Foreword
Society at a Glance: Asia/Pacific, the OECD’s overview of social indicators for the region, addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends across countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Chapter 1 introduces this volume and provides readers with a guide to help them interpret OECD social indicators. Chapter 2 focuses on issues around extending coverage and the future of social protection in Asia and the Pacific. Many workers in Asia and the Pacific currently have jobs that do not entitle them to social and health support. Digitalization and changes in the nature of work may lead to further job-loss, but also increase economic labour market and economic inequalities between high and low-skilled workers; workers with and without access to social benefits. These rising inequalities will further challenge social policy development in its quest to get support to those who need it most. The chapter includes some country programme examples to illustrate possible policy responses. Chapter 3 to 7 each present 5 indicators on general context, self‐sufficiency, equity, health and social cohesion.
A previous draft of this report was discussed at the annual meeting of social policy experts organised by the OECD/Korea policy centre in Seoul on 18- and 19 October 2018. The draft benefitted from comments by the different experts including: Ashish Kumar Aggarwal (India); Shaikh Shamsuddin Ahmed (Bangladesh); Florence Bonnet (ILO); Enkhtsetseg Byambaa (Mongolia); Sri Wening Handayani (ADB); Jai-Joon Hur (Korea); Dohyung Kim (Korea); Norma Binti Mansor (Malaysia); Hina Shaikh (Pakistan); Junko Takezawa (Japan); Turro Wongkaren (Indosnesia); and, Suk-myung Yun (Korea).
This report was prepared by Willem Adema, Pauline Fron, and Eunkyung Shin. Peter Whiteford (Australia National University) prepared parts of Chapter 2, while the contribution of data on informality by Florence Bonnet (ILO) and Social Expenditure by Sri Wening Handayani (ADB) is gratefully acknowledged. Maxime Ladaique (Fertility) and Philippe Herve (International Migration) contributed to Chapter 3; Andrew Reilly provided data on pensions for Chapter 5, while Luca Lorenzoni and Frédéric Daniel provided data and comments on Chapter 7. We are grateful for comments on previous drafts by Daniel Alonso Soto, Mark Pearson, Monika Queisser, Stefano Scarpetta, Stefan Thewissen, and the many other colleagues who provided assistance including Liv Gudmundson, Lucy Hulett, Anna Irvin Sigal and Fatima Perez.
The on-line version of this publication, including all figures and data, can be accessed via http://oe.cd/sag-asia.