The ISSA Technical Seminar on Building customer-centric social security organizations: Managing transformations will be held in Gaborone, Botswana, 6–7 March 2025. The technical seminar is organized by the ISSA Liaison Office for Southern Africa and hosted by the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund.

Establishing a customer-centric culture to better service individuals and stakeholders, especially as part of broader digitalization strategies, has been an important strategy of the Southern Africa social security organizations. To succeed in these transformations, institutions need to evolve consistently in different areas. Change management, which involves establishing structured approaches and processes that help organizations prepare, support and guide employees and teams through changes, has been a key part of this broader strategy.

However, engaging stakeholders in the different business units and managing internal change is challenging. It requires a strategy that includes active communication with stakeholders and capacity building under strong leadership to align the organization towards a customer-centric mindset.

Building on the outcomes of the ISSA International Conference on Management and Innovation in Social Security, 11‒13 February 2025, Cairo, Egypt, this seminar will further detail these outcomes in the context of the Southern Africa region. It will look into how social security organizations have implemented customer-centric approaches, configured their processes, defined staff roles, and coordinated business unit activities as part of a change management strategy. It will emphasize the importance of human resources in driving successful transitions, and address challenges and key success factors of managing change in complex organizational environments. Attendees will gain practical insights into establishing robust change management approaches.

The ISSA Guidelines on Human Resource Management in Social Security Administration and the ISSA Guidelines on Service Quality provide a high-level reference point for the change management activities in social security administrations. The ISSA Guidelines on Continuity and Resilience of Social Security Services and Systems are based on an effective risk management approach and model guiding social security organizations on how to effectively service their customers.

In line with the ISSA Guidelines and based on the presentation of selected recent experiences from the region, this event will identify and share innovations and good practices in this domain.

Practical information

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English and Portuguese. It is open to the representatives of ISSA member organizations from Southern, Eastern and Western Africa and invited guests. There is no registration fee for ISSA members.