Officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) visited Turkey on September 18 to 22 as part of the agency’s Benchmarking Mission at the Gaziosmanpaşa Social Service Center to learn more about the country’s existing digitized system for social protection implementation.

Led by Undersecretary for Policy and Plans Group Adonis Sulit, the DSWD delegation was composed of Assistant Secretary and chief information officer (CIO) Julius Gorospe; Asst. Secretary for National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) Marites Maristela; Policy Development and Planning Bureau Director Rhodora Alday; and Information and Communication Technology Management Service (ICTMS) Director Christian Joseph Regunay.

According to Asst. Sec. Gorospe, the benchmarking mission was sponsored and funded by the World Bank to assist the DSWD in fostering a more efficient, responsive, and beneficiary-centric social protection ecosystem in the Philippines.

The DSWD-CIO noted that Turkey is the benchmarked country for this mission as he highlighted the successful integration of various social registries into their Integrated Social Assistance Service Information System (ISAIS) managed by the Ministry of Family and Social Services.

“The system has significantly streamlined social assistance delivery, reducing the time from application to disbursement of aid, and creating a robust, integrated, and electronic system for social assistance,” Asst. Sec. Gorospe said.

Developed in 2010, the ISAIS is a hallmark of e-government information systems that facilitates seamless management of social assistance processes from registration to fund disbursement and auditing. It integrates data from 29 social registries, leveraging Turkey’s national ID as the basis for identification.

During the visit, Minister of Family and Social Services Dr. Sevim Sayim Madak met with the DSWD officials and discussed a detailed information on the services and applications offered to citizens, emphasizing the importance of benchmarking on the ‘Integrated System’.

“This meeting, where we shared general information about the ‘Integrated System’ used in our country and received a ‘Social Protection Presentation’ from the Philippine delegation, has carried out an important work towards preserving the culture of inter-country consultation and cooperation. We will continue to maintain our processes of experience and knowledge sharing with determination,” Dr. Madak told the DSWD delegation.

Asst. Sec. Gorospe pointed out that the benchmarking mission to Turkey is a testament to DSWD’s unwavering commitment to leveraging global best practices to enhance social protection services in the Philippines.

“It has significantly enriched DSWD’s knowledge base, propelling the department closer to its goal of a digitally empowered, beneficiary-centric social protection ecosystem,” the CIO said.

The benchmarking mission, which provided broader insights and learnings on the benefits of an
integrated system and digitalization, was in line with the priority project of DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian to digitalize the social protection delivery in the Philippines, according to Asst. Sec. Gorospe.

The DSWD delegation was joined by representatives from the World Bank Group and officials from the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). #