The Social Protection Indicator

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to develop and update a comprehensive set of comparable and accessible data to help measure performance of social protection programs in Asia. The Social Protection Indicator (SPI) report presents data on government social protection programs collected from 25 countries in Asia---while a companion publication covers the 13 countries in the Pacific. This report is an update of The Social Protection Index: Assessing Results for Asia and the Pacific published by ADB in 2013. It helps monitor and assess the nature of governments' social insurance, social assistance, and labor market programs in Asia.

This publication provides updates on Social Protection Indicators of 24 countries in Asia, with an analysis of 2015 data on social protection programs. It shows progress in expenditure, primarily driven by social insurance and coverage between 2009 and 2015. Spending on women has improved in several countries, yet others continued to favor the nonpoor over the poor, and men over women. The Social Protection Index--now the Social Protection Indicator--was developed by the Asian Development Bank and its partners as the first comprehensive and quantitative measure of social protection systems in Asia and the Pacific.

This publication provides updates on social protection indicators for 13 Pacific developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank. It presents an analysis of 2015 data on social protection programs, particularly the substantial progress in expenditure and benefit size between 2009 and 2015. Yet, spending favored the nonpoor over the poor, and the gap in spending on men and on women widened. The Social Protection Index--now the Social Protection Indicator--was developed by ADB and its partners as the first comprehensive and quantitative measure of social protection systems in Asia and the Pacific.

Prepared by Sri Wening Handayani [and three others].

This report assesses social protection measures in Asia and outlines the need for more inclusive, shock-responsive policies to cut poverty and to spur equitable development. Centered around ADB’s Social Protection Indicator, it assesses data from 26 countries to show how measures are evolving to provide increased support and opportunities for the poor, women, and people with disabilities. Explaining why the COVID-19 pandemic made many more vulnerable, the report suggests that it also offers opportunities for longer-term expansion of social protection. It proposes measures for strengthening data collection and compilation to enhance design and effectiveness of social protection.

This report presents an analysis of 2018 social protection data from the Asian Development Bank's 14 Pacific developing member countries. It uses the bank's Social Protection Indicator to assess the level of resources invested in social protection, the extent of coverage, and the benefit levels of social protection programs. Further data disaggregation provides the distribution of social protection expenditures in relation to poverty, gender, and people with disabilities. The report identifies measures adopted in response to the coronavirus disease pandemic and outlines future directions for social protection in the Pacific region.

The State of Social Safety Nets 2018 Report examines global trends in the social safety net/social assistance coverage, spending, and program performance based on the World Bank Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE) updated database. The report documents the main social safety net programs that exist globally and their use to alleviate poverty and to build shared prosperity. The 2018 report expands on the 2015 edition, both in administrative and household survey data coverage. A distinct mark of this report is that, for the first time, it tells the story of what happens with SSN/SA programs spending and coverage over time, when the data allow us to do so. This 2018 edition also features two special themes †“ Social Assistance and Ageing, focusing on the role of old-age social pensions, and Adaptive Social Protection, focusing on what makes SSN systems/programs adaptive to various shocks.

Adaptive social protection (ASP) helps to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households to the impacts of large, covariate shocks, such as natural disasters, economic crises, pandemics, conflict, and forced displacement. Through the provision of transfers and services directly to these households, ASP supports their capacity to prepare for, cope with, and adapt to the shocks they face—before, during, and after these shocks occur. Over the long term, by supporting these three capacities, ASP can provide a pathway to a more resilient state for households that may otherwise lack the resources to move out of chronically vulnerable situations. Adaptive Social Protection: Building Resilience to Shocks outlines an organizing framework for the design and implementation of ASP, providing insights into the ways in which social protection systems can be made more capable of building household resilience. By way of its four building blocks—programs, information, finance, and institutional arrangements and partnerships—the framework highlights both the elements of existing social protection systems that are the cornerstones for building household resilience, as well as the additional investments that are central to enhancing their ability to generate these outcomes. In this report, the ASP framework and its building blocks have been elaborated primarily in relation to natural disasters and associated climate change. Nevertheless, many of the priorities identified within each building block are also pertinent to the design and implementation of ASP across other types of shocks, providing a foundation for a structured approach to the advancement of this rapidly evolving and complex agenda.