DCI supports successful study visit to Nepal on digital transformation of social protection systems
The Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) and other partners* organized a capacity building study visit to Nepal in January 2025 to explore the application of the open-source software openIMIS in the digital transformation of the country’s social protection programs. Currently, the software is used in the management of Nepal’s social protection and health insurance programs.
From the DCI Secretariat, representatives from the International Labour Organization and Expertise France attended, as well as a representative from co-funder the European Union.
Seeing openIMIS in action makes us very proud to be supporting its development through our EU contribution to the Digital Convergence Initiative! The scope of applications in health and social protection is almost limitless.
Ermina Sokou, Programme Officer, European Commission.
Real world implementation in Nepal
Already used in 14 countries, openIMIS impacts over 34 million beneficiaries. As interest in the digitalization of social protection systems is growing, social protection organizations seek to observe the real-world implications of tools like openIMIS for the management of health financing and social protection programs.
The Nepal study visit offered valuable insights into how openIMIS is used in practice and how it could be adapted by other countries to meet their own national and organizational needs. Nepal is unique in using openIMIS to manage a nationwide social health insurance scheme. As of March 2025, more than a third of all households – representing nine million individuals – were enrolled in social health insurance across 76 of Nepal’s 77 districts, providing much-needed health protection.
In the formal sector, a further eight million individuals benefit from the Social Security Fund’s employment injury scheme, which uses openIMIS for the management and review of claims. The delegates from Ethiopia, Senegal and Zambia were eager to observe these achievements first-hand.
DCI supports Senegal, Zambia on digital transformation of social protection
The DCI is directly providing technical support to Senegal, Zambia and several other countries as part of its mission to promote the digital transformation of social protection systems globally.
Senegal, supported by Expertise France, plans to digitize the relationship between healthcare providers and health insurance institutions for formal workers using openIMIS. Delegates came from the L’Institution de Coordination de L’assurance Maladie Obligatoire (ICAMO – Institution for the Coordination of Mandatory Health Insurance) and Directrice de la Protection sociale – Ministère du Travail (DPS – Director of Social Protection – Ministry of Labor). DCI implementation activities in Senegal began in June 2024.
Zambia, supported by the ILO, is working to enhance system interoperability, integrate databases, and improve coverage by ensuring seamless registration of vulnerable groups into health and social protection programs, and is considering implementing openIMIS. Delegates came from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIMA). DCI implementation activities in Zambia began in September 2024.
The delegates’ experience
The first part of the tour included field visits to Kathmandu University and several openIMIS implementation sites, including the Health Insurance Board, the Social Security Fund, and Dhulikhel Hospital. These visits showcased how openIMIS supports critical health insurance processes in Nepal, including:
- beneficiary identification,
- enrollment (at household and community levels),
- service delivery,
- and claims management.
The second part of the tour consisted of a multi-day workshop focused on sharing experiences.
The three teams from Ethiopia, Senegal and Zambia presented an overview of the social protection and social health protection schemes being implemented in their countries, together with a detailed description of the business processes involved in delivering the services.
Each country team identified one business process which could be improved through software like openIMIS, and then conducted a ‘gap analysis’ comparing the current process to how it should ideally work. The teams chose registration management (Zambia), contribution management (Senegal) and claims management (Ethiopia). The teams discussed how the integration of openIMIS could address the identified performance gaps, as well as what would be required in order to implement potential openIMIS solutions. Throughout the workshop, it was recognized that customization is key to effective implementation of openIMIS in social protection systems.
In Senegal, we are currently implementing a compulsory health insurance information system… Our initial goal was to use openIMIS to make business management tools of healthcare providers and health insurance institution interoperable… This study visit confirmed our choice because openIMIS indeed can be used as a middleware.
Rosalie Ngom Coly, General Manager of the Institution for the Coordination of Compulsory Health Insurance in Senegal.
The study tour proved successful, largely due to the efforts of the Nepali hosts and facilitators, and the delegates’ commitment. When the week concluded, the Ethiopian, Senegalese, and Zambian delegations—from nations with many shared constraints with Nepal—returned home with a solid grasp of how they can work on digital transformation of their social protection systems through the Nepalese example.
They also left with a clear roadmap for how openIMIS can be integrated into their core social health insurance business processes and an open invitation to the openIMIS community.
Advancing DCI’s mission
At its core, the DCI’s strategic capacity development and training workstream, led by the International Labour Organization, aims to enhance both institutional and human capabilities for an effective, interoperable, and rights-based digital transformation of social protection systems.
The Nepal study tour directly supported this goal by empowering two of DCI’s key countries to contribute to global knowledge sharing on digital social protection, while simultaneously driving forward in-country implementation and local capacity building.
Through such events, DCI effectively connects stakeholders and cultivates a robust community of practitioners dedicated to strengthening digital social protection systems. These vital exchanges not only reinforce country-specific implementation efforts but also boost collaboration across regions and develop the capacity of governments, institutions and practitioners.
Our cooperation partners brought us together to build alliances both with the technical experts from our partner agencies and with other country teams. Now we have people we can call to help us implement our own social health insurance.
Perpetual Halindi Kalobwe, Director Health Insurance Services at NHMIA in Zambia.
Recommended reading
*The tour was organized by DCI, openIMIS, GIZ, ILO, and Expertise France, and was made possible through funding support from the European Commission, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The tour was jointly hosted by the Nepalese Ministry of Health, the Health Insurance Board, and the Social Security Fund in Kathmandu.