The Single Window Service pilot for a coordinated delivery of social protection in Indonesia.  

The Single Window Service (SWS) as one of the major recommendations of the Assessment-Based National Dialogue on Social Protection in Indonesia.

The Assessment-Based National Dialogue (ABND) aims to describe and assess social protection provisions based on the Social Protection Floor framework, identify policy gaps and implementation issues, provide recommendations for the improvement of social protection strategies and estimate the cost of introducing missing social protection schemes. 

• all residents have access to affordable essential health care
• all children enjoy income security, ensuring access to nutrition, education and care
• all working age population enjoys a minimum income security through social transfers in cash or in kind or employment guarantee schemes
• all residents in old age and with severe disabilities receive pensions or transfers in kind.

• the need to improve cohesiveness among social protection programmes (notable overlaps & under coverage in existing programs, lacks comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation system)
• the need to improve accessibility
• the need to link social protection with employment services for more sustained outcomes
• the absence of viable social security mechanism for informal workers 

The “Single Window Service” to be established at local level, is a mechanism deemed necessary to address the abovementioned issues.

The Single Window Service improves outreach of social protection programs and employment services

Existing programmes often face challenges of outreach and effectiveness. The institutions in charge of these programmes do not coordinate sufficiently their interventions and do not have at hand the necessary information systems to monitor and evaluate policies and programmes. They also need to coordinate more with local governments whose role in implementing and overseeing social protection and employment programmes at provincial and district levels have increased with the decentralization processes.

An assigned “case manager” would assess the vulnerabilities and skills of potential beneficiaries, develop a personalized plan with them in terms of skills development, enterprise creation or job placement, channel information on all social services they are entitled to, provide support in the registration under the schemes, deliver social protection ID cards, facilitate access to benefits in cash or kind, and collect contributions if any. The service will be located close to the people, at district or sub-district level.

The Single Window Service improves coordination and monitoring of Social Protection and Employment Services

The Single Window Service would collect and host a single database of beneficiaries of the different programs (from central social protection database, local programs, development partners etc) and conduct regular updates (including from the outcomes of vulnerability and skills assessment).

The system would increase synergies between existing programs, by sharing some administrative functions (such as the registration of the beneficiaries, or the establishment of focal points in the hospitals) and by reinforcing development linkages between programs (such as the access to training or health insurance for workers registered under Public Work programs). The integrated database facilitates monitoring and impact assessment of the social protection strategy as a whole and brings together the different agencies involved.

A grievance reporting mechanism would enable to represent the interests of final beneficiaries and increase availability and quality of social services.

Design and Feasibility Study

Initial works and discussions with several provincial governments have lead to the selection of Nusa Tenggara Timur, Jawa Timur and Maluku as the (first) provinces to start the design process and feasibility study of the single window service pilot. The design process will involve district and provincial bodies, in collaboration with relevant government and non-governmental agencies, facilitated by the ILO. The Single Window Service will be established within government structures, to be determined jointly during the design process. 

The first province to conduct the feasibility study is NTT. The following processes take place in 2012:

• Selection of district within the target province

• Inventory, mapping and assessment of social protection schemes, employment services, and employment opportunities in the respective district. Activities include:

• Technical consultations at national, province and district level (line ministries and relevant bodies; Head of District and Governor offices; social protection programs, employment creation and income generation projects, training centers and employment services; workers and employers representatives; civil society organizations, NGOs and UN agencies in the area; other development partners)
• Desk review (existing program information, database, past impact assessments, reports etc)
• Mapping of existing provisions and actors involved in social protection and employment programs

• Development of program matrices and assessment report

• Desingning the SWS in respective districts (description of the services, functions, structure, rules, procedures and tools of the SWS)

Similar process processes will take place in East Java (commencing in September 2012) and Maluku (in mid October).

The project on establishing Single Window Service in Indonesia has gained formal support from Maluku Province and Ambon Municipality since they have signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the ILO on October 17, 2013. While the similar support is still finalizing with East Java Province and Malang District. Furthermore, the National Development Agency Board (BAPPENAS) has conducted the national focus group discussion on Single Referral System on December 5, 2013 in Bali to mapping the current innovations in delivering social protection programmes that were initiated by international development partners and particular line ministry.

One remarkable innovation is shown by Sragen District (Central Java Province) that already established a Unit of Integrated Poverty Alleviation (Unit Pelaksana Terpadu Penanggulangan Kemiskinan) which can be more functional to tackle the coordinated function than Local Coordinating Team for Poverty Alleviation (TKPKD).