Digital transformation:
harnessing opportunities,
mitigating risks

As a claims investigator for Nepal’s state health insurance scheme, Goma Mishra and her 13 colleagues receive around 40,000 claims per day, meaning they would each have to review around 3,000 invoices from health care providers every day. But thanks to the management software openIMIS and a smart AI application, only a fraction of this amount actually lands on their desks. AI automatically checks all claims for inconsistencies. The employees then only have to review any cases where irregularities are found. "This enables us to process claims from health care institutions with a speed and precision that would not be possible if we had to check them all manually," says Goma Mishra. openIMIS has helped her and her colleagues to manage their workload "without feeling overwhelmed. This faster and smarter way of working gives us more time to focus on what really matters – providing high-quality services for our citizens."

The process of digitalising social protection systems usually poses more questions than just "what is the right software?". One way to increase efficiency in public administration is through interoperability. This is where various digital systems can communicate with each other and share data. For this to work, both the existing and new digital solutions of all authorities need to speak the same language – ideally one that works internationally. This is what the international Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI), which supports the digital transformation of social protection systems, aims to do. GIZ coordinates and supports this initiative on behalf of BMZ and the European Commission.

Just imagine: a single mother urgently needs help paying her children’s school fees. She contacts the responsible authority, but has to wait months for payment. The reason for the delay? Her children’s births were registered, but the authority responsible for providing assistance with school fees cannot access the data.

Standards currently being developed by DCI aim to prevent such problems in future. For this purpose, the project team has defined cases in which authorities commonly access data from other authorities. For these interfaces, working groups of experts, associations, initiatives and even multilateral organisations are then formed. They develop rules that define the format in which data needs to be recorded and which data actually needs to be collected. As a digital public good, the findings are made available at events and online free of charge and are open for comment. The aim is to reach a global consensus on interoperability standards. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank are key partners for both openIMIS and DCI.

But DCI plans to do even more. Over the next two years, it will advise six more countries on digitalisation solutions. Two help desks, or hotlines, are also being set up for countries seeking to digitalise their administrative processes. One of these is responsible for general enquiries, while the AI help desk handles questions relating specifically to the use of artificial intelligence.

The various projects coordinated by GIZ under the GASP global programme all benefit from one another: with DCI, standards are developed that are also used in the openIMIS software. The two new help desks established to answer questions on digitalisation and AI may highlight additional practical cases for which standards are required. The openIMIS team will also be on hand to offer advice in this context. Interoperability is therefore standard practice for us.

New digital opportunities bring not only potential benefits but also risks: public opinion is increasingly being shaped online, with social media in particular used to spread disinformation.

In the Republic of Moldova, we are taking targeted action against disinformation. The country has had a pro-European government since 2021, and Maia Sandu was re-elected to the office of President in late 2024. At the same time, there are two regions in Moldova where certain elements of the population are seeking greater autonomy: Transnistria in the east of the country, which receives strong support from Russia, and Gagauzia in the south. Nearly a third of all Moldovans speak Russian as a first language. Under the influence of Russia and pro-Russian oligarchs, the opposition regularly uses the news service Telegram, social networks such as Facebook or TikTok and television to stir up sentiment against the Moldovan Government and the planned EU accession.