Minister Omar Ottley; approval granted for Integrated Social Registry system

Approval was granted for the implementation of an Integrated Social Registry System (ISRS) within the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor (VSA). The social registry is a tool that will support 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 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 program 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 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.