Regional : Enhancing ADB’s Support for Social Protection to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Project Name

Enhancing ADB’s Support for Social Protection to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Project Number

52012-001

Country / Economy

• Regional
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• Cambodia
• Cook Islands
• Fiji
• Micronesia, Federated States of
• Georgia
• Indonesia
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Kiribati
• Korea, Republic of
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Mongolia
• Myanmar
• Nauru
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Palau
• Philippines
• Papua New Guinea
• China, People's Republic of
• Marshall Islands
• Samoa
• Singapore
• Solomon Islands
• Sri Lanka
• Tajikistan
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Tonga
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Viet Nam

Project Status

Active

Project Type / Modality of Assistance

• Technical Assistance

Source of Funding / Amount

TA 9534-REG: Enhancing ADB's Support for Social Protection to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Source	Amount
Technical Assistance Special Fund	US$ 2.00 million

Strategic Agendas

• Inclusive economic growth

Drivers of Change

• Gender Equity and Mainstreaming
• Governance and capacity development
• Knowledge solutions
• Partnerships

Sector / Subsector

• 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

Gender

Effective gender mainstreaming

Description

The proposed knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) will strengthen the implementation of recommendations of the Midterm Review of Strategy 2020 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the forthcoming Strategy 2030, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The support to developing member countries (DMCs) will include (i) developing ADB investments in social protection; (ii) cultivating leadership and knowledge in social protection through cross-sector and thematic learning programs, policy dialogue, and a regional knowledge exchange platform for DMC representatives and development partners; and (iii) updating the Social Protection Indicator (SPI) in Asia and the Pacific.

Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy

After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, social protection has become a key development priority for reducing poverty, vulnerability, and income inequality, as well as for promoting inclusive growth. The financial crisis of the 1990s led to an increased interest in social protectiona trend that continued as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008, rising energy and food prices, and heightened risk of climate-related disasters. These global challenges coincided with increased levels of inequality both within and across countries, and greater constraints on governments to finance social expenditure while grappling with the challenges of youth unemployment and aging populations.

ADB's Midterm Review of Strategy 2020 and the Social Protection Operational Plan, 20142016 reconfirmed that social protection is an important instrument to reduce poverty and inequality and to improve the productive capacity of individuals, thereby contributing to inclusive, equitable, resilient, and sustainable economic growth in Asia and the Pacific. Social protection is the third pillar of ADB's inclusive economic growth agenda, and the lack of access to effective and sustainable social protection systems is a contributing factor to vulnerability in the region. ADB's forthcoming Strategy 2030 underlines the importance of social protection and identifies it as a key component in the operational priority to address remaining poverty and reduce inequalities. This is in line with the globally agreed SDGs, which have specific targets related to the expansion of social protection systems.

DMCs have taken steps to improve social protection programs, including expanding coverage and benefit size, but these remain inadequate. The initial ADB study on financing social protection to achieve SDG targets 1.3 and 8.5 revealed large financing gaps and the need for DMCs to increase their budget allocations on average by 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for lower middle-income countries and by about 2% of GDP for upper middle-income countries to enable adequate social protection coverage and benefits. ADB's SPI has shown that DMCs spend on average less than 3.6% of their GDP for social protection, compared to target expenditure levels of 5.0%, to achieve the goals of basic social protection programs, including contributory social insurance (pension, health insurance, and other types of insurance) and noncontributory social assistance (cash and in-kind transfers), and active labor market programs such as targeted technical vocational programs and cash-for-work programs.

Financing constraints in DMCs are compounded by the fragmentation of social protection systems across line agencies within the DMCs. Their capacity to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate social protection programs tends to be limited. DMC governments increasingly recognize the need to improve the design and delivery of social protection to better target disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Innovations in social insurance, social assistance, and labor market programs are emerging, but adequate support for human resources and accountability procedures is lacking.

Monitoring and evaluation systems are also essential to provide information about how well programs are working so that improvements can be made over time. To provide governments with policy-relevant information on social protection systems, ADB and its partners developed the SPI in 2005 and will continue assessing social protection systems in Asia and Pacific through the SPI which provides information on 38 countries in the region up to 2020 as part of the implementation of the Social Protection Operational Plan.

The SDTG has implemented TA programs to strengthen DMCs' capacity to monitor country expenditure and beneficiaries of social protection, assess the use of information and communication technology for delivering social assistance, and evaluate the financial gaps for expanding social protection to achieve the SDGs. However, financing, capacity building, advocacy, and partnerships to support the development of social protection systems in DMCs are still insufficient. These factors result in limited investments in social protection programs in the DMCs, leading to low social protection coverage and benefits across Asia and the Pacific, and the persistence of poor and vulnerable populations, especially among women, in Asia and the Pacific.

Given the remaining challenges as well as opportunities with increasing DMC uptake of social protection, and lessons from previous TA projects implemented, the proposed TA will aim to develop ADB investments in social protection; cultivate leadership and knowledge in social protection; and continue to support the monitoring of social protection programming and spending in Asia and the Pacific with the SPI.

