Attachments
1. Introduction
The spread of COVID-19 set in motion a health crisis that soon evolved into a humanitarian and development crises, with multiplier effects felt globally and at all levels of society. The socio-economic downturn that followed, the war in Ukraine, and the emerging effects of climate change all combined to define a new international development context—one that poses new threats and challenges towards achieving the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Gender inequality, uneven access to basic health, education or nutrition services, the precarious socio-economic situation of workers in informal sectors, and the predominance of women and young persons in economically insecure jobs and unpaid care were all brought under the spotlight and exacerbated by the cascading crises. A decade of progress towards reducing poverty, inequality and exclusion is in danger of rolling back, highlighting the severity of recent and ongoing crises and the fragility of the progress achieved so far.
The spread of COVID-19 also brought about new public and political awareness of the potential and promise of social protection to ensure the well-being of citizens and stabilization of national economies through the creation of internal demand. As countries rushed to protect their economies and preserve the well-being of people, social protection emerged as an “indispensable public health response as well as a measure for stabilizing household income and responding to crises”.
Across the Asia and the Pacific region, low- and middle-income countries responded to the health crisis through a combination of scaling-up existing social security programmes and introducing new emergency cash transfers and delivery of food, with mixed results. For those who received assistance, it provided temporary support. However, the cumulative impact of these interventions has not been sufficient to deliver the necessary relief to the population or avoid a severe economic downturn. In most cases, large segments of the population, the so-called ‘missing middle’, were not covered by any intervention and were pushed into poverty, forming the ‘newly poor and vulnerable’. Even where support did reach beneficiaries, it was too little and provided for too short a time to make a difference to the household’s ability to weather the storm.
Nonetheless, the experience of scrambling to verify social registries, set up and manage responsive registration and payment systems, identify sustainable financing sources or coordinate across different bodies did serve to highlight the shortcomings of national social protection systems in the region and the urgent need for a redesign to match the new development context. The difference between countries in the ability to intervene rapidly and efficiently brought to the forefront the importance of well-designed and implemented, and sustainably financed social protection systems. Outdated beneficiary registries, inefficient payment mechanisms and a largely paper-based system, among others, hampered the potential of social protection interventions in many countries if newly introduced or scaled-up as an emergency response.
Moreover, although low- and middleincome countries in Asia only spent 0.02–0.8 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on the expansion of social protection interventions (compared to 5.7 percent in G7 countries), most still required hefty investments and created large deficits that challenge the continued funding of an expanded social protection system, even as the crisis has made social protection more important than ever.
In the Asia and the Pacific region, the combined effects of poverty, a slower labour market recovery, rising climate risks and the soaring cost of living will have lasting impacts on those furthest behind, especially women, youth and informal sector workers. At a time when more than 90 percent of countries globally are experiencing reversals in human development, the needs of those typically excluded from the system are greater than ever. As the cost-of-living crisis is expected to drive 71 million people into poverty globally, with 8.7 million people from the Asia and the Pacific region, there is an impetus for scaling-up and doubling down on investments in social protection today. This imperative is even stronger in the Asia and the Pacific region, where poverty and widening inequalities are evident, and the ‘last mile’ will inevitably become a long journey for many countries.
For social protection to deliver on its potential in the Asia and the Pacific region, it will require a shift towards a comprehensive, universal approach that is gender- and age-sensitive, inclusive and financially viable and integrated into national sustainable development strategies. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) strives to support countries in strengthening their social protection systems in line with this ideal. At the heart of this vision is UNDP’s institutional leadership in human development since 1990. UNDP seeks to enhance human capabilities and potential by broadening people’s individual and collective choices and freedom, thus enhancing their agency and resilience.
The human development approach gives UNDP the impetus to promote social protection as part of the sustainable development agenda and a non-negotiable element of recovery and pre-crisis solutions.
Globally, UNDP is an active member of joint UN cooperation on social protection and an advocate for social protection as an investment in human development. Several strategic documents capture and detail UNDP’s commitment to social protection. The UNDP Social Protection Corporate Offer 2.0 articulates 12 social protection solutions cross-cutting three key thematic components of responsive and accountable governance, resilience and environmental stability. Also, the key strategic priorities presented in the Strategic Plan for 2022–2025 include tackling poverty and inequality, confronting the structural obstacles to gender equality and building the resilience of countries to shocks and crises. Overall, UNDP’s engagement in social protection is firmly grounded in the human development approach that will tackle inequalities and give citizens the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they aspire to.