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firstly, by the concept of the role of social security in society, i.e. whether it is a strictly wage employment-related technique of protection remaining within the sphere of labour problems or a general approach to the problem of social

protection of the citizen; secondly, by its relative importance in relation to other sectors cf social protection, particularly, the social welfare sector, which are well represented in the national development plans of Asian countries but unrelated to social security measures.

This situation is the result of a certain historical development in which a series of socio-economic, political and cultural factors are involved. A global functional approach to problems of social policy is likely to bring about a rapid evolution in both of the above-mentioned aspects. Planning in the social welfare sector will be the first to benefit from the unification of the concept of social protection functions in society, since a certain number of techniques which are necessary to planning are better developed in the social security sector than elsewhere.

The weaknesses of planning in the social welfare sector have been well identified in an ECAFE analysis which, although not recent, may still retain its value: "One important reason for the weaknesses of planning in the social welfare sector is that few countries have anything resembling comprehensive data on social welfare problems and needs and thus lack the most essential tocl for long-term programming. A second major reason is an extreme shortage of suitably trained staff; the mistaken notion that social welfare services can be planned, managed and operated by charitably-minded amateurs remains widespread. A third cause is closely associated with the others: despite slowly growing government involvement, many essential social welfare services are left principally to private agencies, whose financial, technical and staff resources are quite inadequate to meet the responsibilities. As a result of such handicaps, much of the social welfare work done in Asian countries is

overly involved with marginal activities of a purely palliative nature and remains far from realising its full developmental potential."i It will be essential to remove these weaknesses if planning in an integrated social protection sector is to have a chance of success.

5.

Future perspectives of social security planning in the Asian region

The lesson we have drawn from a brief analysis of a sample of national development plans in Asia confirms the dependence of social security schemes cn particular socio-economic, political and cultural conditions of the countries which establish them, as mentioned earlier in this chapter.

The central issue of social security planning in the Asian region seems to be the problem of the unified concept of social protection in which the different functions of social security, as we have analysed them earlier in this paper, would be properly determined and the different sectors of social services assigned appropriate weight in the general action for improving the social aspects of development.

An effort aimed at redefining, for the purpose of national development planning, the whole field of social protection measures in Asian societies will inevitably result in abandoning the narrow labour welfare context in favour of a шоге general concept of national welfare and will make more evident the need for shifting emphasis from a series of limited social welfare projects to a concentrated nation-wide action in this field. If this can be achieved, the question of finding an appropriate place for social security in national development planning will become simply a technical question of defining appropriate allocation techniques for, at the doctrinal level at least, the case for assigning proper weight to social aspects of planning seems to have been won. It is not at all certain whether it is advisable to follow the theory of the economic take-off in advocating a "big push in social development until the critical level is reached".2 It may be sufficient to

1 See "Recent Social Trends and Developments in Asia" in Economic Bulletin for Asia and the Far East, June 1968, p. 57.

2 See M. Raihan Sharif: "Development Planning with Social Justice: Some Clarifications of Concepts and Applications", in The Bangladesh. Economic Review, July 1973, p. 237. This theory is based on the assumption that there is a "critical level" in social development which, when attained, makes a much faster economic (Footnote continued on next page)

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