The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the Asia-Pacific region’s challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly in areas related to social development. Major reasons for these challenges are the predominance of informal jobs, the limited access to affordable healthcare and the low coverage of social protection. While everyone is affected by the pandemic, the impact has been disproportionally felt by people in vulnerable situations. The pandemic also emerged in the context of ongoing global megatrends, including climate change, rising inequalities, population ageing and digitalization, among others. While most megatrends offer opportunities for socioeconomic advancement, the absence of requisite policies may instead challenge development gains and leave many behind during transition.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the Asia-Pacific region’s challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly in areas related to social development. Major reasons for these challenges are the predominance of informal jobs, the limited access to affordable healthcare and the low coverage of social protection. While everyone is affected by the pandemic, the impact has been disproportionally felt by people in vulnerable situations. The pandemic also emerged in the context of ongoing global megatrends, including climate change, rising inequalities, population ageing and digitalization, among others. While most megatrends offer opportunities for socioeconomic advancement, the absence of requisite policies may instead challenge development gains and leave many behind during transition.
The future of social development in Asia and the Pacific relies on policies that foster a healthy, protected and productive workforce. Income security, decent employment and access to healthcare will benefit people in the workforce and beyond. They will also build solidarity and resilience across generations and socioeconomic groupings, while increasing productivity and competitiveness of economies at large. In this context, the report of the UN Secretary-General “Our Common Agenda” highlights the need to renew the social contract between governments and people and within societies anchored in mutual respect and human rights.
Against this background, the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), through its Social Development Division, dedicates its upcoming flagship publication, Social Outlook 2022, to building a healthy, protected and productive workforce in recovering from COVID-19 pandemic and adapting to ongoing megatrends. The Report will offer an empirical analysis for extending social protection and health coverage to all, along with active labour market policies in Asia and the Pacific. To do so successfully requires solidarity and trust among people, as well as confidence in institutions. Without these necessary foundations for a renewed social contract, implementing and financing requisite policies for social progress become challenging. As such, the concepts highlighted by “Our Common Agenda” are central to the premise of the forthcoming Social Outlook publication and should be clarified in an interactive dialogue.
The primary objective of this Expert Group Meeting (EGM) is to collect inputs from experts in the relevant fields of social science with regards to definition(s) and operationalization(s) of concepts such as solidarity, trust, confidence and social contract in the specific context of Asia and the Pacific. An improved understanding of these concepts can help policy implementation in practice. The EGM will also offer an opportunity to deliberate on publicly available data sources linked to these issues that are comparable across countries and over time.
The EGM will draw participation from experts in academia, think-thanks, research institutions and the United Nations system entities, among others. It will be organized virtually through Zoom in the form two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, each with a duration of 3 hours. The meeting will be conducted in English. The detailed programme for each session is provided on the Programme tab.
