Just transition in South-East Asia

Social protection in the global South has been the subject of growing interest. Social models are represented by a multitude of sometimes rival typologies that attempt to capture very different institutional set-ups and governance structures across countries. However, no matter the analysis grid chosen, its link to the environmental scenario experienced is expected to become a growing policy area for intervention in some areas of the world like South-East Asia. Many countries in the region are already experiencing a great deal of high intensity local pollution, risking in the near future to also be reinforced by climate change. The question thus arises of how new frontiers in policy making should take into consideration both social and environmental protection. The article discusses how social and environmental protection systems could be combined, and asks to what extent taking environmental protection into account may or may not represent an asset in terms of social development in South-East Asia.

The article is based on a systematic review of the academic and institutional literatures inspecting the links between social protection and environmental issues in the Lower Mekong Basin: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The study aims to identify existing policies and current experiments, whilst jointly developing an inventory of multidisciplinary academic thinking across fields. The methodology used makes it possible to identify through research outputs a series of specific links and delineate several frontiers of the social protection-environment nexus. Through this lens of analysis, the study also hypothesises some possible pathways for the development of this nexus in the Lower Mekong, assessing whether these may or may not lead to the implementation of new schemes or institutions in this regard.

· Animé par Cecilia Poggi (AFD, @CePoggi), Etienne Espagne (AFD, @EspagneEtienne)

Intervenants :

· Alexandre Berthe - Université de Rennes, @abertheuniv

· Pascale Turquet - Université de Rennes

· Huynh Thi Phuong Linh - IRD