Leaving no one behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). LNOB means moving beyond assessing average and aggregate progress, towards identifying progress for different population groups, including intersecting vulnerabilities, to ultimately ensure all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality. However, inequalities are rising, particularly in terms of income and wealth, and thereby exacerbating inequality of opportunity. 

Ensuring universal access to social protection to address vulnerabilities emanating from life cycle contingencies and systemic shocks is among key policy areas and investment paths to address the LNOB pledge of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. Unfortunately, about 45 per cent of the population in Asia and the Pacific lack any access to social protection schemes. In the presence of global megatrends such as climate change and population ageing, many are expected to fall back into poverty. The furthest behind groups in access to social protection are often people in vulnerable situations including, particularly children, women and older persons and persons with disabilities. 

Against this background and with an objective to inform inclusive and evidence-based policymaking especially in social development domain, ESCAP has developed three user-friendly and relevant policy tools that are interactive and readily available online. 

The Leave No One Behind (LNOB) Platform supports understanding of how various circumstances intersect and create inequalities in access to basic opportunities covered by the SDGs. Building on empirical methodologies such as Classification and Regression Tree (CART) methodology and the Dissimilarity index (D-index), the Platform presents results at national and sub-national levels identifying groups left furthest behind and the circumstances they share. The results are available for 33 countries in Asia and the Pacific and up to 19 SDG indicators. 

The, Social Protection Online Toolbox (SPOT) Simulator helps users design a mix of non-contributory social protection schemes and demonstrates the impact of hypothetical scenarios on poverty, inequality and consumption. The tool also projects the cost of such schemes. The results are obtained by using national representative household surveys such as Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) in 27 countries across Asia and the Pacific. 

The Social Protection to Leave No One Behind (SP2LNOB) App supports evidence-based policy making that leaves no one behind. The App is an online data analysis and visualization tool that builds on ESCAP LNOB Platform and SPOT Simulator Focusing on selected indicators from nationally representative household surveys, the App disaggregates national averages and identifies mutually exclusive groups, including the furthest behind and the furthest ahead groups, with different rates of access to opportunities. The App allows users to build custom social protection schemes and quantify their potential impact on boosting each group’s access to opportunities. 

In collaboration with the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) in Pakistan, ESCAP is organizing a technical workshop to raise awareness on these innovative policy tools and leverage empirical methodologies and national survey data to inform evidence-based inclusive policies in Pakistan. The workshop will strengthen capacity among participants to navigate both platforms effectively and use the results in their respective areas of work. The workshop will include interactive policy dialogue as well as group work on the use of LNOB algorithm. 

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:  

The workshop is open to participation from the federal and provincial Government, the United Nations Country Team and the members of the UN Data Group. While the first day can accommodate up to 30 participants without any technical background, the following two targets statisticians and technical specialists with technical background and experience in data analysis using statistical software programmes. 

Thematically, LNOB tool covers SDG indicators that pertain to educational attainment, access to basic services (i.e., electricity, basic drinking water and sanitation, electricity and internet) as well as women’s and children’s health. In the thematic area of social protection, while SPOT tool relates to non-contributory social protection systems or social assistance, representatives from social protection system at large including social insurance schemes and active labour market policies are welcome to join the workshop. 

The national workshop will be organized in-person format at the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Serena Office Complex level 7. The meeting will be conducted in English. The tentative programme of the workshop is available on the Programme tab.