Impact

Social protection coverage and benefits in Asia and the Pacific improved

Project Outcome

Description of Outcome

Social protection investments in selected DMCs increased

Progress Toward Outcome

Implementation Progress

Description of Project Outputs

Capacity to design, implement, expand, and monitor social protection programs improved

Knowledge sharing and partnerships on social protection strengthened

ADB's SPI updated

Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities, and Issues)

Output 1: Capacity to design, implement, expand, and monitor social

protection programs improved. The TA aimed to provide support to at least 6

ADB social protection projects under this output by 2021. To date, 8 initiatives have

been supported: (i) review of draft laws on private pension funds and individual

contributions to pension schemes in Azerbaijan; (ii) strategic scoping study on

unification of social allowances and targeted social assistance programs in

Azerbaijan; (iii) review of the Benazir Income Support Programme and other social

protection schemes in Pakistan; (iv) supplemental baseline survey, impact

evaluation endline survey and preparation of knowledge product on the graduation

approach pilot in the Philippines; (v) scoping for elderly care related services and

human resources for elderly care projects in the People's Republic of China (PRC);

(vi) review of social protection programs to inform the development of the country

partnership strategy in Uzbekistan; (vii) development of artificial intelligence based

analytical system for social services in Armenia; and (viii) study on financial

inclusion and social protection of older people in age-friendly urban settings in

PRC

Output 2: Knowledge sharing and partnerships on social protection

strengthened. An administrative arrangement with the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) was set up in October 2020 to help develop and

maintain an online community of social protection practitioners and advocates in

the region via the socialprotection.org platform. This is to strengthen and sustain

the network created from the Asia-Pacific Social Protection Week in 2019. To

date, the online community has 156 members, biweekly/monthly Announcements

on social protection events and resources have been circulated to members, and

a total of 7 webinars were organized : (i) Social Protection for Economic Inclusion:

Adapting the Graduation Approach in Asia and the Pacific, (ii) Emerging Practice

on Coverage and Inclusion of Migrant Workers in Social Protection Systems in

Asia-Pacific during COVID-19; (iii) Aging and Disability: Delivering Effective Social

Protection; and (iv) Role of Social Protection during COVID-19 Crisis and

Recovery in Asia and the Pacific; dissemination of the main findings from (v) Social

Protection Indicator for Asia tracking developments in social protection (vi)

Social Protection Indicator for the Pacific tracking developments in social

protection and (vii) Graduation Programs in the Context of Resettlement and

Displacement. Socialprotection.org also supported the outreach for and delivery of

the Asia-Pacific Social Protection Week (APSP) 2023. The collaboration wrapped

up at the end of December 2023, but the online community site remains open for

networking and sharing of resources among members.

APSP 2023: Social Protection in a Changing World was successfully delivered at

the ADB Headquarters in Manila, Philippines from 26 to 28 September 2023. It

brought together global and regional social protection experts and practitioners,

including representatives from 33 developing member countries in Asia and the

Pacific and 26 development partners operating in the region. Over 500 participants

attended in person and nearly 300 joined virtually. The three-day event discussed

challenges and opportunities related to the role of social protection in the postCOVID recovery and response to new and emerging crises, systems

strengthening, and resilience building. It was the largest in person gathering of

social protection stakeholders in the region post-pandemic. APSP provided a

venue to reflect on the lessons from the recent crises, discuss emerging social

INTERNAL. This information is accessible to ADB Management and staff. It may be shared outside ADB with appropriate permission.

protection priorities, and build alliances and networks to strengthen social

protection systems for the future of Asia and the Pacific region.

iii. Output 3: ADB's Social Protection Indicator updated. The collection of social

protection data from 40 countries (26 Asia and 14 Pacific) for the updating of the

Social Protection Indicator (SPI) with 2018 data has been completed. SPI country

reports have been completed and the regional reportsThe Social Protection

Indicator for Asia: Tracking Developments in Social Protection and Social

Protection Indicator for the Pacific: Tracking Developments in Social Protection

were published in December 2022. The reports present an analysis of 2018 social

protection data from the ADB's member countries. Consultations are ongoing for

the migration of the SPI database to a new cloud-based platform.

Geographical Location

Armenia - Nation-wide; Azerbaijan - Nation-wide; Bangladesh - Nation-wide; Bhutan - Nation-wide; Cambodia - Nation-wide; China - Nation-wide; Cook Islands - Nation-wide; Fiji - Nation-wide; Georgia - Nation-wide; Indonesia - Nation-wide; Kiribati - Nation-wide; Korea, Republic of - Nation-wide; Kyrgyz Republic - Nation-wide; Lao People's Democratic Republic - Nation-wide; Malaysia - Nation-wide; Maldives - Nation-wide; Marshall Islands - Nation-wide; Micronesia, Federated States of - Nation-wide; Mongolia - Nation-wide; Myanmar - Nation-wide; Nauru - Nation-wide; Nepal - Nation-wide; Pakistan - Nation-wide; Palau - Nation-wide; Papua New Guinea - Nation-wide; Philippines - Nation-wide; Samoa - Nation-wide; Singapore - Nation-wide; Solomon Islands - Nation-wide; Sri Lanka - Nation-wide; Tajikistan - Nation-wide; Thailand - Nation-wide; Timor-Leste - Nation-wide; Tonga - Nation-wide; Uzbekistan - Nation-wide; Vanuatu - Nation-wide; Viet Nam - Nation-wide

Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects

Environmental Aspects

Involuntary Resettlement

Indigenous Peoples

Stakeholder Communication, Participation, and Consultation

During Project Design

During Project Implementation

Business Opportunities

Consulting Services

ADB will hire individual consultants and/or resource persons directly or through a firm in accordance with the ADB Guidelines on the Use of Consultants (2013, as amended from time to time)

Procurement

not applicable

Contact

Responsible ADB Officer

Babajanian, Babken

Responsible ADB Department

Sectors Group

Responsible ADB Division

Human and Social Development Sector Office (SG-HSD)

Executing Agencies

Asian Development Bank

Timetable

Concept Clearance

13 Apr 2018

Fact Finding

-

MRM

-

Approval

19 Jun 2018

Last Review Mission

-

Last PDS Update

14 May 2024

Funding

TA 9534-REG