Pakistan: National Social Protection Program

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The objective of the National Social Protection Program-for-Results Project for Pakistan is to strengthen the national social safety net systems for the poor to enhance their human capital and access to complementary services. The Government’s vision for social protection is to develop an integrated and comprehensive social protection platform focused on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. The critical areas of investment, reflected in the Vision 2025 document, aim to enhance the effectiveness of social protection instruments through strengthened administration and the expanded scope of the Government’s income support program. In line with this vision, the immediate outlook is focused on an updated and dynamic NSER for beneficiary identification, provision of targeted subsidies, development of modern payment delivery systems, consolidation of federal and provincial partnerships for equitable service delivery, expansion of the Waseela-e-Taleem, or WeT program, and refinement of complementary initiatives for helping the poor to exit poverty. In 2016, the Technical Advisory Committee for Social Protection led by the Federal Planning Commission approved a social protection policy framework that outlines the institutional arrangements and fundamental elements of the national system to provide targeted support to the poor. These include a unified targeting system managed by the federal government, technology-based payment delivery, and a shift from universal subsidies towards targeted programs. The Government’s income support program, executed by BISP, is composed of: (a) the basic cash transfer program; (b) the WeT program to incentivize primary school enrollment of BISP beneficiary families’ children; and (c) complementary initiatives for income support beneficiaries. The last element includes: (1) delivery of complementary initiatives directly by BISP; and (2) facilitation support to improve BISP beneficiaries’ access to complementary services.