Towards Income Security in Asia and the Pacific: A Focus on Income Support Schemes
Rising inequality as well as the need to build resilience to crises, whether economic and financial crises, or natural disasters, have increased the call for strengthening social protection in the Asia-Pacific region.
To strengthen social protection, most countries in the region have already set in place income support schemes, often targeted towards certain vulnerable groups. Those include schemes for providing universal social pensions for older persons, income support schemes targeted at poor families, schemes targeting women, as well as food-for-work schemes.
But how do governments decide which vulnerable groups are primarily focused by income support schemes? How can income support schemes be sustainable and survive changes in governments? Under which circumstances do income support schemes have a long-term impact on reducing poverty and inequality? The present publication explores these questions and finds that income support schemes need to be adequately resourced, and require institutional capacity to implement it as well as political commitment to be successful.