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Income insecurity in old age is likely to be one of the key causes of increased poverty in South Asia, and setting up systems to avert this crisis should be a central public policy goal of each country. Several countries in the region are therefore beginning to evaluate a range of policy options for pension reforms. Although there is already a significant body of knowledge in this area in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, lessons from global experiences with pension reforms cannot be directly applied in the South Asian context due to important differences in initial conditions. On the other hand, South Asian countries are remarkably similar to each other in terms of demography, economic strength, labor markets, history, culture, legal and political structures, and challenges of governance. Hence, lessons from both success and failure in pension policy design and implementation are highly portable from one country to another within South Asia.

In this context, this paper proposes the establishment of a South Asia pension forum (SAPF). The SAPF is intended to foster and support intensive policy analysis, research, and consultation on pension reforms and social security within South Asia and undertake a number of key initiatives to build both regional and country-specific capacity and knowledge in this area. This paper also proposes the establishment of an SAPF secretariat in order to (i) foster ongoing dialogue on pension reforms and implementation issues, and (ii) serve as a dedicated resource to provide off-the-shelf research, training, information, and technical assistance for pension reforms to countries in South Asia.