Open access repository with Knowledge from Asia’s Top Think Tanks. Jointly developed and produced by Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program and the Asian Development Bank Institute.

The SPI database was developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a repository of country-level data on social protection programs e.g., social insurance, social assistance and labor market programs in Asia and the Pacific. The main objective is to have an internationally comparable database of government-financed social protection programs including expenditure, coverage, size of benefits and distributional impact on poverty and gender. 

Rappeler (15.08.2017) A UNESCAP report says expanding coverage for social protection is among the schemes that could distribute economic growth and limit inequality

Swiss Re Institute (07.07.2017) We live in a world with increasingly uncertain health outcomes. Individuals from developed economies have been living longer for many decades. However, those gains are beginning to be reversed in some countries, particularly within certain communities. Sensor technology is increasingly being deployed to counter these trends.

Can a universal basic income resolve future income security challenges? Universal basic income approaches are currently high on the agenda as possible policy options to resolve the income security challenges that emerge on the one hand from new forms of work in the wake of digitalization and automation, as well as from informal and precarious employment. 

Global Credit Research - 17 May 2017 New York, May 17, 2017 -- The accelerating adoption of robotics in manufacturing in some of the worlds' more advanced economies could pose challenges to emerging market exporters that have benefited from their comparative advantage of lower cost, high skilled labor, says Moody's Investors Service in a report.

The ASEAN Social Security Association (ASSA) was formed to provide a forum for member institutions to exchange views and experiences on social security issues.

Its members comprise the Social Security Institutions of ASEAN countries namely, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. As a non-government organization, ASSA seeks to promote the development of social security in the region in consonance with the aspirations, laws and regulations of the member countries.

OECD Insights Blog (19.06.2017) An Indonesian proverb says that a firm tree does not fear the storm. After the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/98, Asian economies recovered with strong economic growth (on average 4.2% annually), which over the past decade has contributed to a decline in “absolute poverty” – here defined as those with incomes of less than USD 2 per day.

A promise of equal opportunity

“Basic income” would be an amount sufficient to secure basic needs as a permanent earnings floor no one could fall beneath, and would replace many of today’s temporary benefits, which are given only in case of emergency, and/or only to those who successfully pass the applied qualification tests. UBI would be a promise of equal opportunity, not equal outcome, a new starting line set above the poverty line.