The growing and vibrant openIMIS Community

openIMIS Supports Social Protection Management

openIMIS now supports the management of activities across the social protection delivery chain, thanks to enhanced functionalities included in its latest release. The April 2024 release marks a significant evolution of openIMIS as a mature digital public good, offering versatile solutions for managing social protection programs and health financing schemes. These new features are already implemented in São Tomé and Príncipe’s national social protection system. Read more about it here.

Strategic Alignment Yields Results

This progress was made possible by the successful collaboration between openIMIS and CORE-MIS, a digital platform developed by the World Bank for managing cash transfers and public works programs. The alignment behind an integrated open-source software was announced last year by the World Bank, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The global openIMIS Initiative has been funded by Germany and Switzerland since 2016.

openIMIS, with its modular structure, allows for the flexible packaging of functionalities into tailored solutions. These include modules for managing beneficiaries, benefit packages, providers, claims generation, review, processing, and payments. The CORE-MIS solution for cash transfers, for instance, covers the four phases of the social protection delivery chain: Assess, Enroll, Provide, Manage. It facilitates beneficiary intake, registration, program enrolment based on customizable criteria, and benefit payments within a single solution.

Enhanced Functionalities and Digital Public Infrastructure

The enhanced functionalities of openIMIS lay the foundation for a comprehensive social registry, capable of capturing and managing individual data. openIMIS's interoperable design contributes to Digital Public Infrastructure, supporting social protection and health financing systems worldwide.

Grounded in a Dynamic Community, Committed to Multilateral Engagement

openIMIS thrives within a vibrant community of users and developers, collaborating with international partners in the social protection space. The community supports various business models, including software customization, trainings, and feature development, creating a diverse ecosystem of service providers.

International partners like the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Social Security Organization (ISSA), the World Bank, and the World Food Programme (WFP) support large-scale delivery of social protection programs. As members of the openIMIS Stakeholder Committee, these partners provide guidance on addressing social protection challenges.

Additionally, the openIMIS Initiative contributes to the development of global standards through cooperation with OpenHIE, the Digital Convergence Initiative, and GovStack.

Saurav Bhattarai
GIZ, Germany
LinkedIn | saurav.bhattarai@giz.de