A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

to have a broad strategy to achieve all these universally and ensuring
the legislative or constitutional frameworks to underpin them. 162
The above agenda is in contrast to the neoliberal policy framework for
social protection, promoted by the World Bank and adopted by most
states in Asia. The Bank regards markets as the best solution to the vulnerabilities
of the poor and relies on targeted safety nets to alleviate the
adverse consequences of the economic and other crises. By extension,
it perceives the role of the State as limited to being a provider of safety
nets when market responses are insufficient. 163
But according to the United Nation’s Research Institute for Social Development
(UNRISD), the Asian Financial crisis of 1997-98 exposed the
failure of safety net responses in poverty reduction and social redistribution.
The institute reveals that the neoliberal approach to social protection,
which started in the 1980s and combined privatization of essential
social services and targeted public provision, has resulted in a “lost
decade of development” in many parts of the world. It asserts further
that in countries where large sectors of the population are poor, the targeting
method entails high administrative costs and substantial errors
of under-coverage while stigmatizing the beneficiaries. UNRISD, Combatting
Poverty and Inequality, UNRISD, Geneva, 2010. UNRISD, Combatting
Poverty and Inequality, UNRISD, Geneva, 2010. 164
Strategic agenda
In the long-term, the Network for Transformative Social Protection will
highlight the transformative aspect of social protection. Its struggle shall
address the structural causes of poverty by pressing governments to
162 Yi, Ilcheong, Building ASEAN Peoples’ Unity, Framework and People-Centered
Alternatives Towards Life of Dignity for All: Why Transformative Social Protection?
Jakarta, ASEAN People’s Forum, May 2011.
163 Messkoub, Mahmood, On the need for the univerzalisation of socio-economic security
in the aftermath of global financial crisis, Quezon City, Southeast Asian Conference
on Social Protection and Universalizing Socio-Economic Security organized by
Social Watch-Philippines, April 2010.
164 UNRISD, Combatting Poverty and Inequality, UNRISD, Geneva, 2010.
341