World Bank urges adoption of integrated social protection policy

FILE: The Philippines needs to create an integrated social protection policy to reduce poverty, according to a new World Bank (WB) report. (Photo by Marlon E/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

MANILA — The Philippines needs to create an integrated social protection policy to reduce poverty, according to a new World Bank (WB) report.

The WB report, titled “Riding the Wave: An East Asian Miracle for the 21st Century,” described the Philippines, along with Indonesia and Cambodia, as “out-of-extreme-poverty” countries, which enjoy low levels of extreme poverty but also still have small middle classes.

A sizable share of the population is still either moderately poor or vulnerable to falling back into poverty, it said.

“Integrating existing social assistance programs to provide greater economic security is a key priority, with strengthening mobility a close second,” WB reported.

The Bank identified fostering economic mobility among the three pillars that can underpin the policy agenda for the remaining extreme poor.

“(This) requires closing gaps in access to jobs and services, improving the quality of jobs, and promoting financial inclusion,” it said.

Other pillars are providing greater economic security and bolstering social assistance systems.
The former involves bolstering social assistance systems, expanding social insurance, and increasing resilience to shocks; while strengthening institutions includes progressive taxation policies to raise resources and improvements in the effectiveness of inclusive spending programs.

“Better management of rapid aging and urbanization, as well as enhancing competition, will also help,” the report added.

The WB noted that countries of developing East Asia and Pacific – among the most successful in the world in reducing poverty and improving living standards – need to adopt a new thinking if they are to achieve inclusive growth going forward.

“It’s a historic achievement that nearly a billion people in East Asia moved out of extreme poverty in just one generation,” said Victoria Kwakwa, WB Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific. “But for the region to sustain inclusive growth, countries will need to address the challenges of fully eliminating extreme poverty, enhancing the prospects for economic mobility, and assuring economic security for all.”