A People-centric, Vision Transforming Social Protection System in Chile

Development Challenge

Prior to the Project, reflecting broader trends across Latin America, Chile's social protection system was fragmented.

Vulnerable families had to visit municipal offices multiple times to obtain a social benefit, which congested municipal social units. As a result, citizens waited for up to 9 months to receive a benefit and were often excluded from social protection. Despite the sophistication of Chile's social registry and social protection system, people had to navigate a maze of disconnected services, creating extreme workloads for municipal workers. The system was designed around institutions and procedures, not around users.

WBG Approach

In 2019, the Ministry of Social Development and Family, in partnership with the World Bank, designed and launched Gestión Social Local (GSL)-an integrated, user-centered municipal one-stop shop for social protection-to integrate social protection and rebuild systemic support.

GSL combines information from the social registry with a case management model and a digital platform to deliver coordinated social protection at the local level. For municipal workers, GSL is a tool that provides access to up-to-date information on citizens from the social registry, automatic alerts on program eligibility, and a case management mechanism to assign benefits or transfer cases to other municipal units. For citizens, GSL reduces waiting times and simplifies the process of obtaining social benefits, while unlocking access to complementary programs-ultimately improving the overall effectiveness of social protection.

Results and Outcomes

Between 2019 and 2025, GSL has:

1. Trained and engaged more than 10,000 municipal workers in 98 percent of Chilean municipalities, transforming their approach and putting users at the center.
2. Reached more than 10 million poor and vulnerable individuals (mostly women) seeking social protection support, representing 50 percent of the Chilean population.
3. Processed more than 13 million requests for social protection benefits, expanding access for the poor.
4. Facilitated nearly 1 million cross-unit case referrals, promoting integrated support that includes access to social registries, social assistance, family support, care services, employment support, and primary healthcare.
5. Created 550,000 personalized plans for complex cases, empowering social workers and improving the effectiveness of social protection.

Contribution to WBG Targets and Jobs

GSL contributes to the Social Protection Outcome target, as it has expanded access to social protection for the poorest, while making social protection more efficient, effective and integrated. It also advances the jobs agenda by linking social protection to employment services, with a dedicated Employment module now active.

"The GSL system allows us to manage information that we didn't have before. We can change lives and that gives us great satisfaction," Hilda Fuentes, municipal employee in the Municipality of Renca.

Lessons Learned

The experience of GSL highlights two key lessons:

1. As countries expand social protection, the risk of fragmentation increases, undermining efficiency and effectiveness. Tools such as GSL and other one-stop shops offer innovative ways to ensure integration, facilitating the work of public employees and improving the user experience.
2. Many countries, regardless of their level of sophistication, struggle to address cross-sectoral challenges such as extreme poverty or the lack of care systems. GSL has demonstrated that with integrated, up-to-date information and a clear case management structure, it is possible to engage multiple actors across sectors to tackle complex social problems. For example, GSL serves as the backbone of the new National Care System, which brings together health and social actors to provide integrated and efficient services to people with disabilities and their caregivers-mostly women.

Next Steps

The next step is to build on GSL's role as Chile's municipal one-stop shop for social protection and progressively evolve into an integral national platform.

In the short term, services for people with disabilities and for the elderly are being added to GSL, and further work is needed to expand the labor ecosystem to make GSL more effective in connecting the poor with high-quality jobs.

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Feature Story: People-centric model is transforming Chile's social protection system