The Social Protection Indicator for Asia: Tracking Developments in Social Protection

THE SOCIAL PROTECTION INDICATOR FOR ASIA

TRACKING DEVELOPMENTS IN SOCIAL PROTECTION

DECEMBER 2022

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

© 2022 Asian Development Bank

6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines

Tel +63 2 8632 4444; Fax +63 2 8636 2444

www.adb.org

Some rights reserved. Published in 2022.

ISBN 978-92-9269-927-7 (print); 978-92-9269-928-4 (electronic); 978-92-9269-929-1 (ebook)

Publication Stock No. SGP220562-2

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/SGP220562-2

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent.

ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by ADB in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term country in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.

This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/. By using the content of this publication, you agree to be bound by the terms of this license. For attribution, translations, adaptations, and permissions, please read the provisions and terms of use at https://www.adb.org/terms-use#openaccess.

This CC license does not apply to non-ADB copyright materials in this publication. If the material is attributed to another source, please contact the copyright owner or publisher of that source for permission to reproduce it. ADB cannot be held liable for any claims that arise as a result of your use of the material.

Please contact [email protected] if you have questions or comments with respect to content, or if you wish to obtain copyright permission for your intended use that does not fall within these terms, or for permission to use the ADB logo.

Corrigenda to ADB publications may be found at http://www.adb.org/publications/corrigenda.

Notes:

In this publication, $ refers to United States dollars.

ADB recognizes China as the People’s Republic of China; Korea and South Korea as the Republic of Korea; Kyrgyzstan as the Kyrgyz Republic; and Vietnam as Viet Nam.

Cover design by Sajid Chowdhury.

Contents

Tables, Figures, and Boxes

Foreword

In the last decade, social protection has taken a prominent role in national development agendas and policies as a tool for addressing poverty, inequality, and social exclusion in Asia. Strengthening social protection systems and service delivery is an important priority in most countries in the region. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has long recognized social protection as one of the key strategic areas for promoting inclusive development in the Asia and Pacific region. Our most recent corporate strategy, Strategy 2030, considers social protection as one of the key areas for support in pursuing the operational priority of addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities in the region.

This report analyzes 2018 data on social protection programs implemented by governments in 26 countries in Asia. It uses the Social Protection Indicator (SPI) to assess the level of resources invested in social protection as well as the value of the benefits, coverage, and distribution of expenditures in terms of poverty, gender, and disability. It also reviews progress on social protection at the individual country and regional levels between 2009 and 2018. The report continues the effort to systematically monitor and assess the developments in social protection begun by ADB and its development partners in 2005. The SPI initiative contributes to building evidence-based knowledge to support the development of social protection systems in the region.

The report suggests that average social protection expenditure per intended beneficiary (or SPI) in 24 countries with complete data in Asia increased from 3.3% of gross domestic product per capita in 2009 to 4.1% in 2018. Over the years, many countries have achieved remarkable success in promoting universal pension and health coverage. The gender gap in access to social protection has also been steadily decreasing. For the first time, this report offers an assessment of government social protection expenditure for people with disabilities. It suggests that average spending for programs supporting people with disabilities in Asia increased over 2009-2018.

The report’s findings also underline the need for deepening and accelerating social protection investments to address remaining coverage gaps, improve benefit value, promote gender and disability inclusive programs, and develop comprehensive systems. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has demonstrated the importance of social protection in dealing with the effects of large, covariate shocks. It highlighted the urgent need to develop inclusive social protection systems and invest in human capital to promote people’s resilience to shocks. Availability of robust, consistent, and comparable data is key to development of social protection, and the report offers an insightful assessment of constraints on data production and compilation in the region.

We hope that the SPI continues to be a useful resource to our partners and stakeholders. We thank everyone who contributed to this report, and we look forward to further engagement with social protection practitioners, advocates, and decision-makers in our efforts to promote inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development.

Bruno Carrasco

Director General concurrently Chief Compliance Officer

Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department

Asian Development Bank

Acknowledgments

This publication, The Social Protection Indicator for Asia: Tracking Developments in Social Protection, has been a collaborative effort among various social protection experts within and outside ADB, with particular recognition of the various government line agencies that provided the data used for this report. Special thanks to colleagues from the International Labour Organization (ILO)—Nuno Cunha, senior social protection specialist, Decent Work Technical Support Team for East and South-East Asia, and Valeria Nesterenko, data officer on social protection, Social Protection Department—for writing a chapter on social protection data and statistics in Asia and the Pacific.

The main chapters on the social protection indicator were written by Terry McKinley, professor at School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and Babken Babajanian, associate professorial lecturer at the London School of Economics. Additional special features were added to this report: a chapter on the social protection response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Asia written by Anand Ramesh Kumar, ADB consultant on social protection; a chapter on addressing disability through social protection written by Joanna Rogers, ADB consultant on disability inclusion; and a chapter on the future of social protection in Asia penned by Michael Samson, director of research at the Economic Policy and Research Institute. Ludovico Carraro, ADB consultant, provided valuable inputs. Flordeliza C. Huelgas, ADB consultant on statistics and social protection, did the data review and consolidation of 26 country calculations and reports prepared by national researchers. These were prepared by Mohammad Asif Mukhtar (Afghanistan), Diana Ghazaryan (Armenia), Ilkin Nazarov (Azerbaijan), Mohammad Yunus (Bangladesh), Chimmi Dolkar (Bhutan), Chey Tech (Cambodia), Xinping Guan (People’s Republic of China), David Jijelava (Georgia), Mayang Rizky (Indonesia), Yoko Komatsubara (Japan), Orynbassar Abeldinova (Kazakhstan), Sangmi Han (Republic of Korea), Temir Burzhubaev (Kyrgyz Republic), Inthasone Phetsiriseng (Lao People’s Democratic Republic), Suman Sharma (Malaysia and Singapore), Sofoora Usman (Maldives), Enkhtsetseg Byambaa (Mongolia), Sailesh Bhandary (Nepal), Hina Shaikh (Pakistan), Ahmid Bualan (Philippines), Ganga Tilakaratna (Sri Lanka), Ganjina Zardodkhonova (Tajikistan), Vichelle Roaring-Arunsuwannakorn (Thailand), Hamidulla Hamdamov (Uzbekistan), and Nguyen Thi Lan Huong (Viet Nam). These country reports are available on request from ADB.

The preparation of this report was led by Michiel Van Der Auwera, former senior social development specialist, under the overall guidance of Wendy Walker, chief of the Social Development Thematic Group, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department. The report benefited from comments received from relevant resident missions and regional departments, and from members of the social protection technical working group. Imelda Marquez provided administrative support.

Kimberly Fullerton copyedited the report, Lumina Datamatics did the layout, and Tuesday Soriano did the proofreading.

Abbreviations

Executive Summary

This report presents the results from 26 national reports¹ that are based on the compilation of individual country and regional level-data for social protection programs implemented by governments in 2018. It uses the Social Protection Indicator (SPI) to assess the level of resources invested in social protection as well as benefits, coverage, and distribution of expenditures in terms of poverty, gender, and disability status. The report also provides information on the historical