Social Development and Poverty

In the past 3 decades, education systems in Asia, including technical and vocational education and training (TVET), were well suited to allow Asia to become the world’s assembly line. Formal education and on-the-job training were generally able to supply the hard skills and soft skills needed to meet the skills needs of the Asian economies to catch up with the rest of the world and capture a growing share of basic industry and service sector production globally. In recent years however, the alignment between supply of skills and demand for skills in Asia has been increasingly impacted by key global shifts and trends. 

This report identifies six key shifts and trends that have had critical implications on either skills supply and/or skills demand in Asia, thereby straining the previous alignment in this regard.

In the past 3 decades, education systems in Asia, including technical and vocational education and training (TVET), were well suited to allow Asia to become the world’s assembly line. Formal education and on-the-job training were generally able to supply the hard skills and soft skills needed to meet the skills needs of the Asian economies to catch up with the rest of the world and capture a growing share of basic industry and service sector production globally. In recent years however, the alignment between supply of skills and demand for skills in Asia has been increasingly impacted by key global shifts and trends. 

This report identifies six key shifts and trends that have had critical implications on either skills supply and/or skills demand in Asia, thereby straining the previous alignment in this regard.

Despite clear aspirations by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create an effective and transparent framework to facilitate movements among skilled professionals within the ASEAN by December 2015, progress has been slow and uneven.

Way forward

It is critical to lay out a realistic roadmap toward freer movement for the citizens of ASEAN for the next decade and beyond. This will involve a two-pronged strategy.

First, ASEAN Member States need to cooperate in the short to medium term to fully address the immediate challenges in recognizing the qualifications of mobile professionals and increase their access to the region’s labor market.

Second, governments should also take a longer-term view by investing in national training and education systems that prepare workers in accordance with common ASEAN-wide standards. 

About this report

This report examines the challenges ASEAN member states face in achieving the goal of greater mobility for the highly skilled, including hurdles in recognizing professional qualifications, opening up access to certain jobs, and a limited willingness by professionals to move due to perceived cultural, language, and socioeconomic differences. The cost of these barriers is staggering and could reduce the region’s competitiveness in the global market

This report launches a multiyear effort by ADB and the Migration Policy Institute to better understand the issues and develop strategies to gradually overcome the problems. It offers a range of policy recommendations that have been discussed among experts in a high-level expert meeting, taking into account best practices locally and across the region.

Despite clear aspirations by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create an effective and transparent framework to facilitate movements among skilled professionals within the ASEAN by December 2015, progress has been slow and uneven.

Way forward

It is critical to lay out a realistic roadmap toward freer movement for the citizens of ASEAN for the next decade and beyond. This will involve a two-pronged strategy.

First, ASEAN Member States need to cooperate in the short to medium term to fully address the immediate challenges in recognizing the qualifications of mobile professionals and increase their access to the region’s labor market.

Second, governments should also take a longer-term view by investing in national training and education systems that prepare workers in accordance with common ASEAN-wide standards. 

About this report

This report examines the challenges ASEAN member states face in achieving the goal of greater mobility for the highly skilled, including hurdles in recognizing professional qualifications, opening up access to certain jobs, and a limited willingness by professionals to move due to perceived cultural, language, and socioeconomic differences. The cost of these barriers is staggering and could reduce the region’s competitiveness in the global market

This report launches a multiyear effort by ADB and the Migration Policy Institute to better understand the issues and develop strategies to gradually overcome the problems. It offers a range of policy recommendations that have been discussed among experts in a high-level expert meeting, taking into account best practices locally and across the region.

Economic growth in Bangladesh, above 6% in most years since the 2000s, has been on the fast track since the 1990s. Not many developing countries, especially the least developed, have been able to achieve this consistently for such a long period. Yet despite the jobs generated in the export-oriented readymade garment industry, the fruits of growth have not been widely shared.

This joint study by ADB and the International Labour Organization examines the nature and magnitude of the employment challenge Bangladesh faces, looking at the nature of productive employment and its role in transmitting the benefits of growth into incomes for the poor. It indicates that the positive economic turnaround in Bangladesh is largely due to the rising presence of women in the workplace.

