Social security organizations depend on innovation to constantly strive to improve their operations and delivery. Leadership needs to set the right level of ambition for innovation.

Innovative capacity is a key enabler of a better social security. Building innovation friendly institutions and integrating innovation in organizational processes requires strategic vision, leadership and a commitment to promote creativity and collaboration across units and teams.

The application of information and communication technologies (ICT) is enabling the implementation of comprehensive and effective social security systems throughout the world. This article considers data-driven innovations in Asia and the Pacific, building on good practices of member institutions of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) in the region.

Through strategic partnerships and modern information and communications (ICT) solutions, member institutions of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) are strengthening the scope, extent, and adequacy of social security coverage.

No one could have imagined nor anticipated the global disruptions that happened in 2020. For many social security institutions, the severe health risks and safety protocols of the pandemic required a seismic shift of operations to digital technologies. In one fell swoop, teleworking, online platforms and mobile apps replaced the face-to-face, paper-based transactions of social security. The blending of human insight with digital technologies is the ace in the sleeve of every chief executive officer (CEO). Through an astute blending of human-and-digital solutions, social security continues to deliver on its mandate by ably navigating the first and succeeding waves of the pandemic.

At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the immediate response of governments has been massive in both scale and coverage, to cushion the health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic. A raft of emergency measures were urgently implemented including ad hoc income transfers and unemployment benefits, targeted subsidies, free COVID-19 tests, subsidized health care and other support programmes. In many countries, governments have relied on social security institutions to distribute these subsidies and benefits, including to the most vulnerable groups especially low-income earners, informal sector workers, women, migrants and the youth.