Philippine social protection low — ADB

THE PHILIPPINES lags behind its neighbors in providing social protection, particularly for the poor, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study showed.

The country scored a social protection index (SPI) of 0.085, lower than the Asian average of 0.110 and the Southeast Asian score of 0.095.

The Social Protection Index (SPI), which considers a country’s social protection expenditure, coverage, distribution, and impact on beneficiaries, uses a scale of zero to one, with one as the highest.

Japan topped the list with an SPI of 0.416, followed by Uzbekistan (0.343), Mongolia (0.206) and Korea (0.2). Social protection spending among these countries ranges between 20% to 40% of their respective gross domestic products (GDP).

The Philippines spends an estimated 2.2% of GDP to improve the welfare of vulnerable sectors, the report said.

Of the Southeast Asian countries included in the study, Singapore has the highest SPI with 0.169, followed by Malaysia (0.158), Vietnam (0.137), Thailand (0.119), Indonesia (0.0411), Laos (0.026) and Cambodia (0.020).

The Philippine SPI was also below other lower-middle-income nations’ average, 0.96.

“These general results suggest that many countries in Asia and the Pacific have not yet developed very extensive or advanced systems of social protection,” read the report.

The ADB said the Philippines and other countries with SPI lower than 0.1 would have to increase their expenditures in social protection substantially to have a suitable SPI.

But, even countries that saw dramatic improvements in their economies failed to increase spending on social protection, the ADB said.

“The Social Protection Index results suggest that, despite steep GDP gains in recent decades, the majority of countries in Asia and the Pacific — particularly those that have graduated to middle-income status — have not correspondingly strengthened their systems of social protection,” the report said.

“They need to scale up and broaden these systems. Spending that corresponds to 20% of poverty line expenditures or 5% of its GDP per capita — as in the Republic of Korea — is a reasonable strategic target,” it added.

The report analyzed 2009 data on government social protection programs in 35 countries in Asia-Pacific.

The report divides social protection into three major categories: social insurance, social assistance and labor market programs. — Noemi M. Gonzales – See more at: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=Philippine-social-protection-low—-ADB&id=72825#sthash.0YqX7HPM.dpuf