In 2020, the Government of Azerbaijan approved a regulation for the Individual Rehabilitation Programme (IRP) for persons with disabilities. The individual programme includes a set of measures related to the medical, vocational, psychological-pedagogical rehabilitation and the development of social skills of persons with disabilities.

The Unified Labour and Employment Subsystem (EMAS) implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan, DOST Digital Innovations Centre, State Employment Agency and the State Labour Inspection Service, is an electronic platform that serves as a central hub for employers, employees, job seekers, and the unemployed in the regulation of labour relations and the provision of employment opportunities.

To expand the income opportunities of the population and reduce the number of low-income families, Azerbaijan introduced the so-called Targeted State Social Assistance (TSSA) in 2006. TSSA is allotted to low-income families with monthly earnings falling below a specific threshold due to uncontrollable circumstances.

The DOST-Index of the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Provision (DOST) of Azerbaijan is a comprehensive tool for assessing and benchmarking social services delivery performance across different factors by analyzing collected information from several sources and drawing out insights using time-tested analytic methods. Being an evaluation system, the DOST-Index is a model aimed at analyzing activities of back offices at the macro level and DOST centres at the micro level.

In 2020, the State Social Protection Fund under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of Azerbaijan, hereafter referred to the Fund, launched a centralization policy to increase the quality and flexibility of business processes in social security, facilitate access to services rendered to the population and ensure transparency, and increase citizen satisfaction.

Following the re-establishment of the State Social Protection Fund of Azerbaijan (SSPF) as a legal entity under public law, the SSPF embarked on a transformative journey aimed at the incorporation of digital frameworks into its governance structure. This strategic initiative sought to optimize operational efficiency, enhance transparency and promote robust stakeholder engagement.

In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Israel.

What began as a health crisis soon turned into an economic crisis, which led many workers to go on forced unpaid leave and went to the National Insurance Institute (NII) for assistance. There was a need to find creative solutions within the limits of the law and the data available to the NII, and to find workable and quick solutions that would allow the payment of unemployment benefits to unpaid workers.

In 2019, the State Social Protection Fund of under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SSPF) introduced the unique artificial intelligence (AI) driven proactive assignment mechanism for the assignment of social benefits. This self-starting assignment system is a modern approach to delivering a social service that uses big data and technology to identify and reach out to eligible individuals and assign social benefits from a single center to families without them having to visit any institution.

One of the main goals for the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST), which started to function since 9 May 2019 was an effective management of day-to-day increasing information flow. One of the core tasks of the Agency was to implement effective IT solutions in order to register more than 2,000 citizen daily appeals, set up relevant databases, coordinate with e-databases of other institutions and provide data processing, analysis and reporting.

“No power in the world can destroy thirst for human dignity”, Nelson Mandela.

The Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST Agency) Model of Azerbaijan enabled the effective and rapid transition from the old management system. All processes were comprehensively reformed within the three years.

Human rights and dignity stay at the top of the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST) of Azerbaijan values. Considering its mission to provide the population with operative and smooth access to labor and social protection services, the Agency developed and implemented social innovations that increased citizen satisfaction. The position of the front office for citizens and mid office for ministerial and third-party organizations allows DOST the best coordination between citizens and service providers.

Analysis of citizens’ appeals revealed that the definite groups of people due to their growing number and specific physical and mental conditions, required different approaches.

The Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST) Volunteer Programme in Azerbaijan is a crucial part of the DOST Agency’s activities and applies a new innovative approach to Government to Citizen (G2C) communication. DOST volunteers act as an intermediary within the Agency and beyond it. The programme is focused on the day-to-day operations at the DOST centres, such as guiding citizens, assisting people with disabilities and older persons, conducting satisfaction surveys, and participating in CSR projects of the Agency.

According to Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art”.

The Law on Social Services establishes that the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST), hereafter referred to as the Agency, provides home-based social services to elderly people living alone without close relatives and legal representatives. Through home-based social services, social caretakers help elderlies with household routines, cleaning, grocery and medicine shopping, payments etc.

The Proactive Disability Payments Mechanism of the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST) of Azerbaijan simplifies the rights of disabled citizens by eliminating the need for explicit requests and paper-based documentation. The mechanism automatically identifies disabled citizens’ entitlement, verifies their information, and, if eligible, calculates and assigns the relevant social benefit or pension. This approach ensures a citizen-centric process, removing the requirement for citizens to initiate requests and simplifying access to vital services.

In 2020–2021, the State Social Protection Fund under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Azerbaijan (hereafter the Fund) initiated the optimization policy of the corporate governance framework pertaining to social security in Azerbaijan, which represents a pivotal undertaking aimed at refining and streamlining the operational dynamics of the social security apparatus. This initiative involves a comprehensive optimization strategy designed to elevate the efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance of the existing social security governance.

The key objectives of the portal are to provide comprehensive information about social protection entitlements and benefits, enable continuous monitoring of labour, employment, and social protection rights, and offer efficient and proactive services to users. To achieve these objectives, the “e-sosial” portal adopts a user-friendly approach based on the “one-stop shop” principle.

In 2017, the Action Plan for the prevention of informal employment in the Republic of Azerbaijan was approved by Order No. 3287, dated 9 October 2017 and issued by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. 36 tasks have been assigned to concerned governmental agencies that will work in close collaboration with social partners under the supervision and coordination of the Commission on the Regulation and Coordination of Labour Relations.

The implementation of the large-scale self-employment program in Azerbaijan covering all regions of the country was started in 2016. The self-employment program created a qualitatively new stage in state employment policy by creating opportunities for the unemployed to establish family business, to have their own farms, to increase income through self-employment, and finally, to create new jobs in the country and to develop small and medium-size businesses which are crucial for the economy.

The main purpose of establishing an information system is to facilitate citizen access to state targeted social assistance (STSA) and eliminate possible negative cases.

Based on the changes made on the “Regulation on Medical-Social Expert Commissions”, the applied system ensures that the disability assessment process is carried out objectively and transparently through the electronic infrastructure without official-citizen contacts.

Automated award of the old-age labour pensions from a single point has been successfully implemented since 2013. The advantage of the system is that any person who reaches retirement age can immediately be awarded the pension without collecting documents and wasting time by simply calling a 142 Call Centre. The person concerned gets information regarding the pension amount applicable and the address of the respective bank office where he can obtain his pension card. The whole process takes a few minutes.

This helped SSPF improve all its major indicators: contribution collection, extension of coverage, benefit increase, increase of the replacement rate, increase in transparency, increase of accountability and the level of satisfaction of the population. SSPF benefitted from experience of successful social security agencies, avoiding legacy problems and focusing on desired features required by contemporary life and social security standards.