FE REPORT
As many as 364 million people in the most climate vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, still lack any form of social protection, according to a new report of the International Labour Organization (ILO), published on Thursday.
The climate vulnerable countries have the lowest level of social protection. In the 20 countries, most vulnerable to climate crisis, 91.3 per cent or 364 million people still lack any form of social protection, it added.
Bangladesh ranked 10th in the World Risk Index published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), it referred.
The country is affected by both rapid and slow-onset disasters. Storms and floods collectively account for most of the disasters experienced here.
While Bangladesh has a strong framework for social protection as per the 2015 National Social Security Strategy (NSSS), the current system is undermined by lack of coordination and targeting, so that available resources can be directed at the most in need.
Promoting social insurance and gradual transition towards a universal social protection system are important to cope with the adverse impacts of natural disasters in Bangladesh, said ILO Country Director Tuomo Poutiainen.
Governments are failing to make full use of the powerful potential of social protection to counter the effects of the climate crisis and support a just transition, said the ILO report titled 'World Social Protection Report 2024-26: Universal Social Protection for Climate Action and a Just Transition'.
Looking more broadly, in the 50 most climate-vulnerable countries, 75 per cent of the population (2.1 billion people) lacks any social protection coverage.
Globally, most children (76.1 per cent) still have no effective social protection coverage. There is also a substantial gender gap, with women's effective coverage lagging behind men's coverage (50.1 per cent and 54.6 per cent, respectively).
The report found that, for the first time, more than half of the global population (52.4 per cent) has some form of social protection coverage. This is up from 42.8 per cent in 2015, the year when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted.
Social protection can help people adapt to and cope with climate-related shocks by providing social protection benefits, such as income security and access to healthcare.
On average, the countries spend 12.9 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on social protection (excluding health), according to the report.
However, while the high-income countries spend an average of 16.2 per cent, the low-income countries allocate only 0.8 per cent of their GDP to social protection. The low-income countries - which include the states most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - need an additional US$308.5 billion per year (52.3 per cent of their GDP) to guarantee at least basic social protection. International support will be needed to reach this goal, the ILO report added.
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