By: Eri Krismiyaningsih
Summary of the Article from T20 Brasil Policy Brief 2024
According to the 2023 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index data, 1.1 billion people, or 18% of the global population, still live in severe multidimensional poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions with the highest number of people experiencing multidimensional poverty. Covariate shocks, including disasters, economic crises, pandemics, climate change, and increasingly frequent conflicts over the past 50 years, further exacerbate this situation. In 2021 alone, 367 major disasters impacted people's socioeconomic conditions in 127 countries, with floods being the most frequent disaster. The high incidence of disasters has placed a heavier burden on low-income countries, increasing poverty and worsening socio-economic vulnerability. These countries also tend to invest less in social protection compared to high-income countries. Therefore, we need a more comprehensive social protection strategy that provides flexible scenarios to assist all individuals, particularly the poor and vulnerable, in anticipating, confronting, and adapting to various risks.
Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) encourages the evolution of regular social protection systems to become more flexible and resilient in responding to shocks, particularly those caused by disasters and climate change. ASP complements poverty reduction efforts, especially in low- and middle-income countries that are vulnerable to these risks, by expanding existing protection systems to comprehensively protect all people. The G20, as a strategic global economic forum, can play a major role in strengthening the economic resilience of its member countries by advocating ASP as a strategy to reduce poverty and mitigate risks, thus supporting global economic stability.
- Some recommendations that the G20, as a strategic international economic cooperation forum comprising the world's largest economies, could promote include:
- Promoting robust coordination and collaboration among G20 countries in implementing and formulating ASP policies.
- Enhance the adaptability of existing social protection programs by expanding their design and delivery systems.
- Promote the integration of socio-economic data and information systems with disaster risk and climate change projections.
- Promote financing innovation through Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance (DRFI) mechanisms.
The Resilience Development Initiative and the Social Policy Research Institute collaborated to produce a policy brief, which T20 published to promote ASP as a strategic social protection approach in G20 countries. You can access further details on ASP policy recommendations and implementation scenarios through G20 initiatives by clicking the following link (the policy brief is available in English):
https://t20brasil.org/media/documentos/arquivos/TF01_ST03_Integrating_the_Conc66d75e4ac935f.pdf
