SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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BOX 2.7: Some safer places to work Some countries have taken steps to better protect their workers. This is consistent with their rights. It also contributes to more efficient and productive workplaces. SINGAPORE: STATE-OF-<strong>THE</strong>-ART PROTECTIONS Singapore is renowned for state-of-the-art practices to protect workers’ health and safety. Three key principles define its Work and Safety Framework. The first is to mitigate and eliminate risks before they are created, minimizing accidents. The second principle is based on the idea of creating industrial ownership by engaging people from top management to factory-level workers, and generating awareness and a sense of precaution. The third principle is to strictly penalize workplaces that are unsafe, not only those that have had accidents, but also those that have unsafe practices and are prone to accidents. Penalties and fees incentivize firms to take more proactive steps, and make a business case for investing in health and safety issues. The Workers’ Safety and Health Act came into effect in 2006 and is managed under the Ministry of Manpower. To operationalize the act, the Works and Safety Framework 2018 Strategy was developed. One of its key targets is to reduce the workplace fatality rate to less than 1.8 per 100,000 workers. Considerable progress has already been made, as the fatality rate dropped from 4.9 in 2004 to 2.2 in 2012. Some key initiatives of the strategy are to build capabilities to better manage workplaces. The BizSAFE programme, for instance, works with small and medium enterprises. It trains top managers on risk management strategies and the management of workers’ health and safety, while workers are educated on how to avoid hazards. The Ministry of Manpower ensures compliance with health and safety standards by undertaking inspections and managing legal enforcements. Approximately 6,500 inspections are carried out yearly. Violations are taken seriously; employers are warned, fined, prosecuted or their operations stopped where there are signs of imminent danger. When accidents do take place, work injury compensation is paid. In 2010, $76.5 million was awarded in compensation for permanent disability or death. Complementing all these efforts is an awareness campaign promoting a safe and health work culture. Award ceremonies recognize successful enterprises, and share good practices and innovative solutions. The Workers’ Safety and Health Council collects, produces and shares a repository of information and guidelines to support enterprises. CAMBODIA: LINKING TRADE AND LABOUR STANDARDS The US-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Agreement includes a labour provision that explicitly refers to internationally recognized core labour standards. To ensure compliance, the agreement states: “The Government of the United States will make a Determination [every year] whether working conditions in the Cambodia textile and apparel sector substantially comply with such labour law and [international] standards.” Until 2006, the United States granted export quota increases based on compliance. To be able to export to the United States, a garment factory had to agree to ILO inspections under its Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) programme. Those complying with national and international standards gained export increases of up to 14 percent, a strong incentive to participate. After 2006, the Royal Government of Cambodia, the country’s garment industry and trade unions requested that BFC continue to operate and safeguard worker’s interests. BFC covers areas including child labour, discrimination, forced labour, freedom of association, collective bargaining, and national labour laws and regulations on compensation, contract and workplace relations, occupational safety and health, working hours and more. Extensive factory-level data collected by the BFC has yielded several interesting findings. The programme led to higher compliance with standards, both in factories with reputation-sensitive buyers and in those without, although the former achieved higher compliance rates. Cambodian garment factories with higher levels of compliance had higher business survival rates. While concerns over wage levels and working conditions are still prevalent in Cambodia, the garment sector has the lowest rate of workplace accidents. Improved industrial relations have stemmed from better occupational health and safety, and overtime policies. A boost in wages for women in the garment industry led to a jump in women’s wages throughout Cambodia, both in absolute terms and relative to men’s wages. Based on the experience of the BFC programme, the ILO has launched the Better Work programme in a half dozen other countries, in each case on the invitation of the government, employers and workers’ organizations. 74 Sources: Finnish Institute of Occupational Health 2011, Better Factories Cambodia n.d., Robertson, Brown, and Ang 2011, Brown, Dehejia, and Robertson 2013, Neak and Robertson 2009.
