Ride-hailing and delivery apps have transformed how people move and shop in Bangladesh’s cities, but social protection systems have struggled to keep pace with these changes. The article highlights the fragmented nature of existing coverage and calls for a portable, contributory, and progressively expandable system that protects platform workers without waiting for all questions surrounding their employment status to be resolved.
A policy report by the DLSU Social Development Research Center and the Manila Observatory examines how climate change and technological development expose the limitations of existing social protection systems for platform workers in the Philippines. The report highlights key policy recommendations, including flexible social protection, mandatory accident insurance, and worker-centred app safety features to help build more resilient and inclusive labour markets.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping debates about the future of work across the world. This policy note examines how AI exposure is measured, reviews the occupational data and methodologies underlying widely cited estimates, and discusses what these approaches imply for labour markets in low- and middle-income countries.
Ayesha Zainudeen (with contributions from Anah Cassim, Anish Fonseka and Chanduni Bandara)[†] The Asia Pacific region is home to 60% of the world’s population and an estimated 57% of the world’s labor force. However, there is great heterogeneity across the region between the countries and their labor market contexts, differing in their stages of structural and demographic transformation, as well as their socio-economic compositions, level of formality in their economies, as well as the level of policy capacity. While global, regional and local changes and disruptions to social and economic systems pervade, this heterogeneity affects how their impacts manifest –particularly on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups. Notwithstanding the vast sub-regional differences, on average the region’s largest employers are the agriculture sector (30% of the workforce in 2021), manufacturing (16%), and wholesale/retail trade (15%).[1] The agriculture sector is often characterized by high levels of informality; low, if not zero wage levels; low productivity; poor working conditions; but it is a significant employer of women across the region.
