Innovations in asset building

Abstract

Human advancements are fundamentally social, but innovations are not innate or automatic—they require work. Such social work is necessary to create effective strategies for human endeavour. This essay focuses on innovations in social policy and practise. To develop, families must accumulate resources for investments in education, experience, property and enterprise. Asset building creates conditions, outlooks, and behaviours that promote such investments. Singapore is home to many innovative social policies, and no other country’s policy is based so extensively on asset building. Singapore thus illustrates the importance of emphasizing social investment in the new social contract for the twenty-first century

Keywords::

• Asset building
• Child Development Accounts (CDAs)
• inclusion
• Singapore
• social innovation

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the organisation and sponsorship of this lecture at National University of Singapore (NUS), with the help of the Centre for Social Development in Asia (CSDA), headed by Associate Professor Corinne Ghoh. CSDA is a sister and partner with the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Heartfelt thanks to colleagues at NUS. Special thanks to NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences Brenda Yeoh, Social Work Department Head Rosaleen Ow and other colleagues at NUS for giving me this opportunity. I am indebted to my colleagues in the Department of Social Work at NUS, especially ‘pioneers’ from the early days of Singapore, including Professor S. Vasoo, Mrs. Ann Wee, Dr. Myrna Blake and others, along with social workers and friends in the Singapore community who are valued colleagues, including Dr. Sudha Nair, Ms. Kani Soin and others.

Notes

Essay adapted from the Inaugural S.R. Nathan Professor Public Lecture, National University of Singapore, 17 February 2014. About the S.R. Nathan Professorship: I am deeply honoured to take up this professorship in the name of S.R. Nathan, former President of Singapore, whose distinguished career began as a social worker. In the broadest sense, Mr. Nathan has remained a social worker for Singapore. He has worked tirelessly, in many venues, over half a century to improve the lives of the whole Singapore population. While I cannot hope to match the level of social contributions of Mr. Nathan, I will engage this professorship in the spirit of his career and outstanding example. In this regard, the S.R. Nathan Professorship will be guided not by ideology, but by practical innovations aimed at positive change, and use of evidence to assess progress. The S.R. Nathan Professorship can be one tool, among many others, for building international dialogue on social policy and services. This can occur through conferences, exchanges, joint research, and publications.

^2. The Center for Social Development (CSD) conducts research that informs how individuals, families, and communities increase capacity, formulate and reach life goals, and contribute to the economy and society, principally focused on families and communities at the bottom of society. The author is the Director of CSD, which is based in Washington University in St. Louis.