The delivery of social protection in the

world
Session 5 ASPW
2 august 2016
Duncan Campbell
Cornell University and CERS

DISCLAIMER: This presentation does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents.

still a glass more than half empty, some ILO

metrics
Still only 27% of people enjoy access to comprehensive social security
systems
18,000 children die daily of preventable or treatable disease.
Globally, 0.4% of GDP is spent on child and family benefits
There is in any case a shortage of 10.3 million health-care workers
Only 28 % of workers worldwide are eligible for unemployment
insurance, contributory or not
34 % of workers are covered by employment injury protection
40 % of women workers are covered by paid maternity benefits

A few more metrics.

48 % of workers of pensionable age receive and old-age pension
39 % of the population have no health coverage
From expansion to contraction: counter-cyclical fiscal stimulus during
the Great Recession amount to 2.4 trillion dollars, 25% of which was
in social protection spending.
Since 2010, fiscal consolidation has been the watchword, with the
majority of countries curbing their social protection expenditures

A human right, i nonetheless retain a view of social

protection as an investment good with an economic
payoff. Thats the message of these few minutes
The reduction and prevention of poverty and inequality (good for
growth)
Enhancing human capital and productivity

countering aspiration failure

Ensuring more productive job search
Reducing the economic burden of post-preventive healthcare
Countering aggregate demand effect of precautionary savings

Enabling structural transformation of national economies

The reduction of risk

Social transfers prevent poverty

Investing in children: important to the intergenerational transmission of poverty

Unemployment insurance facilitates

productive job matching

Ill health reduces productivity, and is a cost

that can be mitigated

Going forward. Some good news in the expansion

of social protection in middle- and low-income
countries

Some conclusions to draw, two matter most

Investing in health, in kids, in income protection for the working

population and those in old age are investments in dignity, decency
and rights, to be sure
They are also investments in economic stability and economic growth,
in the present, and in the future