This book examines the social welfare policies and programmes devised to address different societal issues and concerns across the South Asian countries. It focuses on the design and delivery of social welfare policies related to women, children, the elderly and groups living below poverty level. It brings a wide array of themes to the fore – empowerment of vulnerable populations, globalization and inclusive development, intervention in Northeast India, employment of elderly teachers in Sri Lanka, regulations in prisons, ageing South Asia and elderly care, social exclusion and urban poor, girl child education in India, child protection in Bangladesh and women panchayat leaders – to provide an evidence-based understanding of social policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in South Asia. Comprehensive and topical, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, sociology, development studies and public policy, and also to practitioners and those in the development sector, NGOs and think tanks.

This book sheds light on social policies in six South Asian countries introduced between 2003 and 2013, examining the ways in which these policies have come about, and what this reflects about the nature of the state in each of these countries. It offers a detailed analysis of the nature of these policies introduced in recent years in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and illustrates the similarities and differences in policy approaches amongst the six countries. Through this analysis, the book explores the thesis of whether there is a particular type of ‘developmental welfare state’ that can be observed across South Asia. The focus is on social policies or policies designed to address poverty and deliver welfare at the level of programming and design, i.e. the stated intent of these policies. The book also presents an analysis of the fiscal space available in each of the six countries, thereby drawing conclusions about the financial feasibility of a ‘developmental welfare state’ model in the region. This comprehensive book uniquely explores critical aspects of policy debates on a possible move from welfare to ‘rights’. It introduces students and researchers in development studies, social policy and South Asian studies to innovative welfare programmes in South Asia and gives a new perspective on the nature and patterns of welfare in South Asia with the view of tackling inequality and promoting well-being.

Social Policy in East and South East Asia provides the first systematic comparison of the policy sectors of income maintenance, health, housing and education in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. It focuses particularly on the provision and financing arrangements of these four Asian newly industrialized economies and their outcomes in terms of adequacy, efficiency and equity, drawing on extensive primary research carried out by the author. Locating the importance of Asian social policies in the wake of the recent financial crisis in the region, this work provides a comprehensive analysis of the different types of welfare state in contemporary Asia.

Asia’s rapid economic growth has led to a significant reduction in extreme poverty, but accompanied by rising inequality. This book deals with three questions: What have been the trends of inequality in Asia and the Pacific? What are the key drivers of rising inequality in the region? How should Asian countries respond to the rising inequality? Technological change, globalization, and market-oriented reform have been the key drivers of Asia’s remarkable growth and poverty reduction, but they have also had significant distribution consequences. These three drivers of growth cannot be hindered because they are the sources of productivity improvement and betterment of quality of life. This book will be useful to those interested in policy options that could be deployed by Asian countries in confronting rising inequality.

Provides a broad overview of economic and social developments in the countries covered (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, North Korea, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Viet Nam).

One World of Welfare offers a systematic, comparative examination of Japan's welfare policies and a critical assessment of previous research. Gregory J. Kasza rejects the view that the Japanese welfare system is unique; he challenges the nearly universal belief that the postwar Japanese state neglected welfare to promote rapid economic growth; he rejects the claim that there is a regional welfare model in East Asia; and he uses the Japanese case to question the dominant framework for comparative welfare research. The author explores the relevance of both convergence and divergence theories for understanding the Japanese record and spotlights the importance of international influences on the timing and content of Japan's welfare policies. This book offers a fresh comparative template for research on Japanese public policy. Case studies of Japan have often exaggerated its distinctiveness. Comparative research documents points of similarity as well as difference; it unearths the foreign models that have swayed Japan's policymakers; and it reveals what others might learn from Japan's experience. Most of the welfare challenges that Japan has faced over the last century have resembled those confronting other nations, and the Japanese have often patterned their welfare policies after those of Western countries. Japan's welfare system must be understood within a broader pattern of global policy diffusion.

Targeting is a commonly used, but much debated, policy tool within global social assistance practice. Revisiting Targeting in Social Assistance: A New Look at Old Dilemmas examines the well-known dilemmas in light of the growing body of experience, new implementation capacities, and the potential to bring new data and data science to bear. The book begins by considering why or whether or how narrowly or broadly to target different parts of social assistance and updates the global empirics around the outcomes and costs of targeting. It illustrates the choices that must be made in moving from an abstract vision to implementable definitions and procedures, and in deciding how the choices should be informed by values, empirics, and context. The importance of delivery systems and processes to distributional outcomes are emphasized, and many facets with room for improvement are discussed. The book also explores the choices between targeting methods and how differences in purposes and contexts shape those. The know-how with respect to the data and inference used by the different household-specific targeting methods is summarized and comprehensively updated, including a focus on “big data†? and machine learning. A primer on measurement issues is included. Key findings include the following: · Targeting selected categories, families, or individuals plays a valuable role within the framework of universal social protection. · Measuring the accuracy and cost of targeting can be done in many ways, and judicious choices require a range of metrics. · Weighing the relatively low costs of targeting against the potential gains is important. · Implementing inclusive delivery systems is critical for reducing errors of exclusion and inclusion. · Selecting and customizing the appropriate targeting method depends on purpose and context; there is no method preferred in all circumstances. · Leveraging advances in technology—ICT, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning—can improve targeting accuracy, but they are not a panacea; better data matters more than sophistication in inference. · Targeting social protection should be a dynamic process.

Since the turn of the millennium, significant social, economic, political and technological transformations have brought policy issues to prominence in East Asian societies. This topical Research Agenda finds East Asian social policy at a critical juncture and analyses the driving forces that are shifting contemporary research and diverse policy responses in the region.

The paradox of 'globalization' is that it both weakens and activates social forces of resistance. This book establishes the centrality of 'the political' in our understanding of globalization and explores the new 'strategies of resistance' emerging on local, national, regional and global scales. Its impressively wide-ranging set of contributors engage in re-thinking what practices now constitute viable political strategies in the world economy, focusing on popular responses to neoliberal globalization and the rearticulation of society, politics and the state.