SIGPA

Social investment requires monitoring instruments which ensure that the resources which have been budgeted for really end up where they were supposed to and complete their functions. To this end the Invest in People Program, in connection with the Social Cabinet for Executive Power, is supporting a tool capable of providing information to public bodies in the social sector in realtime and following up a number of projects at the same time. The Information and Management System in Paraguay (SIGPA) is an internet-based management and information support system aimed at optimising various data about children of school age (expandable to monitoring the family environment in which these children are developing) through the collection, analysis and timely provision of information

SIGPA offers solutions for implementing and montioring social programs and projects, as well as guaranteeing information to the Minstry of Education.

Through a combination of simple but effective logistics with advanced technology such as online services, a web page accessible to various users via password, optical readers, IT systems for consultation and data sharing, it brings day-to-day information to analysis levels in just a few weeks, becoming appropriate for the needs of the government authorities and project managers, which allows for correct decision-making. As a system operated via the internet it permits survey and data input work to be distributed without losing any of its effectiveness in terms of the unity and synthesis of information. This can then be transferred into a decentralised work which even permits data transfer and control from anywhere, with the advantage of being able to indentify the users who have carried out data input (data entry or barcode reading). Each beneficiary is assigned an identifier in the form of a barcode which makes monitoring throughout the implementation of a particular social project easier, for example in the case of education, throughout a child's school life.

Aims:

The aims of the Information and Management System in Paraguay (SIGPA) are:
1. To generate timely information for the monitoring of the accomplishment of the co-responsibilities related to conditioned transfer programs.
2. To provide up-to-date information concerning documentation about school pupils on a national level.
3. To generate timely information for the monitoring of priority social programs.
4. To generate timely information about educational indicators.
5. To strengthen the capacity for planning within the social sector ministries.
6. To build a wide database to improve and further analysis in matters of efficiency and effectiveness of social programs in Paraguay.
7. To monitor (in conjunction with other tools) the progress towards intermediary social goals and the Millennium Development Goals.