Results: Ongoing Progress in the Labor and Social Protection Program in East Asia and Pacific

Background

The World Bank is involved in a wide range of social protection activities in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region. Since the unit is relatively new there is not large evidence-based impact evaluation of our interventions in  the region.

Nevertheless, qualitative assessments carried out by the Bank and surveys completed by community participants in specific projects led to some general conclusions regarding the impact of social protection interventions:

1. Social protection activities grounded in a broader and strategic policy dialogue, and not limited to dealing with short-term crisis management, have a more sustained impact.                               
2. Bank activities tend to have more sustained impact when institutional development and capacity building needs are highlighted and addressed.                                                        
3. Bank activities tend to have more significant impact when the Bank has worked effectively with donors and other partners by developing a framework to ground the interventions and maximize synergies.

Below are selected country-specific examples of social protection programs which have already shown results and others with potential impact. The countries are once again arranged by type of economy.

  Cambodia
  China
  Lao PDR
  Mongolia
  Philippines
  Thailand
  Vietnam

Back to top

In the low-income countries in the region the World Bank interventions up till now have been practically limited to social investment funds and background analytical pieces that will serve as the basis for future work in these countries. Therefore, the dialogue with these governments is still starting.

Cambodia

In Cambodia, the Bank has engaged in SP through the Social Investment Fund (SIF) I and SIF II, under which more than 3,000 subprojects in different development fields were financed. Most of the proposals under the SF I came from communities, and it is estimated that they created over 39,000 person/months of employment for skilled and unskilled workers and local technicians. Through SF II, partnership agreements with international and local agencies were concluded and implemented.

The Cambodian Social Protection Strategy Note, still in progress, intends to provide a strategic basis for addressing issues of poverty and vulnerability in Cambodia as a basis for future work and Bank long term engagement.

Back to top

Lao PDR

In Lao PDR the Bank is currently involved in social protection through the Poverty Reduction Fund. An initiative of the Lao Government supported by the World Bank, the fund aims to contribute to social and economic development towards poverty alleviation. The total allocated budget for 2005-2006 for 20 districts amounts to US$4,163,909. During the second cycle, activities covered 1,412 villages and a total number of 431 subprojects had been approved.

The Lao Social Protection Strategy is currently underway, and will review the design and implementation of community-driven development (CDD) projects in Lao to extract concrete lessons for future support in reaching communities and strengthening local capacity. 

Back to top

The Bank has more developed social protection programs in transition economies of the region. This is especially true of China, where the Bank engagement in themes such as pensions has been ongoing for several years now.

China

China is the main country of focus in social protection in EAP. The World Bank has been involved in three main areas, which include labor markets, pensions and safety nets.

Through the Labor Market Development Project the Bank aimed to provide analytical and financial support to the Government in the State-Owned Enterprises reform.

The project on Pension Reform pursued to improve the pension system in a pilot province and city to obtain experience and develop templates for the establishment of a national unified pension system. The Pension Liabilities and Reform Options for Old Age Insurance report is the culmination of a three-year-long collaboration between the Social Security Department of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank. It quantifies the long term pension liabilities nationwide, while highlighting the systemic problems that will need to be addressed and suggesting reform options for an adequate solution.

The Enterprise Reform Project helped implement a strategy to develop a market-based housing system and a robust social safety net, and hence helping promote labor mobility, enterprise restructuring and management improvement.

The already closed Liaoning Social Security Pilot Evaluation assessed the success of the urban social security reform pilot in Liaoning province. According to the report, the pilot successfully fulfilled most of the requirements set up. It did not however address many of the flaws that existed in the overall pension system, many of which can only be addressed over a longer period of time.

Back to top

Mongolia

In Mongolia the Bank was involved in the mitigation of the adverse effects of the economic transition on the vulnerable groups through the Poverty Alleviation for Vulnerable Groups Project.

The public works component was relatively successful, as the infrastructure works contributed to poverty reduction, but the temporary employment created was too short to have an impact on poverty.

The achievements of the productive activities sub-component were modest due to flaws in the Vulnerable Group Organization scheme design. The World Bank has engaged further in the transition process through the ongoing Sustainable Livelihood Project, which intended to support the shift in Mongolia’s national anti-poverty strategy away from welfarist measures, towards those that promote secure and sustainable livelihoods for all.

Back to top

Vietnam

In Vietnam dialogue on social protection has just started, and there are not ongoing activities except for some technical assistance on social security. The ongoing Social Protection Background Note seeks to examine the current state of social protection in Vietnam, identifying the main sources of vulnerability and social protection efforts taking place within the country. 

Back to top

The Bank has been engaged in social protection in the emerging economies of the region since the 1997 crisis, and mainly to help these economies to recover the social and economic fabric after the crisis.

Philippines

In the Philippines the Szopad Social Fund Project increased the access of the population in the poor and most conflict-affected areas to basic economic and social infrastructure, services and employment opportunities. By the end of the project, about 344,000 people were provided with new and/or rehabilitated infrastructures. According to the Impact Assessment Study, 85 percent of the beneficiaries improved their access to social and economic infrastructure.

Through the Social Expenditure Management Project procurement and financial management reforms were introduced in the Departments of Education (DepED) and Social Welfare, as well as the establishment of a Basic Education Information System in DepED.

The project also greatly improved the collaboration between the oversight agencies and the social sector departments. It further saved the Government of the Philippines millions of dollars by improving the procurement process in the DepED and its newly introduced approach for the management of Government funds was so successful that it is being included in the new Country Assistance Strategy for the country.

Its second phase aims to improve basic social services by enhancing the performance and governance in the three social services departments, and by providing quality inputs to such services.

Back to top

Thailand

In Thailand the recently closed and evaluated Social Investment Project provided short-term assistance to existing government programs on the creation of employment opportunities and the delivery of social services.

Aiming to support bottom-up service delivery, the project financed locally-identified and managed development initiatives through the Social Investment Fund (SIF) and the Regional Urban Development Fund. The SIF financed over 7,800 subprojects and reached about 10 percent of villages throughout the country. The Regional Urban Development Fund supported 53 subprojects and helped lay the groundwork for sub-sovereign lending in Thailand.

The Country Development Partnership on Social Protection is currently in its second phase. The activities have made considerable progress in strengthening the focus of the first phase on the following areas: (a) improving the analysis and use of existing data on labor markets and social welfare; (b) identifying coverage, efficiency and equity gaps in social protection mechanisms; (c) developing strategies and interventions to address such gaps in the formal and informal sectors; and (d) providing capacity building by sharing lessons on international best practice for key interventions.

Back to top