Although Indonesia and South Korea have parallel narratives concerning their political-economic order that influenced social welfare arrangements, they have had different welfare outcomes. The main purpose of this study is to survey the possibility for Indonesia to adopt key features from Korea that can be applied to catch up in terms of its welfare outcome improvements. We argue that the key to the success of Korean social welfare development is closely related to the adaptive and responsive capacity of existing political institutions in responding to global changes, leading to a collaborative model of governance in welfare service. © The Author(s) 2021.