Rs163m transferred to pregnant, lactating mothers under mother and child support project

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has the Mother and Child Support Programme (MCSP) has been launched as part of the social protection delivery systems of his government, under which Rs163.584 million in cash has so far been transferred to pregnant and lactating women from deprived communities in the province.

The CM said the MCSP was introduced to encourage pregnant women and mothers of under-two-year-old children to utilise maternal, newborn and child healthcare services (MNCH) throughout the continuum of care for 1,000 days/three years from the stage of

conception.

The programme would provide conditional cash transfers to support and strengthen the mother and child support regime. Shah stated this at a meeting he presided over to review the progress in the Strengthening Social Protection Delivery System in Sindh (SSPDS) at the CM House on Monday. The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary to CM Agha Wasif, Secretary of Social Protection Department Rafiq Mustafa Shaikh, CEO of Social Protection Authority Samiullah Shaikh and others.

The MCSP has a budget of $201.85 million to strengthen and expand the existing programme by providing conditional cash transfers to pregnant women and mothers of children who are under two years old.

The SSPDS was launched with support from the International Development Association (IDA). The IDA funded $200 million for the project and the counterpart funding of the Sindh government was $30 million which shows the project’s cost to be $230 million. The project was launched for five years from 2023 till 2027.

Social Protection Secretary Rafiq Mustafa informed the CM that the MCSP, which had been piloted in two districts, Umerkot and Tharparkar, in 2021, offered cost-effective instruments for increasing the uptake of such essential services by poor rural households.

He said it was also an effective way to ensure small cash transfers to poor women when they were pregnant or had young children and in such times, they needed additional support to look after their health and nutrition of their children.

The MCSP encapsulated some significant advances in this area, including partnership between social protection and health service providers and coordination among stakeholders at the local level, the meeting was told.

The beneficiaries of the MCSP would avail World Health Organisation-recommended MNCH services throughout the continuum of care for 1,000 days from conception for the well-being of the mother and child.

The Social Protection Authority CEO informed the meeting that a total of 16 touch-points had been identified throughout the 1,000 days. These included antenatal check-up, safe deliveries, postnatal maternal and newborn check-ups, child growth and immunisation monitoring.

The 15 poorest districts of Sindh – Umerkot, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Sujawal, Thatta, Badin, Sanghar, Kahsmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Kambar-Shahdadkot – have been selected based on the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to roll out the programme.

The CM was told that there would be 1.3 million beneficiaries - pregnant and lactating women — in the coming five years.

It was said that an amount of Rs285.656 million had been released for cash transfer, of which Rs163.584 million had been transferred and the remaining was being transferred.

Shah instructed the social protection department to issue CNICs to mothers who did not have them so that they could benefit from the project.

CM meets Japanese CG

Consul General of Japan in Karachi Hattori Masaru on Monday met Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at the CM House on Monday.

The Japanese consul general greeted Shah on assuming the position of provincial chief executive for the third consecutive time. The meeting discussed ties between Japan and Pakistan in different sectors and other issues of mutual interest.

The CM said the people of Pakistan had always given value to their friendly ties with Japan. He said Sindh offered the best prospects to prospective Japanese investors for investment and trade in different sectors of the economy.

Meanwhile, CM met Commander Coast of Pakistan Navy, Vice-Admiral Raja Rab Nawaz, at the CM House. The meeting between the two discussed professional affairs.