Each record describes something a country built that the indicators miss. The source provides the number; the mechanism is our interpretation.
Scores describe outcomes. These records describe how a country acted, what it needed and what happened. 52 of 52 records include a mechanism. They do not affect scores.
Since 2001, Cadastro Único has identified and characterized low-income families across Brazil and has become the entry point for more than 40 federal, state and municipal social programmes.
One shared identity and needs record lets multiple programmes see the same household, reducing the need for each programme to build its own eligibility system and making the state more legible to people it serves.
Preconditions
A national identity key that can link people across programmes
Municipal service points able to collect and update household information
Rules that let several programmes use the same record while preserving eligibility distinctions
Limits: A registry and its programme count show administrative reach, not whether citizens trust the state or whether benefits arrive accurately and on time. The source is the ministry responsible for the registry, and coverage depends on families keeping their records current.
🇧🇷Brazilsince 2004still operatingbears on Trust in public institutions
Launched in 2004, Portal da Transparência has spent 20 years publishing federal revenue, expenditure, personnel and transfer information so citizens can inspect how public money is used.
The government turns its own administrative records into a public interface, so oversight can begin with the same transaction detail that the bureaucracy uses to execute and audit spending.
Preconditions
Administrative records detailed enough to publish at transaction level
A legal duty to disclose public spending
An oversight body able to maintain the interface and respond to findings
Limits: Publication creates the possibility of scrutiny, not evidence that people use the data or trust the institutions being scrutinized. The portal mainly covers federal government execution and excludes some state-owned and non-federal activity.
🇰🇷South Koreasince 2023still operatingbears on Trust in public institutions
South Korea's MyData policy gives people a route to request and direct the transfer of personal data between services, with the Personal Information Protection Commission describing the scheme as a way to give people control over data portability after the March 2023 legal amendment.
The state gives people a legal route to move their own data between providers, shifting data access from a private platform choice toward a user-directed right.
Preconditions
A privacy authority able to define consent and portability rules
Interoperable data formats and secure transfer channels
Providers willing and able to respond to a person's authorised request
Limits: A portability right shows a legal design for user control, not whether people understand it, use it safely or receive better services. The policy notice describes the legal framework and is not an independent assessment of outcomes.