Challenges In Implementing Social Protection Policies for the Elderly: A Special Reference to Pakistan and Nepal

Aging is a universal phenomenon with significant implications and challenges for various social and economic issues. Ensuring the quality of the elder's life is their greatest challenge. Social protection is one of the major components of elder policy which protects the population at risk of being in need. Enabling policy practice is the macro-level intervention strategy that ensures the social protection of elders. The effectiveness of these policies is deeply rooted in the socio-economic and cultural context of a given society. This study examines the challenges to implementing social policies for the elders with special reference to Pakistan and Nepal. The study aimed to understand existing policy in brief in both countries, to analyze the obstructions and issues faced during the implementation of policies on the elderly, and to offer informed suggestions for improving policy implementation. This paper reviews existing literature on social protection mechanisms by systematically describing the policy implementation gaps and available challenges through the desk review coinciding with two randomly selected research articles. The study concludes by recommending enhancement of prevailing policies, administrative capacities, improving community engagement, and long-term sustainability for optimizing the output in both countries to ensure social justice for the elderly by empowering the social protection mechanism.