BOX 2.8: Malaysia transforms an industry and its economy When Malaysia gained independence in 1957, rubber and tin comprised over half its economic base. Since the 1980s, however, it has engaged in a process of diversification, and, by the end of the 1990s, the share of manufacturing exceeded 30 percent. Over the past two decades, average per capita income has grown at around 3.4 percent per year. The incidence of working poverty fell from 11.9 percent in 1987 to 1.3 percent in 2012, 47 and considerable progress has also been made in reducing vulnerable employment. Many factors account for this transformation, including the contribution of the palm oil industry. Malaysia selected palm oil as an engine of greater agricultural productivity. Palm oil was introduced in 1875, but production did not expand until many decades later. From the early 1960s, replanting grants were offered to encourage owners of rubber plantations to switch to palm oil production. The state also acquired and developed foreign-owned oil palm estates. By 2012, Malaysia was the world’s second largest producer. While boosting production, Malaysia developed links with industries that use palm oil, such as palm oil processing, oleo-chemicals, biotechnology, highly attuned to labour markets. A mismatch between labour skills and market needs often results from limited information and coordination. To remedy this, several countries in Asia-Pacific have launched active labour market programmes that reduce labour market failures, and promote efficiency, equity, growth and social justice. 48 They train young people in ways that go beyond traditional education, help young entrepreneurs launch their businesses, and guide low-skilled workers in the informal sector to find better jobs in the formal sector. Several countries are strengthening institutional capacities to build skills that match industry and market needs. For example, the National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan 2011-2016 in the Philippines works with secondary and tertiary schooling systems, as well as specific training and apprentice programmes in enterprises, communities biodiesel and biomass industries. Fiscal incentives attracted investments in strategic areas related to palm oil. Higher duties were imposed on crude palm oil exports, while tax exemptions were granted to processed palm oil exports—with a view to encouraging higher value added production and export diversification. By 2012, processed palm oil exports were 2.8 times the volume of crude palm oil exports. Starting in the 1980s, the Government decided to use some revenues from the production and export of palm oil products to support expansion in new industries, such as electronics. Through strategic interventions, Malaysia upgraded its production and export structure over time to include high technology, skill-intensive products. The country still faces the challenge of creating sufficient decent jobs. The Government has adopted measures to broaden access to quality technical education and vocational training, and to expand the coverage of its Skills Development Fund. More fundamentally, strengthening labour market institutions and tackling barriers to formal employment could enhance links among the most dynamic sectors and the rest of the economy, helping to make growth broader and more inclusive. Sources: Lall 1995, Pletcher 1991, Simeh and Ahmad 2001, Malaysia Palm Oil Board 2013, ILO 2015a. and provincial training centres. It oversees the operations of 4,540 public and private technical and vocational schools and training centres. 49 The National Skills Development Corporation, a public-private partnership in India, works to create better training capacities in a wide variety of professions. In consultation with the Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship, it provides funds, trains trainers and assists in building information systems so that private firms can strengthen staff training. It aims to train as many as 150 million people by 2022. 50 Leverage local skills through deepening global value chains: 51 With the rapid growth of global value chains, more than half of East and Southeast Asia’s trade now involves intermediate goods, or parts manufactured in some countries for assembly into complete products in others. Malaysia upgraded its production and export structure to include high technology, skill-intensive products 75
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ASIA-PACIFIC HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPO
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ASIA-PACIFIC HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPO
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FOREWORD We live in times of great
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Asia-Pacific H
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Table of Contents Foreword iii Pref
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1.15 Population age-composition is
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Acronyms ADB Asian Development Bank
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Overview SHAPING THE FUTURE: HOW CH
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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA-PACIFIC:
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FIGURE 2: Wealthier countries tend
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a strong emphasis on protecting wor
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could provide job matching assistan
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Asia-Pacific leave the workforce at
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WHAT’S AHEAD IN THIS REPORT This
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Chapter 1 HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS
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sustainable, reaching everyone whil
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FIGURE 1.1: The Human Development I
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TABLE 1.1: Asia-Pacific still has l
Page 38 and 39: married couples to have children, a
Page 40 and 41: FIGURE 1.5: Population pyramids in
Page 42 and 43: FIGURE 1.8: The median age is high
Page 44 and 45: FIGURE 1.10: Disparities in fertili
Page 46 and 47: Improved overall human development
Page 48 and 49: TABLE 1.5: Countries in Asia-Pacifi
Page 50 and 51: “When relatively large generation
Page 52 and 53: 38 Having fewer dependents on worki
Page 54 and 55: 40 In developed Asia- Pacific, the
Page 56 and 57: TABLE 1.6: Demographic dividends fl
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Page 61 and 62: 2. MORE PEOPLE AT WORK: THE FOUNDAT
Page 63 and 64: encouraged labour-intensive industr
Page 65 and 66: FIGURE 2.3: Peaks within subregions
Page 67 and 68: A DEMOGRAPHIC RETURN FOR HUMAN DEVE
Page 69 and 70: BOX 2.1: Women bear a larger burden
Page 71 and 72: FIGURE 2.8: Growth in labour produc
