Officials from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) visited Turkiye for a benchmarking mission at the Gaziosmanpaşa Social Service Center to learn about the country’s digitized social protection system.

The DSWD delegation, led by Undersecretary Adonis Sulit, includes Assistant Secretary and Chief Information Officer Julius Gorospe, Assistant Secretary for National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction Marites Maristela, Policy Development and Planning Bureau Director Rhodora Alday, and Information and Communication Technology Management Service Director Christian Joseph Regunay.

Gorospe said the World Bank-sponsored benchmarking mission last Sept. 18-22 was meant to assist the DSWD in creating a more efficient and beneficiary-focused social protection system in the Philippines.

Turkiye is a benchmark for this mission, as it successfully integrated various social registries into its Integrated Social Assistance Service Information System (ISAIS), managed by the Ministry of Family and Social Services, he pointed out.

“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,” Gorospe said.

The ISAIS, developed in 2010, is an e-government system that streamlines social assistance processes, from registration to fund disbursement and auditing, using data from 29 social registries and Turkiye’s national ID.

Dr. Sevim Sayim Madak, Turkiye’s Minister of Family and Social Services, met with DSWD officials to discuss services and applications, 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,” Madak told the DSWD delegation.

Gorospe highlighted that the benchmarking mission to Turkiye shows DSWD's commitment to improving 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,” he said.