Institute of Development Studies

Overcoming the barriers to Social Protection in Asia

24 July 2009 – Sarah Cook
 
The waves of crises that have hit economies around the world in recent months have highlighted once more the importance of putting in place stable institutional arrangements that increase the resilience of economies to shocks, and protect adversely affected populations, particularly the poor.  In the decade since the Asian financial crisis starkly exposed the inadequacies of residual safety net approaches, innovative approaches to social protection have emerged around the world. Despite this progress, serious conceptual and practical barriers remain to extending basic socio-economic security to all.

Overcoming the barriers to social protection was the topic of an international meeting in Hanoi last month, organised by the Social Protection in Asia (SPA) programme.  The policy conference brought together leading academics and policy makers from across the region to discuss barriers and innovative approaches to extending social protection across different national contexts – including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Philippines and Korea. This meeting was followed by a two-day research workshop to discuss intermediate findings from the SPA research projects. Details of the projects, as well as conference materials and related background papers, are available on the Social Protection in Asia (SPA) website.

Several key messages emerged which included the need to move towards greater universalism in terms of extending security to all people (regardless of barriers such as residency or citizenship), and of going beyond a focus on basic needs to ensure key dimensions of capability are met.

Social protection was explored from a wider developmental perspective, with discussion of its instrumentalism for economic development including resilience to and recovery from crisis, and the importance of the political context and social contract, including the nature of democratic regimes for delivering sustainable socio-economic security.
 
The policy conference opened with short comments from the host, Le Bach Duong of ISDS, Hanoi, SPA directors (Sarah Cook, IDS and Alakh Sharma, IHD) and key funders (Ford Foundation and IDRC). Key note presentations from Vietnamese officials provided an informative overview of Vietnam’s challenges and policies responses. A panel of experts from Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa discussed the implications of the economic crisis for social protection needs and responses in these regions.

Conceptual approaches

The broader conceptual context for the discussion of barriers and policy responses was set with presentations by Ashwani Saith and Huck-ju Kwon (both SPA Advisory Group members) who discussed conceptual approaches to extending social protection. Professor Saith challenged us to think further about the meaning of universalism, and the importance of defining the capabilities that all people should have as a means of achieving inclusiveness.  Professor Kwon spoke of the ‘developmentalism’ pursued by East Asian countries in expanding social protections particularly in the decade since the Asian financial crisis. In chairing this session, Naila Kabeer, IDS, highlighted links between social protection and the wider development context, including the importance of democratisation for the achievement of universal social protection goals.

Common trends and concerns

Panels of country policy makers or researchers from a range of countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea – raised country specific challenges and opportunities for extending social protection, and policy responses, highlighting their variability but also some common trends and concerns across the region.  

The diversity of conditions and needs, political institutions and the role of civil society among countries means that a common agenda or mechanisms for strengthening social protection may be hard to identify, although within sub-regions (particularly south Asia) greater cohesion in terms of the approaches and discourse should be possible.

Despite this, there was consensus about the key role of the state as the ultimate bearer of responsibility, although participants recognised that the state is also a source of insecurity, and that more emphasis on the role of other institutions – whether in financing or provision, or to monitor and hold the state accountable – was essential.

While responding to the impacts of crisis – particularly food, fuel and financial, but also natural disasters and more localised shocks – underpinned much of the discussion, emphasis was placed on opportunities and mechanisms for addressing longer term and structural forms of vulnerability and insecurity.

Sharing findings and experience

The research workshop which followed provided an opportunity to discuss the intermediate findings of a set of research projects from across the region which adopt a range of approaches to examine issues such as citizenship rights, institutional capacity and governance, public and private initiatives, and multi-sector responses. Participants also shared experiences of specific mechanisms used to engage with policy makers or other stakeholders in order to communicate research findings and to influence policy, implementation and practice.

Sarah Cook is a Research Fellow in the Globalisation Team and Programme Director of the Social Protection in Asia (SPA) programme.

Related Projects

• Social Protection in Asia (SPA) - SPA is a research, advocacy and network building programme which aims to overcome barriers to the extension of social protection to poor and marginalized groups in Asia. (2007 - 2010)