South Asia Pension Forum

Income insecurity in old age is likely to be one key cause of increased poverty in South Asia, and setting up systems to avert this crisis should be a central public policy goal of each country. Several countries in the region are therefore beginning to evaluate a range of policy options for pension reforms. Given the remarkable similarity of each country in terms of demography, labor markets, and political structures, lessons from both success and failure in pension policy design and implementation are highly portable from one country to another within the region. This publication proposes the establishment of a South Asia Pension Forum that is intended to foster and support intensive policy analysis, research, and consultation on pension reforms and social security within the region.