Social Safety Program Amid COVID19 Pandemic:


https://www.cgdev.org/blog/using-what-you-have-scale-payments-covid...

India
India is able to reach a high percentage of households through the combination of multiple programs including food rations, pensions, LPG cooking gas subsidies, food-for-work programs, farmer subsidies and making transfers to holders of Aadhaar-linked Jan Dhan accounts. Already, this approach appears to have been able to support quite a high proportion of poor households by scaling up food rations and various financial transfers. Initial survey results suggest that the system has provided material assistance, although some difficulties have been reported in cashing out payments and using the funds to purchase supplies.

In addition to the federal government, many states have announced their own programs to help people who fall through the system, especially migrants. But states face hard budget constraints due to expenditure ceilings imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. Although the central government has allowed states to borrow up to 50 percent of their yearly credit needs upfront, the current uncertainty may prevent them from significantly expanding the range, scope, and scale of social assistance programs.

Lessons so far: The architecture of direct benefit transfers and JAM facilitates both scale-up and portability of benefits. But it is not possible to get an integrated view across programs which hinders coordination between the central and state-level initiatives. Many people fall through the cracks, especially migrants whose place of current residence does not match their registration location. In crises that disrupt supply chains there is an important role for efficient in-kind systems, but these have to be designed to ensure portability across states.

Pakistan
Building on the platform for BISP, the main social safety net program, Pakistan has announced a major scaleup of financial assistance to people affected by COVID-19. The Ehsaas Emergency Cash program distributes cash to 12 million families whose livelihood is severely impacted by the pandemic or its aftermath. People apply for the benefits through mobile phones. Their claim is assessed, which can include a check against databases, linking records with the national ID number. If they are approved, they can collect their benefit, after biometric authentication, at one of 17,000 cash disbursement centers that have been set up. From its inception in early April, cash has reportedly reached about one quarter of those entitled to the transfer, indicating a significant degree of state capacity to scale up transfers quickly.

Lessons so far: Pakistan is able to use its ID system and mobiles to initiate a large-scale centrally managed transfer program to uniquely identified and verified recipients. Because of the links with the National Socio-Economic Register and several other databases, the government can apply a range of exclusion rules to help target the transfers without making beneficiaries go through time-consuming application and verification procedures. Drawing on its past experience disbursing flood relief in 2007, Pakistan is also using mobile technology to offer recipients a choice of providers, although special payment points are needed because of low financial inclusion. It is not known how easily people are able to purchase supplies with their financial grants.

Bangladesh
Bangladesh has announced a range of programs but has not yet begun to implement them, and faces questions on how it will proceed. Some programs will be able to disburse through mobile money accounts, but many will not. There are also questions about the resilience of the mobile agent network: many agents provide service as a side business while their main income is from small shops, including in markets. They may not find it worthwhile to offer cash-out services if they are not able to open for normal business.

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 7 September 2020

https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-openi...

Pakistan deployed the infrastructure built up over many years for polio to combat COVID-19. Community health workers who have been trained to go door-to-door vaccinating children for polio have been utilized for surveillance, contact tracing and care.

There are many other examples we could give, including Cambodia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Viet Nam and more.

Many of these countries have done well because they learned lessons from previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS, measles, polio, Ebola, flu and other diseases.

That’s why it’s vital that we all learn the lessons this pandemic is teaching us.

Although Germany’s response was strong, it is also learning lessons.

I welcome the announcement by Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend that her government will invest 4 billion euros by 2026 to strengthen Germany’s public health system.

I call on all countries to invest in public health, and especially in primary health care, and follow Germany’s example.

Social Safety Program Amid COVID19 Pandemic:


https://www.cgdev.org/blog/using-what-you-have-scale-payments-covid...

India
India is able to reach a high percentage of households through the combination of multiple programs including food rations, pensions, LPG cooking gas subsidies, food-for-work programs, farmer subsidies and making transfers to holders of Aadhaar-linked Jan Dhan accounts. Already, this approach appears to have been able to support quite a high proportion of poor households by scaling up food rations and various financial transfers. Initial survey results suggest that the system has provided material assistance, although some difficulties have been reported in cashing out payments and using the funds to purchase supplies.

