Section 4 - Design

Section 4 - Design

The design of the SSDM was conducted during the year 2012, based on:

an analysis of best practices of Single Window Services around the world,
bilateral consultations and workshops at national and local level with line Government institutions, development partners, civil society organisations, social partners,
an advisory and knowledge sharing mission from Samajik Suvidha Sangam, a coordinated social protection delivery mechanism coordinated by the Delhi Government.

The design study was finalized in November 2013 and lauched by the Deputy Prime Minister (and chairman of CARD) a the National Forum on Modality and Mechanism of National Social Protection Strategy Coordination at Sub-National Level on 6 December 2013 in Phnom Penh. It describes in detail the five functions of the SSDM (providing information on existing programmes, facilitating registration, managing information, managing appeals, providing social services) and the roles and responsibilities of each level of the sub-national administration for the smooth functioning of the mechanism.

A Single Window Service...

The Social Service Delivery Mechanism (SSDM) is a one-stop shop at district and commune level, linked with the One Window Service Office (OWSO) and managed with an integrated information system. It aims at facilitating access to both social protection and employment services: it is a single entry point for households to access social services.

The SSDM will contribute to overcoming the challenges faced by social protection and employment programs in Cambodia, namely the lack of empowerment of the subnational administration, the lack of coordination between programmes, their limited outreach to beneficiaries, the insufficient data management, monitoring and evaluation. The SSDM will also contribute to the graduation out of poverty by providing combined services to final beneficiaries. To achieve this ambitious objective, the SSDM will coordinate the main processes of social protection programs (registration, identification of eligible individuals or households, enrolment of participants, delivery of the social transfers and monitoring).

...embedded in each level of the sub-national adminimstration...

The SSDM is designed to be close to the final beneficiaries and to be embedded in the existing administration. Hence, each level of the subnational administration has a role to play in ensuring the flow of information from the villages to the policy makers and conversely:

At province level, a back-office will enable to consolidate all information and monitor the overall system, process some verifications, address the issues reported, provide mentoring and capacity building to all levels;
At district/municipality/khan level, a back office will process the applications while a front office will facilitate enrolments in the SSDM and applications to existing social protection and employment programmes; all information received from the front office as well as from the commune/sangkat level will be computerized in a unique MIS;
At commune/sangkat level, a front office will provide information to families on programmes available locally, facilitate enrolments and applications, gather complaints, create and update family folders; and
At village level, the Village Development Committee will be in charge of disseminating information, gathering complaints and identifying beneficiaries.

Embedded in government institutions and operated by the sub-national administrations, the Social Service Delivery Mechanism is linked to the central level via a formalized reporting system.

...ensuring five main functions:

Information on existing programmes : the SSDM disseminates information to the residents, through various channels: placards, leaflets, radio broadcasts and shows, videos, community leaders, etc. The information provided relates to social protection and employment programmes available locally.
Enrolment in the SSDM and application to social programmes: potential beneficiaries enrol in the SSDM and apply to the programmes for which they meet eligibility criteria. Common enrolment/application procedures and tools are developed and applied systematically by the SSDM staff. This will increase transparency of the identification and selection process of the beneficiaries, reduce the workload of the sub-national administrations and reduce administrative costs related to the identification and registration of beneficiaries.
Management information system: the MIS enables to know at any time which beneficiaries are registered in the system, who applied to each programme, and to track whether eligible beneficiaries have effectively availed services and transfers.
Appeals: the SSDM represents the interests of its members by ensuring that those who are eligible to the programmes (social services, transfers, employment measures) have an effective access to services of acceptable quality.
Provision of services: some social services which are today provided by local administrations, or newly established services, such as the cash transfer programme could be provided directly by the SSDM (for example, cash transfer programme, a hotline and case management system for overseas migrant workers; and a hotline and case management system in case of domestic violence, human trafficking, child labour and other abuses.)

For more information on the design phase

To download the design study, click here

To download the analysis of best practices of Single Window Services around the world, click here

To learn more on the Single Window Services around the world, click here