What is Social Protection and why is it important?

Sri Wening Handayani

Principal Social Development Specialist Asian Development Bank

14 May 2013 Capacity Development Workshop on Measuring Social Protection Jakarta, 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.

I. Background II. What Social Protection Is

III. Why Social Protection Is Important

IV.Why Monitoring and Evaluating SP Programs is Important

Background
The Asian and Pacific region has more than half of 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.

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 threatening the future of the household and its members.

Social Protection

Social protection programs are built primarily to mitigate the impacts of shocks or to help people cope with risks. ADB has developed a definition of social protection in line with ADBs overarching goal of reducing poverty and inclusive growth. ADB defines social protection as a set of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets, diminishing peoples exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruption/loss of income
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Social Protection Categories

Social insurance contributory schemes such as health insurance, pensions, and unemployment insurance Social assistance unrequited transfers to groups, e.g., cash or in-kind transfers, child welfare, assistance to the elderly, health assistance, disability benefits, and disaster relief. Active labor market programs skills development and training programs, and special work programs such as cash- or food-for-work programs

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 manage risks. 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.
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What is the Characteristic of Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific?

Most countries have some form of institutionalized social protection system, but often these programs are ineffective due to: Limited coverage, serving only a portion of the formal sector often the wealthiest segments of society; Insufficient funds, incorrectly distributed among programs; Inadequate instruments, often copied from developed countries but not appropriate to serve specific incountry 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 possible interventions, 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.

How to Select Right Interventions?

The selection of interventions will require an 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 about how 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 used as 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 facilitate improvements 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 both for 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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