Making social protection ready for the future, now

Governments in Asia and the Pacific could consider the following recommendations.

Making social protection ready for the future

Future proofing social protection starts with the establishment of a universal social protection ‘floor’. From there, the ideal multi-pillared system can be developed incrementally to achieve full coverage and adequate benefit levels. Stronger institutional policy coordination and data management, administrative arrangements and financing mechanisms are needed to coordinate the mixture of schemes at national and provincial levels.

Governments in Asia and the Pacific could consider the following recommendations:

Work in partnerships and capitalize on regional cooperation. ESCAP members and associate members adopted the Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific in October 2020. The Action Plan is a shared strategy for broadening social protection coverage. It calls on countries to establish an intermediate target of social protection coverage by 2025 and then measure progress towards achieving universal coverage by 2030.

Strengthen legislative and policy frameworks on social protection. Building on good practices and international social protection normative instruments, formulate revised and new legislation and policies following a participatory process. Governments should review and address legal barriers or threshold requirements to extend eligibility for all workers in a fiscally sustainable manner.

Design inclusive social protection schemes that uphold human rights. A rights-based approach should be adopted to ground policies in principles of non-discrimination and equality, participation, empowerment, accountability and transparency.

Embed universal social protection in national development agendas and allocate more resources. For sufficient resources to be made available, political will is needed to reprioritize existing public expenditures and reform taxation systems. Valuing social protection as an investment that can reap positive socioeconomic returns and multiplier effects is instrumental to support its proper prioritization for resources.

Design integrated social protection schemes. Contributory and non-contributory schemes need to be integrated in a coherent and complementary manner. For social protection to multiply development outcomes, its systems need to forge linkages with different kinds of social services, such as care and support services, education, health, nutrition and employment as well as climate policies.

Strengthen cross-sectoral and inter-ministerial collaboration. Iterative and integrated approaches across government are key, particularly to reach population groups at the highest risk of being left behind.

Build capacity in government agencies to identify, forecast and address climate risks. Design social protection measures that can respond to climate risk and the new forms of vulnerabilities related to health, food and income security, and human mobility.

Adapt social protection to an ageing population. In many countries, coverage and adequacy of old-age pensions are low, with women at a particular disadvantage. The demographic transitions under way will increase demand for old-age pensions and put upward pressure on pension costs. This will require a substantial extension of both non-contributory and contributory pension schemes.

Mainstream the needs and voices of people in vulnerable situations, especially women, throughout social protection systems. Making contributory schemes more gender responsive and inclusive will also reap benefits for other groups, such as informal workers.

Build digital solutions to support delivery and adaptation. Technological change offers opportunities to enhance the design and delivery of social protection. New technologies can facilitate the identification and registration of individuals, and linking social protection databases to national identification systems and civil registries can reduce the risk of fraud and duplication.

Improve data collection and analysis to identify the impact of social protection policies and change course when needed. To identify those at risk of being left behind and to target policymaking, national data collection needs to allow for more granular disaggregation. Disaggregated data, better techniques and analytical rigor are needed to identify the factors that cause people to be left behind.