ADB committed to help Pakistan for social protection

ISLAMABAD: Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday assured Pakistan of its support to the country’s social protection program aimed to help people fight poverty amid inflationary pressure and help it strengthen institutional measures.

ADB Country Director Xiaohong Yang said the bank is committed to help the government implement alternate modalities for social protection and poverty reduction that promotes improved human capital and reduction in intergenerational poverty. Yang said this after a $200 million loan signing agreement for additional financing to help support the country’s flagship social protection program, the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP). Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar witnessed the signing ceremony. ADB country director said the additional financing would support further institutional strengthening of BISP.

“A policy research unit will be established within BISP to help monitor and improve ongoing programs and design new evidence-based initiatives such as conditional cash transfers, following global best practices,” an ADB statement quoted her as saying.

BISP, considered one of the largest social protection programs in South Asia, is part of a larger government strategy, called Ehsaas, to reduce poverty and inequality. BISP, which is primarily funded by the government, supports the strategy through cash transfers, poverty graduation programs, and a targeted safety net. The ADB-financed social protection development project, approved in October 2013, has enabled the enrollment of over 855,000 women beneficiaries to the program.

Minister Azhar said additional financing for the project would enable the disbursement of unconditional cash transfer payments to eligible BISP beneficiaries and further improve the program’s capacity for financial management, policy research, data analysis and intervention design.

“This support is aligned to the government’s Ehsaas poverty alleviation program and one of the key operational priorities of strategy 2030 of the Asian Development Bank,” he said in a statement from the finance ministry.

BISP Secretary Ali Raza Bhutta said the policy research unit would help BISP in developing and refining the design of new initiatives for promoting primary education and to address the issue of stunting among the poor population through conditional cash transfers.

The finance ministry said social protection development would provide a financial cushion to the population that is below the poverty line and is vulnerable to economic shocks, by scaling up unconditional cash transfers (UCT). The project will also provide support to BISP for developing conditional cash transfer modalities that can directly impact the root causes of poverty, i.e. poor health and education.

“The incremental outputs will be continuation of UCT payments to eligible BISP beneficiaries, supporting further improvements in financial managements and control systems to support these cash transfers and strengthening policy research functions of BISP to support the government’s national social protection and poverty alleviation policy,” it added. “The additional financing will also provide an invaluable opportunity to set the direction of ADB’s strategic engagement in social protection and poverty reduction Pakistan.” Manila-based lending agency earmarked $300 million specifically for BISP under its country operations business plan (2019-21).