Crossroads of risk: The digital technology megatrend
Social protection systems will need to navigate negative and positive transformations to harness the power of technology.
The digital technology megatrend
Technology is advancing exponentially with the potential to enhance productivity and transform the world of work. It is also facilitating creation of new models of work, such as the ‘gig economy’ and a proliferation of work done by independent contractors and platform work that facilitates the online matching of workers or services with potential clients.
However, technology and digitalization can also replace jobs and work tasks and shift demand towards more skilled labour. Women especially are concentrated in occupations with higher automation potential, and older persons who have no choice but to continue to work for a living are at increased risk of poverty due to automation.
Technology making social protection systems more accessible and efficient
Social protection systems will need to navigate these potential negative and positive transformations to harness the power of technology to foster more inclusive and comprehensive social protection systems.
Technology could transform how social protection is designed and delivered. With the automation of registration, enrolment, beneficiary identification, payment and outreach services, schemes have already become more accessible and efficient.
Efficient and affordable ICT infrastructure, including mobile broadband services, will be critical to expand access to ICT and enable the full capacity of digitalized social protection systems to reach those left furthest behind.
Digital inclusion critical, and still lacking
Gaps in digital inclusion persist in Asia and the Pacific. Of the 17 countries in Asia and the Pacific for which there are data, in 10 countries less than half the population is equipped with information and communications technology (ICT). Digital literacy rates range between 4 and 42 per cent of the total population.
On average, 17.3 per cent of people in the region have a fixed broadband subscription and just 61.2 per cent of the population is using the Internet.
Level of digital connectivity and e-government services available in Asia-Pacific countries
Source: UN (2022). E-Government Survey, The Future of Digital Government. Available at https://desapublications.un.org/sites/default/files/publications/2022-11/Annexes%2BCover.pdf (accessed in February 2024). Note: This scatterplot combines the ICT Development Indicator, to represent the level of connectivity achieved in a country, and the UN DESA E-Government Online Service Index, which signals readiness of governments to improve e-service delivery, including on social protection, to illustrate the readiness of Asia-Pacific countries to harness digital technologies to support social protection systems. The size of bubbles indicates the share of the population that has access to at least one social protection scheme.