November 2024

Megatrends and the Future of Social Protection

By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Ageing populations, changing labour markets, and climate change are affecting economies and societies across OECD countries. What challenges do these “megatrends” pose for social protection systems? What are the implications of these trends for the coverage, the effectiveness, and – critically – the funding of social protection today and tomorrow? With an eye towards informing future reforms, this report presents a broad stocktaking of population ageing, changing patterns of labour supply, new and emerging...

Pensions in Aging Asia and the Pacific: Policy Insights and Priorities

By Rafal Chomik, Philip O’Keefe & John Piggott Asia and the Pacific has the most diverse regional pension landscape globally. Yet the region’s pension systems are facing common challenges as they attempt to expand coverage, and ensure adequacy and fairness, while maintaining fiscal sustainability. We review the structures and performance of pension systems across Asia and the Pacific. Most remain characterized by low contributory coverage, social pensions with inadequate benefits and often low (or no) coverage, and informal sector schemes...

A ‘Mandatory’ Pension Scheme? Late-Stage Dropouts from the National Pension System in South Korea

By Jongseok Oh, Seho Son & Kun Lee In this study, we investigate the patterns of individuals dropping out of the National Pension System, a mandatory public pension scheme in South Korea with a generous and redistributive benefit structure. We analyze administrative pension insurance data on individuals eligible for a lump-sum refund of lifetime accrued contributions at the age of 60 due to insufficient contribution records. We employ a set of linear probability models with region-fixed effects and within-between-region effects...

October 2024

Pensions in Aging Asia and the Pacific: Policy Insights and Priorities

By Rafal Chomik, Philip O’Keefe & John Piggott Asia and the Pacific has the most diverse regional pension landscape globally. Yet the region’s pension systems are facing common challenges as they attempt to expand coverage, and ensure adequacy and fairness, while maintaining fiscal sustainability. We review the structures and performance of pension systems across Asia and the Pacific. Most remain characterized by low contributory coverage, social pensions with inadequate benefits and often low (or no) coverage, and informal sector schemes...

Social pensions in the Americas: Recent developments

By International Social Security Association Ensuring adequate social security coverage for an ageing population is an important priority for governments and the global membership of the International Social Security Association (ISSA). Social pensions, also known as zero pillar or non-contributory pensions, complement contributory social insurance systems by providing a guaranteed source of income for people not adequately protected by other forms of social security. In doing so, they expand overall social protection and can be a powerful tool for combating...

New ILO report highlights urgent need for improved labour and social protection for domestic workers in ASEAN

A new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) highlights the critical need to improve labour and social protection for domestic workers across the 10-member Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) region. The report entitled Labour rights and social protection coverage for domestic workers in ASEAN  finds that despite their essential role in supporting households and economies, domestic workers, many of whom are women and migrants face significant gaps in protections that affect their well-being and economic security. There are about 38.3 million domestic...

September 2024

Optimising Bangladesh’s Universal Pension Framework: From Lessons to Actions

By Samiha Chowdhury Social protection for the elderly, in the form of the Old-age Allowance (OAA) Programme, has been operational in Bangladesh since 1998, offering monthly financial support to senior citizens from poor and vulnerable households. As of FY24, the programme has approximately 5.8 million elderly people as beneficiaries, each receiving Tk.600 per month distributed on a quarterly basis. Apart from this, retirement benefits for the government employees and their families can also be considered a social protection programme for...

August 2024

Social pensions in the Americas: Recent developments

Ensuring adequate social security coverage for an ageing population is an important priority for governments and the global membership of the International Social Security Association (ISSA). Social pensions, also known as zero pillar or non-contributory pensions, complement contributory social insurance systems by providing a guaranteed source of income for people not adequately protected by other forms of social security. In doing so, they expand overall social protection and can be a powerful tool for combating old-age poverty, promoting social...

July 2024

World Social Protection Report 2020-22: Social protection at the crossroads – in pursuit of a better future

By International Labour Organization This ILO flagship report provides a global overview of recent developments in social protection systems, including social protection floors, and covers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on new data, it offers a broad range of global, regional and country data on social protection coverage, benefits and public expenditures. Following a life-cycle approach, the report analyses progress with regard to universal social protection coverage, with a particular focus on achieving the globally agreed 2030 Agenda for...

June 2024

Low and Middle Income countries need $1.4 trillion annually for universal social protection: ILO

Universal social protection for low- and middle-income countries would require an additional $1.4 trillion per year, according to a working paper by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Among regions, Africa faces the most substantial challenge in achieving universal coverage for social protection. The ILO document provided global, regional and country-level estimates of the financing gap to achieve universal social protection, including universal access to five key social protection guarantees (that is, for children, persons with severe disabilities, mothers of newborns, older...