Asia-Pacific Social Protection Week

2-5 August 2016

Asian Development Bank Headquarters, Manila,
Philippines

Social Protection Indicators &

Policy for Pacific DMCs
David F Abbott
Pacific SP Consultant
david@davidabbott.org
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.

Social Protection in PDMCs

Lack of comprehensive and coordinated social protection policies
and programmes in PDMCs
Historically Pacific societies have had strong traditional social
protection within families and communities
Traditional SP structures are weakening in the face of migration
and monetisation of societies
Governments have not yet fully understood and accepted the
consequences of these socio-economic changes and the
increasing incidence of basic-needs hardship and vulnerability in
societies
In many PDMCs social protection activities for the poor and
vulnerable are undertaken by CSOs, sometimes with government
support but mostly through their own fund-raising
Low level of SP in PDMCs illustrated in the following table

Selected Pacific DMCs

Social Protection Indicator by Category and Income Group, 2012

Member Economy

SPI

UPPER MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES

Social Insurance

Social Assistance

Labor Market Programs

social protection expenditure % of GDP per capita

MARSHALL ISLANDS

3.7

3.3

0.4

0.0

PALAU

2.9

2.7

0.2

0.0

COOK ISLANDS

2.8

0.2

2.6

0.0

FIJI, REP. OF

1.3

0.7

0.5

0.1

NAURU

0.8

0.2

0.6

0.0

TONGA

0.8

0.6

0.2

0.0

2.1

1.3

0.8

0.0

MICRONESIA, FED STATES

4.8

4.5

0.3

0.0

SOLOMON ISLANDS

1.3

1.2

0.0

0.1

SAMOA

1.2

1.0

0.2

0.0

KIRIBATI

1.1

0.0

1.0

0.2

VANUATU

0.7

0.7

0.0

0.1

TIMOR-LESTE

0.6

0.3

0.3

0.0

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

0.1

0.1

0.0

0.0

AVERAGE LMIC

1.4

1.1

0.2

0.1

OVERALL AVERAGE SELECTED PDMCS

1.6

1.1

0.5

0.1

AVERAGE UMIC
LOWER MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES

Source: Asian Development Bank, 2015

Social Protection in PDMCs

Only Fiji and Cook Islands have broad SP measures in place but
they are not fully integrated into coherent policy frameworks
Other countries all have Social Insurance schemes but few
have significant Social Assistance measures, universal elderly
benefits are the most common followed by child benefits
Very few countries have Labour Market Programmes
Small size, scope and scale of SP measures and lack of
coordination amongst SP measures makes data gathering on
SP difficult

Social Protection in PDMCs: measuring the SPI

Social protection component of social insurance difficult to measure as
a result of:
Many options for early withdrawals (house loans, education fees,
funeral expenses, post-disaster emergencies as in Fiji this year)
Small number of large lump-sum payments can distort depth &
breadth of SP
Early withdrawals means many retirees have little left at
retirement
Lack of public information on social insurance funds despite the
fact that most of these are contributory schemes
Social assistance programmes are often small, uncoordinated and
spread across many agencies; no central information base
Labour market programmes are usually very small and not well
documented; thus information is hard to find

Social Protection in PDMCs: Improving SP

Policy & Awareness

The SPI is not well known in PDMCs; little advocacy for the indicator or its
underlying policy messages/uses
SP Policy needs greater advocacy through links to poverty, vulnerability and
exclusion; all these issues are becoming increasingly important as PDMC
societies change
PDMC governments should begin to develop comprehensive Social Policies
with the need for SP as a primary driver
Whilst more data is always welcome the most important issue is to improve
the data and policy analytical capacity of the available data from DHS, HIES,
Census and annual budgets
Principal recommendations are:
More advocacy for poverty, vulnerability & exclusion and associated SP needs
Development of coordinated social and social protection policies and
measures
Capacity building for policy analysis and the analytical use of data

Thank You
david@davidabbott.org