Good ideas travel: lessons from eradicating disease and improving social security
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For at least three thousand years, smallpox affected people around the world. In the 20th century alone, it caused approximately 300 million deaths. However, international cooperation over ten years, involving around 500 million vaccinations and health workers reaching remote communities, eradicated the disease.
The effort also saw cooperation between politically opposed countries like the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The program cost around 300 million dollars, but has saved over one billion dollars each year since 1980. Innovations also include making solutions accessible to those who need them most, as Jonas Salk did when he chose not to patent his polio vaccine in 1955, believing “the people” should own it. In Chile, Salvador Allende, before becoming president, recognized the connection between health and social conditions like food, housing, and employment.
He later contributed to the creation of the Inter-American Conference on Social Security. In Mexico, digitizing processes at the IMSS (Mexican Institute of Social Security) allowed for over 149 million virtual transactions by 2017, saving around 7 billion pesos. One change eliminated the requirement for retirees and pensioners to periodically prove they were still alive, simplifying a burdensome process.
The Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) created the NOVA Award to recognize and share successful social security practices throughout the Americas, encouraging institutions to learn from each other’s solutions.
