After the successful online events in 2020, CoP Members meet again to discuss digital service delivery in COVID-19 contex
On April 20th, 2021 the Anglophone and Lusophone Community of Practice of Cash Transfer in Africa met online for an internal consultation on the theme “Leveraging Technology: Digital Service Delivery in the COVID-19 Context and Future Directions”.
Nigeria Representative M. Iorwa Apera moderated the session, proposing different topics and questions to the panelists, which unpacked the issues related to technology and economic inclusion in Africa. The panel was composed by the he CoP Steering Committee members: Ghana Representative Mr. Mawutor Kwaku Ablo, and The Gambia Representative Mr. Malang Fofan a as well as Mr. Titus Oduma from Uganda and Mme Winnie Mwasiaji from Kenya. The discussion was then opened to all participants and representatives for their inputs on the questions, inlcuding Members from the Franchophone CoP group.
Topics of discussion
Economic Inclusion Landscape Survey shows that more than 50 percent of programs globally use digital technologies to Beneficiary Enrolment and Monitoring and overall Program Management and Monitoring.
Additionally, 15% of the programs use technology to deliver payments and grants. However, COVID-19 brought a new sense of urgency on how to customize and deliver the key economic inclusion components in response to the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The consultation explored the potential to leverage technology and digital solutions to deliver human resource intensive components such as training and coaching, innovative mechanism to deliver payments and perform operational research.
In particular, the discussion focused on:
• The impact of COVID-19 on program delivery/implementation of social protection programs
• How technology can help scale the Economic Inclusion programs
• The level of Digitalization in Government social protection policies
• Technology penetration in the countries
• How the current skill set of program beneficiaries impact the use of technology
• The Challenges of Delivering Interventions in Rural vs Urban Areas
• Finding technical partners who can support digital delivery
