This project aims to produce knowledge, providing a comprehensive comparative overview of social protection systems in South Asia. Also, specifically for Afghanistan, the project provides technical assistance on a social protection policy and, specifically for Sri Lanka, on public expenditure fiscal space. Outputs include a series of comparative studies, one pagers and technical assistance to all countries during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia

South Asia

Afghanistan , Bangladesh , Bhutan , India , Maldives , Nepal , Pakistan , Sri Lanka

Knowledge Production

Social Protection

SDG 1 - No Poverty , SDG 5 - Gender Equality

1. Development of knowledge products

a) Social spending in South Asia: An overview of government expenditure on health, education and social assistance.

• Research Report No. 44. Social spending in South Asia—an overview of government expenditure on health, education and social assistance.  (executive summary also available in Portuguese)
• One Pager No. 455. Public spending on health, education and social assistance in South Asian countries (also available in Portuguese and French)
• Webinar on “Social expenditure, legislative frameworks and findings of impact evaluations of social protection in South Asia”

b) Overview of non-contributory social protection programmes in South Asia from a child and equity lens.

• Research Report No. 46. Overview of non-contributory social protection programmes in South Asia from a child and equity perspective
• One Pager 441. Overview of social protection systems in South Asia.
• One Pager 442. Child-sensitive social protection in South Asia—assessing programmes' design features and coverage of children.
• Webinar on “Non-contributory social protection in South Asia: An overview from a child, equity and gender perspective”.

c) Gender and social protection in South Asia: An assessment of the design of non-contributory programmes.

• Research Report No. 38. Gender and social protection in South Asia: an assessment of the design of non-contributory programmes.
• Webinar on “Non-contributory social protection in South Asia: An overview from a child, equity and gender perspective”.
• One Pager No. 431. Gender and social protection in South Asia: an assessment of non-contributory programmes

d) Social protection legislative frameworks in South Asia from a child-rights perspective.

• Research Report No. 55. Social protection legislative frameworks in South Asia from a children's rights perspective. 
• One pager No. 463. Social protection legislative frameworks in South Asia from a children's rights perspective. 
• Webinar on “Social expenditure, legislative frameworks and findings of impact evaluations of social protection in South Asia”

e) Evidence linking social protection programmes in South Asia with child poverty, economic growth and improvement in human development.

• Research Report (forthcoming).
• One pager (forthcoming)
• Webinar on “Social expenditure, legislative frameworks and findings of impact evaluations of social protection in South Asia”

f) Series of country specific summaries considering legal and fiscal frameworks, overview, child and gender sensitive feature sof flagship programmes, and findings of impact evaluations:

• An overview of Afghanistan’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19  responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of Bhutan’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of Bangladesh’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of India’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of Maldives’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of Nepal’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of Pakistan’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming);
• An overview of Sri Lanka’s social protection system and a snapshot at its COVID-19 responses (forthcoming)
• Webinar on “Profiles of the social protection systems of Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan prior to COVID-19 and snapshots of their responses to the pandemic”
• Webinar on  “Profiles of pre-COVID-19 social protection system of India and Pakistan and a snapshot of their COVID-19 responses”
• Webinar on “Profiles of pre-COVID-19 social protection systems in Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives and a snapshot of their COVID-19 responses”

g) Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, policy responses and the missing middle in South Asia.

• Research Report No. 47. Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, policy responses and the missing middle in South Asia.
• Webinar “Strengthening social contracts in South Asia in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis: the adequacy of social protection responses in the short term and the future role of universal social protection”

h) One Pager series on country specific summaries of social protections responses to the COVID-19 crisis

• One Pager 447 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Afghanistan
• One Pager 448 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Bangladesh
• One Pager 449 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Bhutan
• One Pager 450 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: India
• One Pager 451 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Maldives
• One Pager 452 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Nepal
• One Pager 453 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Pakistan
• One Pager 454 — COVID-19 and social protection in South Asia: Sri Lanka

​​​​​​2. Provision of technical assistance to all countries of the region in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis

• Draft proposal for a COVID-19 recovery cash transfer for Afghanistan.
• Draft proposal for a COVID-19 recovery cash transfer for India.
• Draft proposal for a COVID-19 mitigation/ emergency cash transfer for Maldives.
• Draft proposal for short-term monitoring system to keep track of welfare and livelihood losses during the COVID-19 pandemics in Maldives.
• Advocacy piece for UNICEF Nepal on the role and importance of child-sensitive cash transfer to tackle COVID-19.
• Adequacy and fiscal cost-benefit analysis of Pakistan’s core social protection responses to COVID-19 deployed.
• A policy brief on child-sensitive cash transfers in Bhutan.
• Outreach and communication support to UNICEF's Universal Child Grant agenda (blogpost and Newsletter).
• Working paper 188 – Pakistan´s social protection response to the COVID-19 pandemic: the adequacy of Ehsaas emergency cash and the road ahead 
• Support to the organization of a virtual booth on technical assistance provided by UNCIEF ROSA and the IPC-IG to UNCIEF country offices of South Asia, as part of the e-conference “Turning the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity: what is next for social protection?”

3. Provision of technical assistance to Afghanistan by facilitating a policy dialogue process to result in a new social protection policy, including studies to inform evidence-based decisions.

• Elaborating a needs assessment study.
• Elaborating a mapping of the social protection system and its key programmes.
• Elaborating background material to support workshops and meetings to inform a new Social Protection Policy

4. Provision of technical assistance to Sri Lanka by elaborating fiscal and reprogramming analyses to enhance the efficiency of existing programmes and identify funding possibilities to roll out a new Universal Child Benefit (UCB) proposed by UNICEF.

• Elaborating a fiscal space analysis.
• Elaborating a reprogramming analysis.