Maternity benefits in the ASEAN: Progress and Opportunities for Integrated Approaches across Social Protection and Health Systems

Ensuring income security and access to healthcare without hardship during maternity are key elements of maternity protection and essential to support maternal and child health while ensuring that women can effectively engage in the labour force on par with their male counterparts. This impacts on employment, productivity and the health and well-being of women, their children and society more broadly. It is an essential contribution to the promotion of gender equality.

In this context, the right to universal social protection during maternity needs to be upheld and its profile must be raised as an essential public investment in the future and a core component of countries’ economic, health and care policies. This report highlights the guidance provided by international social security standards related to social protection during maternity and explores the current situation and trends in ASEAN Member States.