Challenges and Opportunities
Despite remarkable economic and social progress in the Asia-Pacific, the majority of people still lack access to a basic income guarantee:
- Over half of the region’s population are not covered by any social protection scheme.
- Only a handful of countries have comprehensive social protection systems with relatively broad coverage.
- Poverty-targeted schemes have high exclusion errors and often fail to reach the poorest families.
- Maternity, unemployment, sickness and disability benefits, mostly covered by contributory schemes, remain the preserve of workers with a formal job.
- While the majority of older persons receive a pension, benefits are often insufficient to cover basic needs.
- The lack of access to affordable health care is leaving individuals without treatment and households vulnerable to falling back into poverty.
- Effective social protection requires a significant but affordable increase of public spending.
Underinvestment in social protection is a key reason for these gaps. The high prevalence of informal employment, representing almost two thirds of all workers, is a main challenge to join a contributory social protection scheme and despite the increase in non-contributory benefits over recent years, most people are still excluded because of policies that only target the poorest. Many schemes are ineffective because of low benefit levels and administrative and coordination issues.
Social protection plays an important role in building resilience, shielding people’s incomes and well-being as well as retaining development gains. As such, it is a key enabler to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Its importance has been highlighted time and again in response to covariate crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Social protection is key to help people adapt to challenges such as climate change and disasters, population ageing, migration, urbanization, and technological progress.
Universal social protection will be crucial in fostering a more inclusive, resilient and prosperous Asia-Pacific, and ultimately achieve the 2030 Agenda.
Our response
In October 2020, ESCAP member States acknowledged the centrality of social protection to achieving inclusive and sustainable development and endorsed the Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific. The action plan serves as guiding document for ESCAP member States for a regional shared vision, strategy and platform on social protection.
Universal social protection and the Social Protection Floor (SPF) Initiative provide the guiding frameworks for ESCAP’s work in the area of social protection. Through the Action Plan, ESCAP aims to support national and regional efforts by enhancing the capacity of member States to build and strengthen inclusive social protection systems.
Our work
ESCAP advocates for universal social protection along the Social Protection Floor and works to strengthen the capacity of policymakers in the Asia-Pacific region to design, implement and finance inclusive social protection as a tool for achieving the 2030 Agenda. It supports national and regional efforts on social protection by functioning as a knowledge platform, including through its Social Protection Toolbox and Social Protection Simulation Tool.
Social Protection Toolbox
The Social Protection Online Toolbox is a platform to support policymakers in building inclusive social protection systems through the sharing of good practices, resources and primers on social protection. SPOT provides tools to help countries and stakeholders close gaps in social protection coverage by:
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Simulating how social protection boosts consumption and reduces poverty and inequality
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Deepening skills on how to implement and manage social protection systems through five self-paced online trainings
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Exploring the evidence on what works and what countries are doing.
SPOT Simulator
ESCAP’s SPOT Simulator is a publicly available microsimulation model that estimates the impact of providing universal non-contributory child, disability, maternity and old age benefits on economic outcomes such as poverty, consumption and inequality. It also estimates the costs of such schemes. An interactive platform, users can tailor the parameters of schemes to explore the benefits of introducing non-contributory benefits across the lifecycle. Take our SPOT E-learn module on the Simulator to learn more.
SPOT E-learn
ESCAP provides an online e-learning course consisting of five self-based modules covering an introduction to key principles of inclusive design and implementation of social protection systems, as well as child, working age and old age benefits. The fifth module builds capacity on key parameters of non-contributory schemes using the SPOT Simulator.
Knowledge Products
Policy Primers on Inclusive Social Protection: ESCAP has developed a series of policy primers that introduce critical social protection design and implementation elements to support policymakers and practitioners in strengthening social protection. The primers cover topics ranging from why social protection is needed; how to design inclusive systems; effective implementation; financing; disability-inclusive social protection; gender-sensitive social protection; inclusive old age pension systems; maternity leave and maternity cash benefits; universal social protection; and child benefits.
The primers are also available in video format.
Policy Papers on Social Protection: A series of policy papers explore and analyze various themes and concepts around social protection, including: Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs), Social protection and the informal economy; Maternity leave and maternity cash benefits; Universal social protection; Social protection and climate change.
Guide on Steps to Inclusive Social Protection: The Guide sets out 12 milestones for developing an integrated and sustainable social protection system, aligned with the Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific. The Guide recommends a social protection system that has the buy-in of key actors, guarantees the right to social protection for all, addresses gaps in current social protection systems, identifies solutions to support sustainable financing, removes inefficiencies and fragmentation in delivery and administration, and responds to shocks more efficiently and effectively.
