Essential Safety Net: Imperative in Asia-Pacific Region
In the face of multiple disruptions, including economic restructuring, green transitions, climate change, demographic shifts, and digital transformations, social protection for individuals and households is being recognized as an economically and socially empowering instrument.
According to the 2025 Asia-Pacific SDG Partnership Report, targeted solutions are needed to promote inclusive workforce development. Expanding social protection systems is essential for just transitions to green and blue economies.
The region is witnessing a significant number of workers being affected by climate risks, shifting job markets, and deepening inequalities. Governments are urged to proactively invest in universal, inclusive, and adaptive social protection systems.
Modelling and AI-driven social protection systems can help reduce costs associated with unemployment, pressure on health systems, and societal dissatisfaction. During the pandemic, digital technologies played a crucial role in supporting measures to reach target groups, and AI is increasingly being used to obtain valuable insights from beneficiaries' inquiries and enhance service delivery.
Effective social protection mechanisms can lead to more inclusive economic progress and more resilient societies. They can keep households afloat during difficult times, help workers transition from brown to green jobs, support caregiving and old-age security, and give people the confidence to pivot to new skills, jobs, and business ventures.
However, over 50% of the region's population is covered by at least one social protection benefit, but coverage remains uneven and protection is patchy. Work-related benefits, such as unemployment insurance and workplace injury protection, are critically low.
In an effort to address these gaps, India's Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers Act of 2023 establishes a welfare board and a dedicated social security fund for platform-based workers. Indonesia's government provides cash transfers to low-income households to disincentivize forest-sourced goods consumption and encourage market purchases.
The Barangay Bay Environmental Cash for Work programme in the Philippines compensates commercial fishing vessel crew members for environmental protection work during fishing bans.
Global leaders have called for an increase in investment in social protection by at least two percentage points annually. Prioritizing social protection as a strategic investment for development will allow everyone to thrive as challenges are overcome. International partners can help design, finance, and scale social protection systems, particularly in low-income and climate-vulnerable contexts.
The question remains, however, of how to ensure that large numbers of people are not left behind in these changes. These disruptions pose existential livelihood challenges for hundreds of millions of people in the region.
The authors of this article, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja, and Fatima Yasmin, who hold positions in the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, and Asian Development Bank, respectively, emphasize the need for a collective effort to build resilient and inclusive societies in the Asia-Pacific region.
