Referential experience for social security in Global South

Across the Global South, governments face a shared challenge: how to extend social security to populations living through rapid economic, environmental and technological changes. For many families in Africa and Asia, volatile food prices, climate shocks and informal employment mean that a single setback can turn temporary hardship into long-term vulnerability.

According to the International Labour Organization's World Social Protection Report 2024-26, 52.4 percent of the world's population was covered by at least one social protection benefit in 2023, while effective coverage in Africa stood at only 19.1 percent. For developing countries, therefore, the question is no longer whether social protection is necessary, but how to build systems that are inclusive, scalable and financially sustainable.

In this search for workable approaches, China's transformation of its social security system offers important lessons. By the end of last year, more than 1.07 billion people were covered by basic old-age insurance, while basic medical insurance had achieved broad coverage across the population. These developments reflect decades of institutional expansion and adaptation, showing how social security coverage can grow alongside economic development.

Three elements of China's experience stand out for the Global South. The first is moving from fragmentation toward broader coverage. A defining challenge across much of the Global South is structural fragmentation. Multiple schemes, separate administrative arrangements and uneven financing can create protection gaps, particularly for rural populations, informal workers and people moving between different forms of employment.

China's experience illustrates the value of progressively expanding coverage while bringing different population groups into a broader national architecture. A significant step came in 2014, when China decided to merge its separate rural and urban resident pension schemes into a unified basic old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents. The reform sought to improve fairness, accommodate population mobility and create a more coherent framework for coverage.

What is particularly relevant here is not simply the scale of coverage achieved, but the process behind it. Expanding social security across diverse populations requires sustained institutional commitment, administrative capacity and the willingness to adjust arrangements as economic and demographic conditions change.

The second experience that China offers is the use of digital infrastructure for service delivery.

Scale also depends on the ability of institutions to deliver services efficiently. China's national social insurance public service platform provides a practical example of how digital infrastructure can support more integrated service delivery. Launched as a unified national portal, it provides services including access to social security records, benefit-related services and the transfer of social insurance entitlements across regions.

The significance of this experience goes beyond technology itself. For workers who move between regions, the ability to access records and transfer social insurance entitlements can reduce administrative barriers that might otherwise interrupt their social security rights.

Digitalization, however, delivers its greatest value when it is embedded in institutional reform. Reliable data, interoperable systems and portable social security rights can make expanding coverage more practical, particularly in economies where workers frequently move between formal and informal employment.

Another lesson from China's experience is the importance of linking social security with economic development.

Social security is often viewed primarily as a fiscal expenditure. China's experience offers a broader perspective: social protection can contribute to human capital, household stability and economic resilience when it is connected with wider development policies.

China's poverty-reduction experience has demonstrated the potential of combining social support with employment, skills development, infrastructure and access to public services.

The experience suggests that reducing vulnerability requires more than income transfers; it also requires pathways to jobs, skills and greater economic security.

For countries operating under significant fiscal constraints, this connection is particularly relevant. Social protection can help households absorb shocks and preserve human capital, while employment and economic inclusion policies can strengthen pathways toward greater economic security.

China's social security system has evolved within a particular demographic, economic, institutional and fiscal context. It should therefore not be viewed as a ready-made model for other developing countries. Moreover, broad coverage does not eliminate all challenges: the ILO continues to identify gaps in effective protection and differences across population groups, illustrating that expanding coverage is an ongoing process rather than a completed reform.

The value of China's experience for the Global South lies in understanding the institutional choices and sequencing behind it, and in identifying which elements can be adapted to other national contexts.

From a social protection policy perspective, this distinction matters. Expanding coverage is rarely achieved through a single reform; it usually depends on how financing, administration, legislation, service delivery and population needs are brought together over time. China's experience offers useful evidence of that incremental process, while also showing why institutional arrangements need to evolve as societies change.

Several principles are particularly relevant: building coherent national systems; progressively expanding coverage across different population groups; investing in administrative and digital capacity; improving the portability of social security rights and linking social protection with employment, human capital and broader economic development.

South-South cooperation can turn these principles into practical learning. Countries can exchange experiences not only on policy design, but also on implementation, financing, institutional coordination, digital delivery and the extension of protection to informal and mobile workers.

This matters because developing countries often confront similar challenges even when their institutions differ.

One country's experience with expanding coverage, integrating databases or coordinating social insurance with social assistance can provide useful reference points for another — provided that the lesson is adapted to local circumstances.

This approach also resonates with China's Global Development Initiative, which places development at the center of international cooperation and emphasizes a people-centered approach and practical action. Its focus on poverty reduction, development financing, digital development and other areas provides a broader framework for countries of the Global South to share experience and strengthen development capacity.

In this context, social protection can be seen not only as a domestic policy instrument, but also as an area for deeper South-South cooperation and mutual learning.

For the Global South, the opportunity is to turn such experience into practical institutional learning: adapting proven approaches to different fiscal capacities, labor markets, demographic realities and administrative systems.

Through this kind of practical learning, countries across the Global South can build social protection systems that are more inclusive, resilient and responsive to the risks of the future.

The author is former assistant minister for social protection, Egypt.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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