The ESCAP nequality of Opportunity papers place men and women at the heart of sustainable and inclusive development. They do so by identifying areas where inequality jeopardizes a person’s prospects, namely: education; women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care; children’s nutrition; decent work; basic water and sanitation; access to clean energy; and financial inclusion. Each of these opportunities is covered by specific commitments outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and addressed in separate thematic reports covering 27 countries throughout Asia and the Pacific. ESCAP first discussed inequality of opportunity in its 2015 report Time for Equality, establishing the distinction between inequality of outcome and inequality of opportunity. While the former depicts the consequences of unequally distributed income and wealth, the latter is concerned with access to key services necessary to fulfil one’s basic rights.The Inequality of Opportunity papers apply a novel approach to analysing household surveys with the aim of identifying the groups of individuals with the lowest access to the above-referenced opportunities. These groups are defined by common circumstances over which the individual has no direct control, such as their wealth, place of residence and education level, amongst others. In addition to identifying the furthest behind, the Inequality of Opportunity papers also explore the gaps between groups in accessing these key opportunities, as well as the extent to which these have narrowed or widened over time. They also review overall inequality trends in these opportunities. Ultimately, these findings are of direct use for generating discussion on transformations needed to reach the “furthest behind first” as pledged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Pandemics have constituted challenging and recurrent episodes of humankind history. Major pandemics such as plagues, cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis and influenza have afflicted the health and well-being of millions, bringing societies and economies to their knees. The world is still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As of April 25, 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) had confirmed over 500 million positive cases and over 6 million deaths worldwide. While most infected by COVID-19 do recover, many will suffer long-term consequences, such as fatigue, fever, tiredness and depression. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major shock to economic and social progress in Asia and the Pacific. By exacerbating existing inequalities of income and access to basic services and opportunities, the pandemic could reverse decades of hard-won gains by pushing millions back into poverty. Its far-reaching health and economic consequences are still unfolding. Poorer individuals, migrants, informal workers, less educated groups, women, children and the youth, are more likely to contract the virus because of living and working conditions that limit their ability to protect themselves from the disease. At the same time, the health consequences of the disease are felt by all, particularly older persons and those suffering from chronic or long-term health conditions. The economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic have been high. During 2020, the Asia-Pacific region experienced a GDP contraction of 1.1 per cent. Disruptions in economic activity are estimated to have pushed 75-80 million people back into extreme poverty. The years 2021–2022, however, proved to be even more challenging as the highly contagious Delta and Omicron variants resulted in further lockdowns and continued travel bans. The situation was aggravated by the slow progress of vaccination rollouts. As COVID-19 is turning endemic, it is time to reflect on how to better prepare for future similar threats. In addition to national public health responses and global detection and coordination efforts, much of the preparation can be done at the household level. Understanding and addressing inequalities in access to basic services.

Governments have increasingly recognized social protection as a key policy instrument to build a more productive, protected and healthy population in Asia and the Pacific. In 2020, ESCAP member States endorsed the regional ESCAP Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Cooperation on Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP Action Plan), which serves as a shared vision, strategy and platform for promoting partnership and peer learning and identifying needs for capacity development. At the national level, the ESCAP Action Plan calls on countries to establish an intermediate target of social protection coverage by 2025, and then measure progress towards achieving universal coverage by 2030. To achieve this objective, the ESCAP Action Plan lays out 12 measures to be taken at the national level. Social protection has been identified as an enabler for implementing the 2030 Agenda. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and deliver on the commitments contained therein, most countries in the region need to step up their efforts to build sustainable and reliable social protection systems. For this purpose, the ESCAP Action Plan and its national actions will be helpful for countries in furthering their inclusive social protection agenda. To support member States in the implementation of this first ever regional Action Plan, ESCAP has been mandated to develop a regional platform to facilitate peer learning and enhance the knowledge and awareness of member States to implement the ESCAP Action Plan. The Steps to Inclusive Social Protection Systems sets out 12 milestones for developing an integrated and sustainable social protection system, aligned with the ESCAP Action Plan,1 that has the buy-in of key actors, guarantees the right to social protection for all, addresses gaps in current social protection systems, identifies solutions to support sustainable financing, removes inefficiencies and fragmentation in delivery and administration, and responds to shocks more efficiently and effectively.

This paper reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of active labour market programmes in low- and middle-income countries with high informality, highlighting examples of interventions that have been implemented in combination with other policies including social protection measures. In reviewing the literature, we adopt a scoping review methodology to identify studies that look at a range of programme outcomes including earnings, employment, formality and productivity. We include studies from 2000 onwards, and after a thorough selection and screening process we end up with 106 papers for the review. Most of these studies find some positive aspect associated with the programme under study, although significant positive aspects are in many cases contingent on a specific target population, or time frame of programme and evaluation. We employ a theory of change conceptual framework to further discuss the channels, mechanisms and assumptions that are seen to underpin programme effectiveness (or the lack of). Success often depends on specific contextual factors and/or the joint implementation of different types of active and/or passive labour market policies, including specific social protection measures or other public policies.

Pension schemes protect older persons and their families facing barriers to earning an income in old age, as well as potential increases in health and other expenditures. While many people in the Asian and Pacific region continue to work into old age, labour force participation and earnings decrease at older ages. This is strongly linked to higher levels of disability and decreasing health in old age. It is related to factors such as age and gender discrimination in the workplace, legal restrictions, mandatory retirement age and cultural norms. Women are also more likely than men to be without income in old age. Disability and ill health not only create challenges for accessing paid work, but contribute to higher costs for older persons, including costs of accessing health care and personal assistance. While cultural traditions of family support to older persons have been historically strong in the region, the support provided is often insufficient, and providing this support puts pressure on household finances and employment prospects, particularly for women.

This is the sixth in a series of policy primers developed to support policymakers and practitioners in Asia and the Pacific in their efforts to strengthen social protection. This policy primer explains how social protection systems can be designed to recognize and compensate for interruptions in paid work, low earnings and informality that disproportionately impact women.