Regional : Strategies for Financing Social Protection to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals in Developing Member Countries

Education / Education sector development - social protection initiatives - Technical and vocational education and training

Finance / Insurance and contractual savings

Health / Health insurance and subsidized health programs

Public sector management / Social protection initiatives

The SDGs emphasized the importance of social protection investments to ensure that no one is left behind in the fight against poverty. Social protection has a prominent place as an instrument for poverty reduction strategies and is one of the key pillars of ADB Strategy 2020. Out of the 17 SDGs and out of 169 targets, 11 goals and 28 targets can be related to social protection. It is obvious that achieving the goals and reaching the social protection agenda of the SDGs require concrete policy changes. In turn, substantial social protection policy changes generally require concrete budgetary investment which require mobilization of new or the reallocation of old financial resources.

Financing social protection programs remains a major challenge in ADB's developing member countries (DMCs), particularly in low and middle income countries. Recent expenditure data of the ADB Social Protection Indicator (SPI 2016) have shown that DMCs spent on average less than 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) for social protection programs, which include contributory, non-contributory social protection and active labor market programs. Initial estimates in a parallel study being supported by ADB on financing social protection also reveals the huge financing gaps on social protection to meet the SDGs in Asia._In order to meet the basic minimum of social protection floor, DMCs have to increase their budget requirement on average of 5% GDP for low income countries and about 2% GDP for middle income countries to meet the SDGs target.

Investments on social protection programs in developing member countries (DMCs) to achieve SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 increased

Capacity to assess and access financing options to expand social protection programs in DMC ministries working on social protection increased

Financial analyses of the current social protection programs in three selected DMCs prepared

Strategic frameworks to finance the expansion of sustainable social protection programs recommended to governments

Training programs and policy dialogues delivered

Output 1: Financial analyses of the current social protection programs in

selected developing member countries prepared.

Three country reports in Indonesia, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste which map the existing

social protection schemes, and economic, fiscal, and labor market models have been

completed and shared with the governments. For Azerbaijan, support has been

provided in the development of a framework for third party validation of beneficiaries

of the targeted social assistance program, and in the development of innovative youth

employment approaches.

Output 2: Strategic frameworks to finance the expansion of sustainable social

protection programs recommended to governments.

The strategic framework to finance the expansion of sustainable social protection

programs has been presented to the government in Timor-Leste; those for Indonesia

and Myanmar were presented at the 2019 APSP Week.

Output 3: Training programs and policy dialogues delivered.

National workshops in three selected DMCs (Indonesia, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste)

have been completed between February and March 2018. The publication, Asia's

Fiscal Challenge: Financing the Social Protection Agenda of the Sustainable

Development Goals was released in October 2018. A regional workshop on strategies

for financing the social protection agenda of the SDGs was jointly organized with ADB

Institute on 1718 May 2018 in Japan. 2019 APSP Week was held on 912 September

2019 in Manila, Philippines. Cross-country training on Public Finance for Social

Protection Analysts was conducted on 718 October 2019 in Turin, Italy by the

International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO). The

E-Learning Course on Social Budgeting for Cambodia and Thailand was organized on

5 October18 December 2020, in collaboration with the International Labour

Organization, ITCILO, and Joint SDG Fund. A similar training was organized for

Indonesia on 15 March6 May 2022.

Output 4: Capacity to expand social protection programs in developing member

countries improved.

Under this output, the TA provided funding assistance to specific DMC initiatives aimed

at developing cost estimates and financing frameworks for expanding their social

protection programs. To date, six initiatives have been supported.