Page 73 and 74: WHAT’S BEEN LEARNED IN CHINA, JAP
Page 75 and 76: FIGURE 2.13: Japan is past its work
Page 77 and 78: FIGURE 2.15: Thailand still has tim
Page 79 and 80: make this a key aim of national dev
Page 81 and 82: investment climate, as well as enco
Page 83 and 84: TABLE 2.4: Shares of workers in the
Page 85 and 86: Even before leaving home, migrant w
Page 87: Promote health and safety at work:
Page 91 and 92: of resilient infrastructure are joi
Page 93: Chapter 3 NURTURING CHILDREN, UNLOC
Page 96 and 97: Asia-Pacific is home to 1.7 billion
Page 98 and 99: Commendable progress in education m
Page 100 and 101: Quality primary education mitigates
Page 102 and 103: In most Asia-Pacific countries, sec
Page 104 and 105: Strong tertiary education is a buil
Page 106 and 107: FIGURE 3.3: Access to tertiary educ
Page 108 and 109: 94 TABLE 3.9: Youth illiteracy has
Page 110 and 111: TABLE 3.11: Child mortality rates b
Page 112 and 113: BOX 3.7: Malnutrition and disabilit
Page 114 and 115: Despite social and economic progres
Page 116 and 117: FIGURE 3.8: The share of youth who
Page 118 and 119: 104 Young migrants are highly vulne
Page 120 and 121: as an important challenge. But they
Page 122 and 123: TABLE 3.15: Some countries with lar
Page 124 and 125: Immunization saves children’s liv
Page 126 and 127: BOX 3.10: Germany’s vocational tr
Page 128 and 129: BOX 3.12: Partnering with youth in
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Page 133 and 134: 4. AGEING SOCIETIES: NEW OPPORTUNIT
Page 135 and 136: FIGURE 4.1: Asia-Pacific is one of
Page 137 and 138: TABLE 4.1: East Asia is the oldest
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BOX 4.2: Responses to poverty among
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BOX 4.3: A plan of action for older
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FIGURE 4.9: Per capita health-care
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BOX 4.5: China moves towards univer
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TABLE 4.3: Social pensions are an i
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FIGURE 4.12: Pension replacement ra
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BOX 4.7: Increasing links between p
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cupy space in some public buildings
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ment bodies, encourage regular inte
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BOX 4.9: Ageing countries begin enc
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help coordinate the work of other g
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for older people. Many advanced cou
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action. Free public transport, and
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Chapter 5 TAPPING THE HUMAN DYNAMIS
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In the last 30 years, Asia-Pacific
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FIGURE 5.3: Even countries with few
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FIGURE 5.6: Most people will contin
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160 Social, cultural and economic i
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The benefits of urbanization have n
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BOX 5.2: Pioneering urban poverty r
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vehicles on the road. Beijing issue
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Municipal governments in Asia-Pacif
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TABLE 5.4: Revenue mobilization opt
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172 City governments need to have t
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Investing in essential infrastructu
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176 in East Asian cities, and occur
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BOX 5.9: The Republic of Korea emba
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180
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6. AN AGENDA FOR ACTION: SHAPING TH
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Development Report argues, decent w
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with ministries overseeing youth, e
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This is an urgent priority in a reg
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SUSTAINING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ACROSS
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plan automatically enrols people in
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BOX 6.3: Developing Delhi’s metro
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End Notes CHAPTER 1 1. UNFPA 2014b.
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63. WHO 2014b. 64. UNFPA 2012. 65.
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produces 40 percent of total econom
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206 The Asia Foundation. 2013. “T
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208 CODI (Community Organizations D
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210 Global Migration Group. 2014.
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212 Janwani. 2010. “Annual Report
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214 ———. 2012a. OECD Employme
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216 ———. 2011. “Follow-up t
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218 York. [www.unfpa.org/sites/defa
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———. 2012c. Malaysia Economic
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tables include the Caribbean countr
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224
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TABLE 2: Trends in the Human Develo
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TABLE 4: Gender Inequality Index 22
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TABLE 6: Trends in income poverty,
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TABLE 8: Fertility rate and crude d
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TABLE 10: Trends and share of child
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TABLE 12: Trends and share of young
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TABLE 14: Trends and share of older
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TABLE 16: Education indicators and
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TABLE 17: Health indicators 242
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TABLE 18: Employment and unemployme
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TABLE 19: International trade, fina
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ABOUT ASIA-PACIFIC HUMAN DEVELOPMEN
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SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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