India – National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Launched in 2006, this guarantees every rural household up to 100 days of unskilled manual wage employment per year at the statutory minimum wage. This is usually through labourintensive projects on rural infrastructure. In 2007-08, this provided employment to 34 million households, more than half of whom came from the most marginalized groups, and more than 40 per cent of the workers were women. It is thought that this could be reducing rates of poverty in the lean season by 10–15 percentage points. The total allocated funds towards the scheme for 2009-10 are approximately INR 39,100 crore ($8.5 billion ), which is about 0.7 per cent of GDP. Countries wishing to implement such schemes could learn from past experience – taking steps to avoid disincentives and economic distortions in behaviour, directing schemes towards social and economic infrastructure and promoting equity in participation, with special consideration for women, youth and disadvantaged minorities. Armenia – Family Poverty Benefits Programme In 1999, in order to reduce the number of extremely poor families, the government replaced the system of state compensation and humanitarian assistance with a means-tested Family Poverty Benefits Programme. Since much of the country’s economic activity is in the informal sector, the targeting was based not on income but on a proxy mechanism, ranking each household on a single index based on individual and household characteristics. Each family that qualifies receives a basic monthly benefit. In 2003, the programme covered 141,218 families (505,560 individuals), or about 16.6% of the population at a cost of US$ 25 million or 0.9 per cent of GDP. Bangladesh – Food Security for Vulnerable Group Development Executed by the Government of Bangladesh in partnership with the World Food Programme, this distributes wheat flour fortified with essential micronutrients. Compared with the food ration programme, which distributes rice, this programme brings greater benefits to women. It is thought to have reduced extreme poverty by 30 percentage points and increased per capita calorie intake by more than 10 per cent (Ahmed and Ninno, 2002; Ahmed et al. 2004).
India – Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project Covering a rural population of more than 19 million, this is one of the world’s largest programmes for nutrition education and targeted supplementary feeding. A central tenet of the project, which has been running since 1980, has been that most malnutrition is the result of inappropriate child care practices. So key elements, along with nutrition supplements, include nutrition education and growth monitoring. Between 1983 and 2000, the incidence of severe malnutrition among children aged 0-36 months declined from 12.3 to 0.3 per cent (Swaminathan, M. 2009). Indonesia – Unconditional cash transfer In 2005, the Government initiated this programme to compensate poor families for the short-term impacts of a fuel price increase and the removal of a fuel subsidy. Each beneficiary family, selected through a proxy means test based on its economic and social characteristics, receives about $10 per month, paid quarterly. In 2006, this covered 19 million poor and near- poor households – one third of the population. It cost around $2.4 billion or 0.7 per cent of GDP. Since 2007, Indonesia has also been piloting a conditional cash transfer programme. Thailand – Universal health care In 2001, Thailand took an historic step towards achieving full population coverage in health care by introducing a universal health-care scheme – previously referred to as the ‘30 baht scheme’. This offers any Thai citizen not affiliated to the Social Security Health insurance scheme or the Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Scheme full access to health services provided by designated districtbased networks of providers – consisting of health centres, district hospitals and cooperating provincial hospitals. People who are eligible have to register with the networks and obtain a free insurance card. Originally they had to pay 30 baht – a little less than $1 – for each outpatient visit or hospital admission. However the co-payment has since been abolished, and drugs on prescription are also free of charge. Long-term social protection to strengthen Asia’s resilience against future shocks Since global crises of different kinds are likely to recur, countries across the region will need to be ready with comprehensive social protection systems. In doing so they can defend millions of
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ACHIEVING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN AN ERA OF GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY : ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL REPORT