Sustained economic growth in the past ten years has helped drive substantial social development gains in the Pacific, but there is much more to do, according to the Asian Development Bank.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is an Asia regional development organization dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific. Photo: AFP/ Jay Directo
The ADB's director general for the Pacific, Carmela Locsin, said the improvements are impressive, but more needs to be done to strengthen support to vulnerable groups, such as the unemployed, women, children, and the elderly.
ADB economist Rommel Rabanal said a key area like social insurance, such as superannuation, is typically only available to people in formal employment and hence, mostly to males.
"The analysis points to some disparity between social protections, for instance, between men and women, since women tend to be less employed in the formal sector in the Pacific and there is some disparity also wherein most of the benefit of social insurance would be accruing, more particularly, to more non-poor, given that they are actually employed in the formal sector."
