Development finance assessment

Social protection and support
Social protection in Uzbekistan is fragmented and underfunded. Nearly half the population 
and one-third of the poor are not covered by any social protection scheme. Social protection 
expenditure represents only 6 percent of GDP, which is low compared to its regional peers. Social 
protection is financed by a combination of social insurance contributions and general government 
revenues. The latter compensates for the high degree of informality. 
Uzbekistan’s social protection system reduces poverty headcount by 39 percent after social 
transfers (UNICEF, 2019). The pension scheme constitutes the largest contribution to these social 
transfers. 
32
. Arguably social protection schemes may have a wider range of impact, including on 
human development and labor force engagement, but there is no available research to provide 
evidence for such claims. 
Social assistance programmes are weakly linked to emergency response measures and do 
not have mechanisms for rapid scale-up and delivery of cash transfers to the affected population 
in case of emergencies like COVID-19 pandemic. This leads to delayed, ad hoc and ineffective 
social protection measures. New population groups are becoming vulnerable in the face of this 
unprecedented disruption, and there is a need for better understanding of the actual urgent needs 
of these groups to be able to address them timely and effectively.
The COVID-19 pandemic and lock-down measures have increased the demand for social 
assistance for individuals and households, and the need to extend coverage to workers in informal 
employment. Shrinking demand in the labor market, and growing unemployment among 
31
CPEIR is a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of a country’s public expenditures and how they relate 
to climate change. https://www.climatefinance-developmenteffectiveness.org/about/what-cpeir#:~:text=The%20
CPEIR%20is%20an%20innovative,make%20recommendations%20to%20strengthen%20them.
32
Responsible for 77 percent of the overall reduction in the national poverty rate.

---

33