What should DMIS enable? How can these systems facilitate access to rights, benefits and support, and what can country experiences teach us about implementation challenges, promising approaches and areas requiring further guidance?
3. How do we make systems work together? How can interoperability enhance the effectiveness of both DMIS and social protection management information systems (SP-MIS), strengthen coordination across sectors, and ensure accessibility, data protection and respect for rights?

Speakers

Alexander Cote, Disability Policy and Systems UNICEF Global Program Division, UNICEF

Madhumitha Hebbar, Independent Consultant, DCI

Sann Ratana, Director of Department of Welfare for Persons With Disabilities (DWPD), Ministry of Social Affairs Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), Kingdom of Cambodia

Closing

José María Viera, International Disability Alliance, Executive Director of the International Disability Alliance