ILO flags gaps in maternity benefits across ASEAN despite progress in protection schemes

Women in informal employment and migrant workers remain among the most vulnerable groups, as the ILO calls for broader and more inclusive maternity protection across ASEAN Member States.

A new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has highlighted progress in maternity protection across ASEAN, while warning that major gaps in coverage and benefit adequacy still persist for many women in the region.

According to the report, women working in informal employment and migrant workers continue to face limited access to maternity protection and healthcare support during pregnancy and childbirth.

Titled Maternity benefits in the ASEAN: Progress and opportunities for integrated approaches across social protection and health systems, the report analyses the range, coverage, and level of social protection benefits available across ASEAN Member States to support income security and protect women against healthcare costs during maternity.

While many ASEAN countries have expanded maternity protection measures in recent years, existing support systems remain uneven across the region, the report highlighted.

It also identified opportunities for stronger coordination between social health protection and maternity cash benefit schemes. According to the ILO, more integrated approaches could help reduce financial hardship linked to pregnancy and childbirth, while improving access to quality healthcare services.

Social protection during maternity in ASEAN Member States

Across the region, only 29.9% of women giving birth received maternity cash benefits in 2023.This is below both the global average of 36.4% and the APAC average of 38.4%. Country-level differences are stark. Coverage reached 63.1% in Singapore, compared to just 1.6% in Myanmar. At the same time, countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia still rely entirely on employer liability, with no dedicated social protection scheme, leaving self-employed and informal workers without any coverage.

The gap is perhaps most visible in birth grants. Singapore provides Singaporean newborns with a Child Development Account (CDA) grant of S$5,000 (around US$3,915) per child for the first two children, rising to S$10,000 (around US$7,830) for subsequent children, with the government matching additional parental savings up to a ceiling. Cambodia, by contrast, offers a lump sum equal to 50% of a covered member's reference monthly earnings through its social insurance scheme but this applies only to the 27.4% of working-age women actually covered. Indonesia and Malaysia have no birth grant provisions at all.

On paternity leave, Singapore again leads the region as the only country offering statutory paid parental leave — six weeks at up to S$2,500 per week, alongside four weeks of paid paternity leave. Most other countries offer far less, with Indonesia mandating just two days and Lao PDR providing three days of personal leave. Across the region, paternity entitlements remain almost entirely an employer's liability, limiting both reach and uptake.

Healthcare coverage tells a more encouraging story, with 80.5% of ASEAN's population effectively covered by a social health protection scheme, well above the global average of 60.1%. However, co-payments for maternity services remain common, with delivery fees in Malaysia ranging from around US$2.50 for a standard birth to US$305 for a caesarean section in a private room. The report warns that even nominal fees can deter vulnerable women from seeking timely care, with direct consequences for maternal and newborn health outcomes.

For more information on maternity benefits coverage across ASEAN, country-level social protection schemes, and integrated approaches to maternal healthcare and income support, read the full report here.

The report’s findings are expected to support ongoing discussions on social protection, while offering practical policy recommendations for countries looking to strengthen inclusive and gender-responsive maternity benefits systems.

Commenting on the report, Nathalie Both, Project Manager, ILO and one of the report’s co-authors alongside Lou Tessier, Health Protection Specialist, ILO, said ensuring income security and access to healthcare during maternity is essential to improving maternal and child health outcomes, preventing poverty and vulnerability, supporting women’s participation in the labour force, as well as advancing gender equality.

Both also stressed the need to position maternity protection as a long-term investment within national economic and social policies.

“The right to universal social protection during maternity needs to be upheld and its profile raised as an essential public investment in the future and a core component of countries’ economic, health and care policies,” she added.

Produced under the ILO-Luxembourg Support to the extension of social health protection in Asia project, the report called for maternity protection to be extended to all women, including those working in the informal economy.

The ILO also urged governments to strengthen financing mechanisms to ensure maternity benefits remain sustainable and adequate, while aligning maternity protection policies more closely with broader social protection, healthcare, and care policies.

In addition, the publication highlighted the role of international social security standards in guiding reforms towards universal and comprehensive maternity protection across ASEAN.

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Infographics / ILO