The institution develops adequate information and communication technology (ICT) capacity, including infrastructure, software and a team of professional staff.

The institution sets easy-to-measure standards for the various services it offers to difficult-to-cover groups across its service delivery network.

The institution develops partnerships with various organizations for the purpose of reaching potential beneficiaries, reducing administrative costs and increasing service quality and integrity.

The institution develops a long-term social security coverage extension plan subject to the guidance and support of the relevant authority. The inclusion of relevant stakeholders in the development of the plan helps to identify issues early but also helps in securing external support in the implementation phase.

Key capacities – some internal to the institution, some external – enable social security institutions to work towards the extension of coverage. In most cases, the extension of coverage is a horizontal endeavour requiring the collaboration of a variety of institutional players.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

The institution ensures it has the required authority to pursue the innovative administrative solutions it has identified.

The institution is aware of the strategic importance of the enabling environment required to support the extension of social security coverage to difficult-to-cover groups. It identifies the elements that it could leverage and the gaps/weaknesses in coverage that should be mitigated.

Through measures that ensure the necessary legal framework, social security institutions are encouraged to take a proactive role in extending coverage.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

• Assessing the enabling environment
• Securing the required authority for coverage extension

The Guidelines are organized in six parts.

Part A, Assessing and Contributing to the Enabling Environment, addresses various measures to gauge the extent to which the necessary external building blocks are in place.

Part B, Ensuring Institutional Readiness, points to the key capacities enabling social security institutions to work towards extending coverage to difficult-to-cover groups.

The ISSA Guidelines on Administrative Solutions for Coverage Extension aim at strengthening the capacities of social security administrations to deliver effective contributory programmes and to work towards the extension of coverage to groups that are typically difficult to cover.