Day 1 Session 1 ADB - What is social protection and why is it important?

7/30/2019 Day 1 Session 1 ADB - What is social protection and why is it important?

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What is Social Protection

and why is it important?

Sri Wening Handayani

Principal Social Development SpecialistAsian Development Bank

14 May 2013

Capacity Development Workshop on Measuring Social ProtectionJakarta, Indonesia

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper/presentation are the views of the author and

do not necessarily reflect the views or 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 paper and accepts no responsibility for any

consequence of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB

official terms.


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I. Background

II. What Social Protection Is

III.Why Social Protection Is Important

IV.Why Monitoring and Evaluating SP

Programs is Important


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Background

The Asian and Pacific region has more than halfof the worlds population.

Of the total 3.6 billion, 900 million are poor

(30%) and 1.5 billion are children and youth.

Main development challenges: (i) to achieve

sufficient sustainable growth; and (ii) to secure

the inclusion of the poor and young new entrants

in the development process But, growth alone is not a sufficient condition for

generating inclusive society.

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Social Risks

Populations, households, and individuals face

various risks.

There is a need to reduce their vulnerability and to

cope with effects when shocks occur. Risks may include natural disaster, civil conflicts,

economic downturn.

Idiosyncratic household reversal such as illness,

death, accident, disability, and old age threateningthe future of the household and its members.

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Social Protection

Social protection programs are built primarily tomitigate the impacts of shocks or to help peoplecope with risks.

ADB has developed a definition of socialprotection in line with ADBs overarching goal ofreducing poverty and inclusive growth.

ADB defines social protection as a set of policies

and programs designed to reduce poverty andvulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets,diminishing peoples exposure to risks, andenhancing their capacity to protect themselvesagainst hazards and interruption/loss of income

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Social Protection Categories

Social insurance

contributory schemes suchas health insurance, pensions, and

unemployment insurance

Social assistance

unrequited transfers togroups, e.g., cash or in-kind transfers, child

welfare, assistance to the elderly, health

assistance, disability benefits, and disaster relief.

Active labor market programs

skillsdevelopment and training programs, and special

work programs such as cash- or food-for-work

programs

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Why Social Protection is Important for Asia

and the Pacific?

Social protection has become important in all countries of Asia

and the Pacific.

Investments in it help to reduce poverty and vulnerability,

promoting inclusive growth and mitigating extreme poverty

through redistribution of resources.

They also help households to invest in their future and managerisks.

Developing countries in Asia and the Pacific increasingly

recognize the need to improve design and delivery of social

protection to better target poor and marginalized groups.

Innovations in social assistance, social insurance, and labor

programs are slowly coming through but budget support is

lacking.

Legal provisions and accountability mechanisms have yet to be

integrated into most of these programs.7


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What is the Characteristic of Social Protection

in Asia and the Pacific?

Most countries have some form of institutionalized socialprotection system, but often these programs are ineffective

due to:

Limited coverage, serving only a portion of the formal

sectoroften the wealthiest segments of society; Insufficient funds, incorrectly distributed among

programs;

Inadequate instruments, often copied from developed

countries but not appropriate to serve specific in-country needs; and

Factors restricting access to statutory social protection

schemes, such as legal restriction, administrative

bottlenecks, and problems with compliance.

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What is the Strategy to Expand or Reform

Social Protection?

Given the broad variety of priorities and possibleinterventions, it is important to set the parameters:

Investment based on the principles of reducing

poverty and vulnerability;

Strengthening country focus;

Enhancing strategic alliances and partnerships with

development agencies, private sector, and civil

society; and Taking medium-/long-term approach to promote

effective social protection system.

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How to Select Right Interventions?

The selection of interventions will requirean evaluation of:

the country needs,

available resources,

institutional capacity, and

the political economy of reform.

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What are the Principles to Design Social

Protection Programs?

Once a set of specific social protection

interventions has been chosen, project design

should attend to the following principles:

coverage; targeting of vulnerable population groups and

gender issues;

sustainability, good governance, and optimal

delivery mechanism; and

integrated approach to social protection.

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Why Monitoring and Evaluating Social

Protection Programs is Important?

A monitoring system is essential to supply information abouthow well a program is working so that action can be taken

to improve it.

The Asian Development Bank and its partners developed a

social protection index (SPI) in 2005, subsequently revised. The SPI enables in-depth analysis of social protection at

country and regional levels, and aims to capture adequacy of

social protection by looking at programs expenditures,

coverage, distribution, and impact.

With uniformity in metrics and methods, the SPI can be usedas a benchmark to improve social protection in countries,

through better design, coverage, gender equity, and poverty

targeting.

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Policy Relevance and Its Implications

Monitoring and evaluation protocols are crucial to facilitateimprovements in government effectiveness.

Rigorous monitoring and impact evaluations that produced

hard evidence have been important for the spread of SP

programs. Government agencies responsible for poverty reduction

efforts have a duty to ensure programs are effective, based

on existing knowledge, and have established processes to

learn lessons from their implementation.

Monitoring and impact evaluation systems are valuable bothfor insight into particular SP programs, and for the influence

they can have on their replicability.

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Thank you.

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Day 1 Session 1 ADB - What is social protection and why is it important?

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