In Uruguay, conflict between institutions has been the main obstacle to integrating social data

Brasília, April 5, 2016 – Even without any legal framework compelling public administrative bodies to share social security data, Uruguay has managed to unite 13 agencies in its Integrated Information System for Social Matters (SIIAS), led by the Ministry for Social Development (MIDES). Today, 253 entities from from all levels of government use the information database to reduce the fragmentation of public policies in the country. System officials, who traveled to Brazil to share their experience in Uruguay, assert that the principal difficulty was the political and institutional design of integration, rather than potential technical or management-related challenges in the future.

“Extreme flexibility is necessary. When we have a new partner (joining the database), the first thing is to include that partner. We can’t ask too many questions,” said Juan Pablo Labat, Director of Evaluation and Monitoring at the MIDES, during the International Seminar on Database Integration and Information Systems for Public Policy Improvement, held on April 5 and 6 in Brasília.

Labat refers to the fact that different agencies have developed their databases to varying degrees, which requires extra effort from the managing body to integrate them, in addition to the natural challenge of reaching sharing agreements.

“For us, the question of how the information is made available is relatively trivial (from the technology perspective). Many state agencies have major data weaknesses. Some even use Excel sheets,” said Milton Silveira, Coordinator of the Integrated Information Systems Unit at the Social Department of MIDES.

In response to the conflicts entailed by a project of this nature, it was essential to set up an inter-institutional Technical Management Committee to overcome difficulties, such as budget shortages for some agencies in extracting or sending data.

The SIIAS now contains personal information about citizens, addresses, specific health data (public and private), education (public), and social security, dating back to 2010 when Uruguay began to design the program. Of the 800 variables tracked in the system, the majority are updated on a monthly basis. There are therefore bilateral agreements that specifically establish the frequency and format of the data, although each agency maintains control over its own information.

Up to 60% of the information is already georeferenced, depending on the institution of origin. SIIAS is a system that primarily serves to follow up on, monitor, and analyze policies. For example, with the system, Uruguay has access to information about children outside of the education system.

It is also possible to track infant development in poor and extremely poor families, even if they do not receive social benefits. In Uruguay, all children are assigned an identification number when they are born. This unique civil registration code was essential in integrating the databases.

Covering 95% of the population, the costs of maintaining the SIIAS are centralized by the Ministry, which allocates nearly 500,000 dollars a year alone. Recently, the country began to migrate the software it uses towards an open-source solution (Pentaho and Postgres SQL suites).

Despite what has been accomplished, officials say at least two challenges remain to promote effective interoperability between the information systems.

“Access continues to be sectoral. Each agency tracks or processes its own requests, as has always been done historically. Overcoming this will require defining rules for inter-institutional relationships,” said Juan Pablo Labat.

Another difficulty, according to the director, is the lack of focus on data analysis. “The majority of the systems are not even designed for extracting information easily,” he pointed out.

The seminar, held in Brasília, was organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation (MDS), in partnership with the Brazil Learning Initiative for a World Without Poverty (WWP).