The Chairman of the Board of the DOST Agency participated in a webinar organized by the ISSA

Farid Mammadov, Chairman of the Board of the Sustainable and Operative Social Protection (DOST) Agency, spoke as a presenter at the webinar titled “Lifelong Sustainable and Resilient Social Protection”, organized by the International Social Security Association (ISSA).

The webinar gathered over 70 participants from various countries around the world. Farid Mammadov discussed Azerbaijan’s experience in providing state services in the field of social protection. He noted that the DOST Concept was established seven years ago on the initiative of the First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva. Operating under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, DOST centers serve vulnerable population groups by ensuring easy access to social protection services. Citizens can receive services at DOST Centers through a one-stop-shop system without bureaucratic obstacles, in a convenient and barrier-free manner.

Farid Mammadov also spoke about the digitalization process of services provided to citizens in Azerbaijan. He highlighted the “Labour and Employment” subsystem (ƏMAS), emphasizing that this subsystem serves as an electronic platform that unites employers, employees, unemployed, and job seekers in the country for regulating labour relations and ensuring employment. It facilitates human resource management and transparency in this area. Thanks to this platform, employment contracts are signed electronically.

He added that the integration of data collected in various subsystems of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection with data from other government institutions eliminates the need for citizens to submit paper documents when receiving services. This makes services more convenient and accessible, and citizens do not face bureaucratic barriers during service delivery.

Farid Mammadov also addressed the promotion of digital tools usage among the population. He noted that the country has developed a mobile application called “E-Social”, which allows people to access certain social protection services without visiting DOST centers physically. Special training sessions and instructional videos are regularly conducted and produced, especially for elderly people, to facilitate the use of this application.

Regarding the creation of the DOST Concept, Farid Mammadov mentioned that best practices from countries such as Norway, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Chile in the field of social protection were taken as the basis and adapted to the Azerbaijani environment.

He emphasized that more than 3.5 million citizens have been served at DOST centers to date, and citizen satisfaction with these services reaches 98.5%.