Social Protection

Social

 

Social protection is first and foremost a human right. Human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), firmly anchor social protection as a right that States are obligated to guarantee and a right to be enjoyed by all without discrimination. These normative instruments recognize the critical role social protection plays in ensuring human dignity and well-being. They also recognize the role of social protection in enabling other human rights, including the right to health, education and development.

Social protection schemes provide cash or in-kind support for people facing social or economic risks. It provides a solid foundation for the realization of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Social protection is therefore explicitly mentioned in four Sustainable Development Goals, related to ending poverty (SDG 1); ensuring healthy lives (SDG 3); achieving gender equality (SDG 5); and reducing inequalities (SDG 10).

Most prominently, Goal 1 on ending poverty includes target 1.3 to “implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.”

Despite remarkable economic and social progress in the Asia-Pacific, critical social protection coverage gaps persist. For instance, 

• About half of the region’s population has no social protection coverage.
• Only a handful of countries have comprehensive social protection systems with relatively broad coverage.
• Most poverty-targeted schemes 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, significant gaps remain and 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.

Universality is key to effectively reaching those who need support, when they need it. Achieving it requires a mix of contributory and non-contributory benefit schemes in which coverage is addressed through a “horizontal” and a “vertical” dimension. The horizontal dimension requires everyone to have a minimum level of protection regardless of their previous income or employment status: a social protection floor. The vertical dimension relates to the progressive move to higher levels of protection, primarily through contributory schemes. Universal systems along the life course are better able to nurture social protection as part of a national social contract between the State and its people. This social contract is required to scale up investment in a sustainable way.

Technology can also facilitate the identification and registration of those contributing to and benefiting from social protection schemes. Linking social protection databases to national identification systems reduces the risks of fraud and duplication.

On average, public spending on social protection in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding health) is 7 per cent of GDP, which is lower than the global average of 11 per cent, less than half the level in Europe (17.7 per cent). There are, however, notable examples of progress in recent decades. One is China, which increased expenditure levels from 3.2 per cent of GDP in 1995 to 7.2 per cent in 2017.

Many countries in the region continue to spend less than two per cent of GDP on social protection. Low expenditure on social protection sometimes correlates with low levels of general government revenue. Increasing government revenue can therefore be instrumental to creating the fiscal space required to expand coverage.

Investment in basic social protection would have an immediate impact on reducing poverty, inequality and purchasing power disparities. Simulations conducted by ESCAP in 13 countries show that if governments offered universal coverage for child benefits, disability benefits and old-age pensions at a basic benefit level, poverty rates would significantly drop across the region. The proportion of recipient households living in poverty would fall by up to 18 percentage points.

This investment is within reach for most countries in the region. Independent cost estimations from ESCAP, ILO and ADB, are all within the range of 2 to 6.1 per cent of GDP. The size of the investment required varies, depending on the benefit level chosen, the schemes covered and the demographic and economic situation of each country. Yet it is an affordable investment for countries of all income levels.

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a significant response from countries. The social protection response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. Countries have recognized, and sought to fill, significant coverage gaps in their existing social protection systems. In many cases, responses have — for the first time — represented a comprehensive approach, with the aim to reach the whole population through an overlapping package of contributory and noncontributory schemes. Expenditures for these schemes have been significant compared to social protection expenditures in normal times. However, generally, countries with the most effective responses to the pandemic are those that had robust systems in place before the crisis. In the end, the ongoing pandemic has created an opportunity to strengthen social protection systems for the future.