PHILIPSBURG:--- Approval was granted for the implementation of an Integrated Social Registry System (ISRS) within the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor (VSA). A social registry is a tool that will support the effective planning, implementation, coordination, and monitoring of social protection programs and services in Sint Maarten. It is a digital tool that will be used for the registration and assessment of socio-economic data of households to improve the efficiency of the social protection system, as well as improve VSA’s responses in post-disaster situations.
The implementation of this system is anchored at the core of the Ministry’s mission and vision which underscores the important role of social protection in addressing risks and delivering programs and services to the most vulnerable.
The ISRS will deliver benefits such as: improving coordination both within and outside of the Ministry, ensuring that resources are channeled to where they are most deserved, undoing the silo-centric approach which has made current interventions less effective, establishing a more proactive approach to social protection supported by an ongoing outreach process through the use of the community helpdesks, improving the monitoring and the ability to identify and prevent benefit fraud, increasing customer services for individuals who require support from the social protection system, improving the development of Government Policies based on a data-driven approach and quicker responses in times of disasters.
The system will allow for data sharing based on a data protection impact assessment that is currently ongoing. This will ensure the privacy of the data of persons who register with the system. The system is also being built to allow for its growth and sustainability where other new social protection interventions can be incorporated as they are developed. “All in all, the approval by the Government to implement the registry is a landmark achievement for all stakeholders in the Social Protection sector especially the most vulnerable,” said Minister Ottley.
