Background
Only 55 percent of the population of Asia and the Pacific is covered by a social protection scheme, meaning that 45 per cent of the population has no protection from the risk of individual life cycle contingencies and systemic shocks and crisis. This is of concern because the lack of social protection exposes people in vulnerable situations to livelihood uncertainty and contributes to increasing inequalities both within and across countries.
To accelerate progress towards inclusive and sustainable development, the United Nations Sustainable Development Group recently introduced six transition to accelerate the delivery SDGs, as they have catalytic and multiplier effects. One of these six pathways relate to jobs and social protection. Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) and the United Nations Secretary-General’s initiative on the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions are among key frameworks seeking to address the significant gaps in jobs and social protection to leave no one behind.
Recent findings corroborate the strong linkage between access to social protection and its importance for poverty eradication, productive employment and a green and just transition as well as in enhancing trust and solidarity towards more inclusive and prosperous societies in Asia and the Pacific. For social protection to fulfil its potential in Asia and the Pacific, its impacts on fundamental rights and opportunities need to be communicated to governments. Furthermore, capacity of governments must be strengthened to inform inclusive schemes must be strengthened.
Against this background, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) together with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is implementing a technical assistance project in 2024-2026 period entitled “Strengthening capacity for evidence-based Social Protection policies for responding to the triple global crisis in fuel, food and finance” in six target countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific. The objective of the project is to strengthen social protection systems and schemes by building national capacity to identify the furthest behind and design and implement inclusive and shock responsive schemes and policies based on evidence.
The project leverages user-friendly policy tools developed by ESCAP to strengthen social protection systems in response to triple crisis. The Social Protection to Leave No One Behind (SP2LNOB) tool developed by ESCAP as a product of this project demonstrates the impact of extending social protection on accessing basic services and opportunities. Using this tool, governments can assess the potential impact social protection can have on leaving no one behind in a variety of priority areas including employment, health, nutrition education and living standards, among others. The tool builds on two existing ESCAP platforms including the Leaving No One Behind (LNOB) Platform and the Social Protection Online Toolbox (SPOT) Simulator which have been used in informing social protection policies as well as reviewing progress in SDGs with a view to leave no one behind. ESCAP has also strengthened capacity of member States in analyzing nationally representative survey data with innovative tools that help policymakers experiment with the design features of schemes and evaluate the financial implications.
Specifically, the SP2LNOB tool for the Maldives was developed in 2024-2025 through several technical workshops in collaboration with Ministry of Health, Family and Welfare, the National Social Protection Agency, the Maldives Pension Administration Office and the Maldives Bureau of Statistics Considering the feedback from the country team during these workshops, ESCAP revised the tool and launched it in Malé through a national consultation co-organized with national partners on 17 June 2025. The interactive dialogue during the national consultation explored avenues for effective use of the SP2LNOB tool to inform inclusive and evidence-based social protection schemes and policies. By the end of the workshop, ESCAP and the project counterparts in four national institutions agreed to continue this collaboration through further research and capacity building activities. Through multiple virtual meetings, the project counterparts in the Maldives identified several highly policy relevant questions to be explored using the ESCAP tools. The results from the Maldives will contribute to South-South knowledge exchange collaboration in the context of the technical assistance project. A delegation from the Maldives will be invited to present their country experience in the final inter-regional workshop in 2027.
Workshop Objectives
The aim of the technical follow-up mission is to continue strengthening national capacities to use data and innovative tools for evidence-based policymaking in social protection. At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to:
understand how to navigate the LNOB, SPOT and SP2LNOB platforms and explore the offline versions of these tools on their local computers for more country-specific policy research;
explore pre-identified policy questions by applying ESCAP tools to nationally representative surveys (i.e. 2019 Household Income and Expenditure Survey) and the latest Census and present preliminary results to policymakers.
strengthen their capacity in using data to build the evidence base to inform more inclusive social protection design and implementation to accelerate recovery from the triple crisis;
accumulate a wealth of evidence to draft knowledge products to inform inclusive social protection policies that leave no one behind
Target Audience
The follow-up technical workshop will convene 20 participants from the four national institutions including Ministry of Health, Family and Welfare, the National Social Protection Agency, the Maldives Pension Administration Office and the Maldives Bureau of Statistics, among others.
Organization and Participation
The follow-up technical workshop will be organized in person at the Ministry of Health, Family and Welfare between 9 and 12 August 2026.