KP govt establishes Behavioural Insights Unit

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has set up Pakistan’s first Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU) to change the way in which policy issues are defined and resolved by the government.

“The public finance management focus of the new BIU makes it the first of its kind not only in Pakistan, but the global south,” remarked Taimur Jhagra, Minister for Finance, who was one of the earliest supporters of the idea.

In KP, the Unit will initially focus on improving revenue mobilization for the provincial government, where behavioral tools and ‘nudges’ have proven to be particularly successful in other countries.

Work on the MindLab BIU started last year with support from the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) programme, funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

The B4Development Foundation?the first nudge unit in the MENA region, established by Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy?has been providing technical assistance for the unit since inception, focusing on the institutional aspects for the setup of the unit as well as capacity building for the new BIU team.

The unit set up in the Finance Department aims to change the way in which policy issues are defined, approached, and resolved by the government.

Policymakers often encounter implementation problems that lead to suboptimal results for government?but also for citizens, as entrepreneurs, taxpayers, investors, homeowners, motor vehicle operators, or consumers of public and private goods.

As an example, if parents do not enroll children in schools, education policy cannot work.

The Covid response will fail unless citizens adopt necessary SOPs.

Rather than trying to implement policies through coercive methods, insights from behavioral science can help us better understand people’s biases and allow us to review programmes from a behavioral lens to work toward desired policy outcomes.

With B4D onboard, KP’s MindLab is now ideally positioned to deliver impact on-ground. As stated by Vardah Malik, the Investment Advisor for SEED programme: “Global experiences tell us that nudge units need 3 key elements to succeed: support from the government, clear scope of work, and adequate technical resources for analytical work.

The government has been supportive from the very beginning, our policy focus is clearly defined, and with technical support and mentoring from B4D, the Unit is well-equipped for success.”

The world’s first nudge unit in the U.K. was able to raise tax receipts by $70 million a month. “The UK is delighted to have partnered with KP on this Behavioral Insights Unit. There’s potential for nudges to make an important impact on tax and a host of other policy areas in the future.

This will greatly increase the provincial government’s ability to finance public investment and service delivery, which lies at the core of FCDO’s mission in the province,” remarked Richard Ough, Senior Economist, British High Commission.