Social protection systems determine whether people can access pensions, unemployment benefits, child support, healthcare and emergency assistance when they need them most. In many countries, these systems are being digitized while still operating under tight budgets, fragmented data environments and uneven level of connectivity.
As part of our partnership with Japan on the Digital X 3.0 focused on human security, UNDP recently hosted a webinar on social protection. During the session practitioners discussed what updating social protection systems looks like in practice.
Today, many governments operate “a mix of legacy systems, spreadsheets and sector-specific databases.” Celine Lewerentz, Head of Operations at OpenSPP, an open-source solution for digital welfare transfers, explained that new platforms must connect to these existing records and administrative processes. Replacing everything at once is rarely an option.
Connectivity adds another constraint. In remote and crisis-affected areas, internet access may be intermittent or unavailable. Systems must allow offline data collection and later synchronization if service delivery is to continue.
The choice of a digital solution goes beyond technical performance
Software performance alone does not determine whether a system can function at scale. Dajna Sorensen, Policy Specialist in UNDP’s Inclusive Growth Team, emphasized during the session that policymakers must account for connectivity gaps, institutional capacity, coordination across government entities and data protection frameworks when selecting digital systems.
Fragmented or proprietary systems can create additional constraints over time. Vendor dependency, limited access to source-code and restricted adaptability can make future upgrades more difficult and more expensive. In social protection, where budgets often represent significant shares of national expenditure, these decisions affect services relied upon by millions of people.
Two digital public goods discussed in practice
The webinar featured OpenSPP and OpenG2P — two digital public goods supporting the delivery of social protection services in different country contexts. These accredited solutions are part of the Digital Public Goods registry, which is maintained by the Digital Public Goods Alliance. The webinar discussion focused on how these tools operate within existing administrative systems.
OpenSPP (Open Source Social Protection Platform) is an open-source digital public good (DPG)1 designed to support the full lifecycle of social protection programmes, including registration, eligibility assessment, benefit delivery, grievance redress, and reporting. Celine noted that its modular architecture allows governments to adopt components gradually, depending on institutional readiness. This approach supports integration with existing registries and databases rather than requiring full system replacement.
She also highlighted the importance of offline functionality for field operations, where data must often be collected without stable connectivity.
OpenG2P is an open-source platform focused on government-to-person (G2P) benefit delivery, with particular emphasis on large-scale digital cash transfers. The project is also recognized as a DPG2 and is housed at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore.
Puneet Joshi, Chief Technology Officer at OpenG2P, emphasized that benefit delivery systems must include privacy protections, audit trails and controlled data-sharing mechanisms. These safeguards are necessary to maintain accountability and public confidence. Scaling these systems therefore requires institutional capacity alongside technical deployment. Governments must be able to manage, adapt and oversee the systems they use.
Country perspectives: When scale changes the problem
Country experiences shared during the webinar highlighted that digital reform takes on a different character once social protection systems operate at national scale. Drawing on work in Latin America, Luis da Silva de Paiva, Social Protection & Inclusive Growth Specialist, UNDP, emphasized that social protection is not a sector where impact is measured in thousands, but often in percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP).
In many Latin American countries, including Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, large national social registries already exist and cover the majority of the population. These systems form the backbone of non-contributory social protection. The challenge is therefore not introducing digital systems from scratch but improving how existing systems work together. Often, development partners such as UNDP, support governments rethink data integration, interoperability and system design upstream, while leaving the technical implementation to private sector system integrators.
Luis noted that with relatively small funding envelopes, development partners face a constant trade-off: Supporting small, self-contained projects with clearly measurable results, or making targeted interventions within much larger government-led systems. Budget and political willingness plays a role in which direction to take. Luis highlighted, this trade-off is central to how advisors can engage to shape digital public infrastructure (DPI) in social protection and encouraged participations to prioritize systemic change over isolated pilots.
From dialogue to action: Digital X 3.0
OpenSPP and OpenG2P are examples of DPGs – software and communities that can be studied, tweaked, used and distributed for free – which means software engineers, technical project managers and designers can access, adopt and modify their software to meet the needs of their communities. However, availability alone does not guarantee uptake. Many governments remain unaware of existing solutions or lack clear pathways to assess and adopt them.
Digital X was created to address this gap. The initiative identifies, matches and supports the scaling of proven digital solutions with UNDP Country Offices and governments. A central component of this effort is the Digital X Solution Catalogue, through which UNDP curates and shares solutions that have been deployed in real-world settings and can be explored by governments seeking practical options.
To increase discoverability and surface implementation lessons, the Digital X 3.0 Webinar Series was launched in partnership with the Government of Japan. Each session brings together policymakers, practitioners, solution providers and end users to discuss practical challenges and approaches. The first session, Accelerating Social Protection Through Digital Solutions, brought together Dajna Sorensen and participants from multiple country contexts.
Get in touch if you want to learn more, or have a proven digital solution you want to add to our catalogue. It is available at: https://digitalx.undp.org
