Burundi’s growing social protection system now runs on openIMIS

Merankabandi, Burundi’s national Cash for Jobs project, has started using a software solution powered by openIMIS to administer cash transfers and other social protection benefits to more than one million people.                                                                                                                                                                   

Burundi has taken a big step forward in the development of its social protection delivery system with the migration of its flagship Cash for Jobs project, known locally as Merankabandi, to the CORE-MIS solution powered by openIMIS. Since May 2025 the CORE-MIS solution has been managing cash transfers and financing for income generating activities for 1.25 million beneficiaries across Burundi’s 5 provinces. Thanks to its modular design and broad functionalities, openIMIS is well positioned to support the delivery of additional social protection services in the future as Burundi continues its digital transformation journey. 

A flexible solution for an evolving program
The Cash for Jobs project, an initiative of the Government of Burundi, is financed by the World Bank. It is the cornerstone of Burundi’s social protection system, providing more than 200,000 vulnerable households with support in the face of economic challenges, rising poverty and food insecurity. Merankabandi requires a flexible and robust management information system to enroll beneficiaries, manage payments and monitor results for a growing portfolio of activities. 

’It is important to have an information system that can evolve with the project design,’ says Aissata Coulibaly, an economist at the World Bank who is a co-Task Team Leader for the Cash for Jobs project. Since Merankabandi’s launch as a national project in 2022, new components have been added, including emergency cash transfers for households affected by natural disasters and social protection benefits for 360,000 refugees and members of host communities. Merankabandi’s previous management information system did not provide sufficient flexibility to manage these new requirements, prompting the decision to seek out a more versatile tool.

’The advantage with the CORE-MIS solution is that it is not necessary to start from scratch. A skeleton is already there, the data can be moved, components can be added, and the software can be adjusted to meet project needs,’ Aissata Coulibaly explains. CORE-MIS was originally developed by the World Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was integrated into openIMIS in 2023, following a decision by the World Bank, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to align efforts behind an integrated open source software for health financing and social protection.

Integration with external systems improves payment processes and data collection
Over the course of approximately six months, a small team in the Merankabandi project management unit successfully prepared the transition to the CORE-MIS solution, executed the data migration of more than 1 million beneficiary records from the legacy system, and customized the new information system to meet project needs.

’openIMIS has the flexibility to be integrated with external systems, and we used this chance to link the CORE-MIS solution with payment providers and with data collection systems,’ explains Anthony Belem, an information and technology consultant for the World Bank, who led the transition process. The multiple payment providers in Burundi which make transfers to beneficiaries on behalf of Merankabandi are now integrated into the information system, thereby enabling the automation of payments and seamless tracking of payment reconciliations.

The open source data collection tool KoboToolbox was also integrated into the solution. This makes it simple to automate the transfer of data collected at the community level into the Merankabandi information system.

Learning from and giving back to the openIMIS community
The openIMIS community has been a vital resource for the new Burundi implementation – and is now benefitting from some of the customizations undertaken there. ‘The Developers Committee meetings provided a chance to learn more about the system, to understand where it was being implemented, and how to address certain kinds of issues,’ explains Anthony Belem. ’Now, we are taking steps to ensure that the developments we have put in place in Burundi will be available for others to use. Contributing back to the community is also part of our process.’

Among the innovations being fed back to the main openIMIS software are the ability to map with multiple external payment providers, the linkage with KoboToolbox, and changes to the grievance redressal module which allow for selectivity in the presentation of sensitive information for certain categories of users. ‘When working with open source solutions, one is building something global,’ says Anthony Belem. ‘What’s invested in one country also serves other countries.’

A commitment to using national systems
The successful transition to the new information system powered by openIMIS has opened up opportunities to strengthen digital social protection systems in Burundi.

An additional financing agreement recently approved by the World Bank will support further social protection benefits for refugees and host communities. Thus far benefits for refugees living in camps have been administered using the World Food Programme’s information systems, but the new Merankabandi information system has the necessary functionalities to take over this role.

As part of the National Social Protection Strategy, the government has started to develop a Unified Social Registry which will help to coordinate people’s access to services across different sectors, such as health, education, labor and agriculture. As openIMIS already has social registry features and the proven capacity to administer multiple programs, it offers a promising starting point for this next chapter in the evolution of Burundi’s national social protection system.

For more information, see Implementing CORE-MIS to Strengthen Social Protection Delivery in Burundi: Lessons from the Cash for Jobs Project.  World Bank, Policy and Technical Note, July 2025.