BANGKOK — Social protection systems are essential to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, social protection is insufficient across Asia and the Pacific, and the region is at risk from megatrends: climate change, demographic shifts and digitalization. Tens of millions of people have been pushed into extreme poverty since the coronavirus pandemic, reversing past gains, and many millions more live precariously just above the poverty line.

'Protecting our future today: Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific,' a report by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap), outlines challenges in the region and offers an approach to solving them through foresight and urgent action.