Social security systems are increasingly interconnected – across different agencies within the sector, with organizations in other sectors and with systems in other countries. Furthermore, in complex environments, even within the same institution, different organizational units are becoming progressively specialized, autonomous, or geographically focused. As a result, the strategic and operational activities in which social security institutions are engaged often require the involvement and coordination of multiple actors working at different levels to achieve effective results.

The growth of the gig and platform economy in recent years has created new markets for businesses and income-generating opportunities for workers, but it has also brought to the forefront issues related to social protection for platform workers. The platform economy is a diverse and complex reality, with different business models, economic sectors, forms of service provision, and types of work and worker profiles. Therefore, platform work cannot be looked at from any single viewpoint.

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.