Promoting Inclusive Growth through Social Protection

4 May 2010 (10:00 am - 12:15 pm)

Inclusive Growth focuses on two mutually reinforcing ideas. First, high rates of sustainable growth will create and expand economic opportunities. Second, broader access to these opportunities will ensure that members of society can participate in and benefit from growth.

As recognized by ADB's Strategy 2020, without proper attention and planning, it will become increasingly difficult for growth to reach the impoverished who remain excluded by circumstance, poor governance, and other market-resistant obstacles. For this reason, the Asia and Pacific region must promote greater access to opportunities by expanding human capacities, especially for the disadvantaged.

The seminar will address the role that Social Protection plays in supporting inclusive growth. Social protection is a set of policies and programs designed to reduce chronic poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets, diminishing people's exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruptions in employment or loss of income.

The seminar is particularly timely in light of the recent global economic and financial crisis, which highlighted the vulnerability of large numbers of the region's population to a sharp and sudden decline in growth. Governments responded to the crisis by adopting substantial fiscal stimulus packages that included social protection components.

As the Asia and Pacific region emerges from the crisis, attention is turning to the role that social protection can play in limiting the negative social impacts of the next crisis, and in promoting a more balanced economy where domestic consumption plays a larger role in a region known for high savings rates and reliance on exports.

Among the other issues to be addressed by the panel include social protection as a means for reducing malnutrition, building social cohesion, and promoting decent work. The panel will also explore the role of social protection in nurturing human capacities, which are essential to the success of a competitive modern economy in an increasingly globalized world.

Tashkent is a particularly appropriate venue for holding such a discussion given the comparatively extensive social protection systems in Central Asia.

Panelists will include experts from Asian governments and academe, as well as inter-governmental organizations.

PROGRAM/SPEAKERS

Haruhiko Kuroda
ADB President

Duncan Campbell
Director of Policy, Employment Sector, International Labour Organization
Presentation: ILO - UNDP - IHD Study on Decent Work and India's National Rural Employment Guarantee [ PDF: 414kb, 14 pages ]

Zhu Ling
Deputy Director General, Institute of Economics, China Academy of Social Sciences
Presentation: Expansion of Social Protection in China in the Era of Post-economic Crisis [ PDF: 107kb, 18 pages ]

Sarah Cook
Director, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Presentation: Social protection and inclusive growth: the critical links between protection and production [ PDF: 123kb, 5 pages ]

Sujana Royat
Deputy to the Minister for Poverty Alleviation Coordination, Indonesia

Ursula Schaefer-Preuss
Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, Asian Development Bank

Moderator:
Simon Long
Asia Editor, The Economist

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Note: All times are in GMT+05. For inquiries, e-mail: annualmeeting@adb.org