Statement by General Anantaporn Kanjanarat

Minister of Social Development and Human Security of Thailand

at the International Conference on Universal Child Grants

(jointly organized by UNICEF, ILO and Overseas Development Institute)

8 February 2019, 1.30pm

at the ILO Headquarters, Geneva

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Good Afternoon / Sawasdee krab:

It is my great pleasure to attend the International Conference on Universal Child Grants and have a chance to share the vision and the experience on Child Support Grant or CSG in Thailand with the global audience.  I am really proud to be part of a government that implemented a clear vision on progressive realization for the universal CSG in Thailand.

To start with, the global development objectives of the Thai Government are articulated in the 20-year national strategy which aims to decrease the social disparity and leaving no one behind.  Also, Thailand has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child since 1992. The commitments of the Thai Government to social protection for children is thus firmly embedded with these two documents.

The current population of Thailand is 67 million people. We are now facing the demographic challenge, characterized by a decreasing child population, and a forthcoming status of ageing society, which is coming in 2020 and very demanding dependency ratios which are likely to require more and high quality human capital to ensure the support for the super aged population as a consequence, Thai Government has recognized the importance of prioritizing human development with a specific focus on investment in young children.  The quality of children today is a key success for the Country’s economic development in the future.

A key investment project for young children started by the current Cabinet is the CSG policy adopted in 2015. The policy started back then with narrow targeted approach covering newborns living in poverty and household at risk of poverty. We mean families with an average income lower than 36,000 Baht per year. At that time, the amount of the Grant was 400 Baht (12.5 USD) per month. The Policy is a national priority of 3 key ministries: Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Interior.

The first policy expansion of the grant was motivated by the early bird evidence from impact evolution provided by public-private partnership research. Evidence suggested positive use of the grant for reducing the financial burden of the families. In fact, the total expense of taking care of children was higher than the grant amount. After a year, Thai Government thus made the decision to the grant to children under age of 3 and increase the amount to 600 Baht (19 USD) per month.

I am really proud to share with you, that as a result of this strategic decision of national importance, today, nearly 600,000 children are receiving the CSG on regular basis. The adoption and expansion of the CSG has allowed the current Cabinet to progressively achieve the closure of the coverage gap of social protection for children in Thailand.  I am also really proud to share that the results from the National Impact Evaluation of the grant do confirm positive results as some or all of you had the chance to listen to the head of the research team of TDRI with the details yesterday.

Since the very start our cabinet has closely monitored the equity in implementation of the grant. We do recognize the exclusion from the policy may affect one in three children. To my understanding, this is a common challenge of other countries that have implemented poverty-targeted schemes are also facing.  

While 30% exclusion may be considered a good targeting performance, we are committed to ensure that all children can achieve their potential.

The vision of the Thai Government recognizes that universality is the best approach to avoid exclusion and has carefully considered this option within the maximum of its existing capacities and resources.  The Ministry is currently on the process to carefully discuss to the cabinet for proposing the moderate progressive approach namely;

- Age-expansion to children under 6; and

- Increase of the minimum income threshold from 36,000 Baht per year to 100,000 Baht per person per year, in alignment with the National Welfare Card, a scheme for welfare support of low-income population. This aims to improve efficiency of overall social protection shemes for low-income earners by using the same eligibility criteria.

The above steps are also predicated from the broader vision of the Thai Government to align and consolidate the cash transfers in Thailand and ensure life cycle approach in Social protection provision.  We are hopeful that this would also help bring down the exclusion errors.

Thailand will continue to monitor and ensure that all eligible children are not left behind.  I am quite confident that the current project under our Ministry called ‘Social Map’ which aims to gather individual data of disadvantage people, together with improved implementation monitoring, will help address the exclusion errors to less than 20%. Thai Government will continue to use evidence in order to inform the next policy step in the progressive implementation of  the CSG.  In order to achieve the broader outcome results for young children, Thai Government will prioritise the improved integration of the grant with other social services.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The CSG is the key policy of the Thai Government which aims to promote cognitive development of children in Thailand and ensure that they will become quality population which lead to the country development in the future. The adoption of the CSG taught us many lessons about how to ensure an equitable investment in young children in Thailand. We are proud to leave such a legacy for the future human capital of Thailand.

Universality remains a key feature of many of the social protection schemes in Thailand.  The long-term vision of Thailand supports the idea of Universal Child Grant. The achievement of this long-term objective does include a more moderate progressive approach for the short and mid-run,  coupled with extensive use of evidence, careful real-time monitoring of implementation, strategic linkage with other social services for increased impact on young children’s outcomes that will inform next expansion. We also hope that we will continue to inspire other countries in Asia and globally to follow with their national visions and policies for investing in young children.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you once again for the honour and privilege to share our experience with the world.  

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