ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the social protection systems and recent initiatives of India and Indonesia, two middle-income countries in the Indo-Pacific with moderately rapidly ageing populations. India’s recent initiatives began in 2014, and it has utilized various methods and organizations, and the adoption of technology, to make progress in the social protection sector. Indonesia began its project of universal social protection coverage based on social insurance principles with the passing of the Sistem Jaminan Sosial Nasional Law in 2004, though implementing it in earnest took nearly a decade. In both countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has given added impetus to social protection efforts while enhancing the urgency of generating fiscal space.
This chapter argues that, in addition to sustaining high growth and establishing new growth nodes to create livelihoods, other administrative priorities for each country include making well-established social protection public-sector organizations more professional and service-oriented, enhancing coordination among different layers of government, and setting up data collection and analytical capabilities. These goals are areas of commonality between the two countries.
Research priorities for each country include improving actuarial projections at all levels in both private and public sectors; improving financial and investment management literacy; enhancing risk management in the payout phase, particularly for defined contribution pension schemes; modernizing social protection organizations, including injecting skill sets for more purposeful technology adoption; and making the political economy of each country more receptive to sustaining social protection reforms, even when shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic occur.