Economic growth in Bangladesh, above 6% in most years since the 2000s, has been on the fast track since the 1990s. Not many developing countries, especially the least developed, have been able to achieve this consistently for such a long period. Yet despite the jobs generated in the export-oriented readymade garment industry, the fruits of growth have not been widely shared.

This joint study by ADB and the International Labour Organization examines the nature and magnitude of the employment challenge Bangladesh faces, looking at the nature of productive employment and its role in transmitting the benefits of growth into incomes for the poor. It indicates that the positive economic turnaround in Bangladesh is largely due to the rising presence of women in the workplace.

In Pakistan, women work primarily in the home or on the farm. Their participation in work outside these areas, particularly in formal employment, is extremely low. It is possible that some forms of work by Pakistani women may be undercounted in surveys, as a large proportion of survey respondents may be working in agriculture or doing informal work at home, which is not counted and reported as work. However, the study analysis of the 2007 Pakistan Time Use Survey suggests that this is not a major driver of the patterns. The survey evidence clearly indicates that a very low proportion of Pakistani women work outside the home, where best-paid work opportunities abound.

Key Messages:

• Despite increases in recent years, female labor force participation in Pakistan, at 25%, is well below rates for countries with similar income levels. Even among women with high levels of education, labor force participation lags: only around 25% of women with a university degree in Pakistan are working.
• This low female labor force participation represents a major loss of potential productivity. It also has important implications for women’s empowerment, as working women are more likely to play a role in household decision making compared with nonworking women in the same villages or even in the same families.
• The study found that many women in Pakistan would like to work; there are multiple reasons why they do not. One of the key reasons—on which policy could have an effect—is that women face restrictions on their physical mobility outside the home.
• Several interconnected factors restrict women’s mobility outside the home, among them (i) social, cultural, and religious norms; (ii) safety and crime; and (iii) the quality of available transport services.

In Pakistan, women work primarily in the home or on the farm. Their participation in work outside these areas, particularly in formal employment, is extremely low. It is possible that some forms of work by Pakistani women may be undercounted in surveys, as a large proportion of survey respondents may be working in agriculture or doing informal work at home, which is not counted and reported as work. However, the study analysis of the 2007 Pakistan Time Use Survey suggests that this is not a major driver of the patterns. The survey evidence clearly indicates that a very low proportion of Pakistani women work outside the home, where best-paid work opportunities abound.

Key Messages:

• Despite increases in recent years, female labor force participation in Pakistan, at 25%, is well below rates for countries with similar income levels. Even among women with high levels of education, labor force participation lags: only around 25% of women with a university degree in Pakistan are working.
• This low female labor force participation represents a major loss of potential productivity. It also has important implications for women’s empowerment, as working women are more likely to play a role in household decision making compared with nonworking women in the same villages or even in the same families.
• The study found that many women in Pakistan would like to work; there are multiple reasons why they do not. One of the key reasons—on which policy could have an effect—is that women face restrictions on their physical mobility outside the home.
• Several interconnected factors restrict women’s mobility outside the home, among them (i) social, cultural, and religious norms; (ii) safety and crime; and (iii) the quality of available transport services.

World populations are aging—with the speed and extent of the demographic shift varying across developed and developing economies. Extending the retirement age is expected to reduce the dependency ratio by increasing the number of workers relative to the number of consumers. Meanwhile, increasing immigration will require proactive efforts in both host and source economies. While increasing fertility rates may entail additional short–term burdens on the economy, policy makers need to take urgent action to avoid being trapped in the vicious cycle of shrinking populations and rising dependency ratios.

World populations are aging—with the speed and extent of the demographic shift varying across developed and developing economies. Extending the retirement age is expected to reduce the dependency ratio by increasing the number of workers relative to the number of consumers. Meanwhile, increasing immigration will require proactive efforts in both host and source economies. While increasing fertility rates may entail additional short–term burdens on the economy, policy makers need to take urgent action to avoid being trapped in the vicious cycle of shrinking populations and rising dependency ratios.