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.

Extending social security coverage is a key challenge for the quasi-totality of members of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) in Africa. Social security coverage for a diverse workforce is therefore one of four topical priorities for ISSA in the 2023–2025 triennium. This follows from extensive work on extending social security coverage in the previous triennium culminating with new guidelines on extending health-care coverage launched in October 2022.

The extension of social security coverage is a key topic for the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and its members. It is one of the main ISSA topical priorities for the 2023–2025 triennium, with particular emphasis given to innovations and strategies to extend contributory social security schemes to the self-employed, workers in the informal sector, migrant workers and other difficult-to-cover groups.

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.

As social security institutions expand digital services, they are gearing up towards customer-centric design and agile methodologies for people-oriented service delivery. This articles introduces recent practices, highlights the importance of design-thinking and agile approaches and points to barriers and facilitating factors.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making rapid inroads into the public sector as agencies pursue greater efficiency, greater quality and more personalized services for their customers. Social security institutions are no exception. While the applications of AI are varied – each with its own far-reaching implications – “conversational AI” or “chatbots” have been leading the way in terms of AI adoption by government agencies.

Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming how public services are designed and delivered. This article zooms in on the implementation of digital inclusion strategies among European ISSA member institutions.

While social security administrations have gradually pursued digital strategies over the past decades, the COVID-19 crisis accelerated their digital transformation journey. The resilience and scalability of digital systems in responding to unprecedented needs despite operational constraints has dramatically moved the needle on organizations going “digital by default”. This article builds on the experiences of social security institutions in Europe.

While unemployment protection schemes are scarcely developed in Asia and the Pacific, as elsewhere in the world, important developments are taking place to expand and improve coverage. Certain developments have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article presents overall trends and concrete good practices of member institutions in the region.

The unprecedented surge in the need for social security during the COVID-19 crisis overwhelmed institutions’ service delivery channels, both physical and online. This article deals with the importance of Business Continuity Management in light of the pandemic, building on good practices of social security institutions in Asia and the Pacific.