SOCIAL PROTECTION IN TIMES OF CRISIS: EVALUATING EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE POLICIES DURING COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical role of social protection systems in shielding vulnerable populations during periods of crisis. Across Southeast Asia, governments introduced emergency assistance measures ranging from cash transfers to food subsidies and wage support. This paper evaluates the effectiveness, coverage, and equity of such measures in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Using a mixed-methods approach combining policy analysis and survey data, the study finds that while emergency programs mitigated immediate hardship, gaps in inclusion, delivery efficiency, and policy coordination limited long-term resilience. Key lessons include the need for digitized beneficiary databases, flexible financing instruments, and institutional capacity to rapidly scale interventions. The paper proposes a crisis-responsive social protection framework to guide future policy design, especially in regions prone to socio-economic shocks.