Focusing on nine countries – Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam – the report describes the types of social protection instruments currently in use and the extent to which national social protection systems incorporate a gender-responsive approach in programme design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The report also considers how close national systems are to achieving the globally agreed standard, the ILO Social Protection Floor. The report concludes by identifying entry points for UN Women and its partners in promoting gender responsive social protection programmes and policies throughout the South-East Asian region. These entry points are informed by a review of key features of innovative schemes from countries in the region as well as good practice examples from other developing regions to illustrate gender-responsive social protection programming in practice.

Nicola Jones and Maria Stavropoulou with Elizabeth Presler-Marshall