In addition to the federal government, many states have announced their own programs to help people who fall through the system, especially migrants. But states face hard budget constraints due to expenditure ceilings imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. Although the central government has allowed states to borrow up to 50 percent of their yearly credit needs upfront, the current uncertainty may prevent them from significantly expanding the range, scope, and scale of social assistance programs.

Lessons so far: The architecture of direct benefit transfers and JAM facilitates both scale-up and portability of benefits. But it is not possible to get an integrated view across programs which hinders coordination between the central and state-level initiatives. Many people fall through the cracks, especially migrants whose place of current residence does not match their registration location. In crises that disrupt supply chains there is an important role for efficient in-kind systems, but these have to be designed to ensure portability across states.

Pakistan
Building on the platform for BISP, the main social safety net program, Pakistan has announced a major scaleup of financial assistance to people affected by COVID-19. The Ehsaas Emergency Cash program distributes cash to 12 million families whose livelihood is severely impacted by the pandemic or its aftermath. People apply for the benefits through mobile phones. Their claim is assessed, which can include a check against databases, linking records with the national ID number. If they are approved, they can collect their benefit, after biometric authentication, at one of 17,000 cash disbursement centers that have been set up. From its inception in early April, cash has reportedly reached about one quarter of those entitled to the transfer, indicating a significant degree of state capacity to scale up transfers quickly.

Lessons so far: Pakistan is able to use its ID system and mobiles to initiate a large-scale centrally managed transfer program to uniquely identified and verified recipients. Because of the links with the National Socio-Economic Register and several other databases, the government can apply a range of exclusion rules to help target the transfers without making beneficiaries go through time-consuming application and verification procedures. Drawing on its past experience disbursing flood relief in 2007, Pakistan is also using mobile technology to offer recipients a choice of providers, although special payment points are needed because of low financial inclusion. It is not known how easily people are able to purchase supplies with their financial grants.

Bangladesh
Bangladesh has announced a range of programs but has not yet begun to implement them, and faces questions on how it will proceed. Some programs will be able to disburse through mobile money accounts, but many will not. There are also questions about the resilience of the mobile agent network: many agents provide service as a side business while their main income is from small shops, including in markets. They may not find it worthwhile to offer cash-out services if they are not able to open for normal business.

Inside Pakistan’s COVID-19 Contact Tracing
Detective work is at the heart of efforts to fight the pandemic. Will it be enough?

By Niha Dagia


https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/inside-pakistans-covid-19-contact-t...


How Can We Make Contact Tracing Successful?

To identify as many contacts as possible and as fast as possible takes a large-scale organized mechanism. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control, the staff required for contact tracing varies depending on several factors including the daily tally of cases as well as the number of contacts who have been identified, isolated, notified, and advised to monitor symptoms and practice social distancing.

With local transmission varying between 95 to 98 percent across provinces, Pakistan lacks the capacity to investigate and trace all suspected cases.

But the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) has been on the frontline in the fight against the pandemic ever since its assets — including surveillance, data, and communication capabilities — were rerouted by the government in March 2020.

Their surveillance system has been adopted for COVID-19 contact tracing, tracking the disease’s spread, and creating awareness on prevention and containment.

Active surveillance for influenza-like illness (ILI), severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), and suspected COVID-19 cases has been integrated into the ongoing acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) active and passive surveillance system used in the fight against polio.

For contact tracing to work, the community needs to be involved. Since polio staff are already trained for door-to-door campaigns and carrying out risk perception in the community, it is now mobilizing defense against the fast-spreading virus.

“We have found significant positives amongst those traced via contact tracing and thus it has impacted on reducing further spread via self isolation, education and sensitization of the contacts,” said Dr. Sultan. “Quantification is sometimes not easy, but is being analyzed to see if a numerical value could be assigned with confidence.”

For a country that lacks a functioning healthcare system, its only defense against the virus is to contain the spread. Success will depend on the network of contract tracers, working behind the scenes to map out the pandemic in Pakistan.

Pakistan Reading Project declared int’l literacy program of year


https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/09/11/pakistan-reading-projec...

The United States Library of Congress Friday announced the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) literacy programme, “Pakistan Reading Project,” as the 2020 recipient of the International Literacy Programme of the Year.

According to a press statement issued here by the US Embassy, over the past seven years, and working in tandem with Pakistani education officials, USAID’s Pakistan Reading Project has improved the reading skills of 1.7 million Pakistani students by delivering reading instructional materials to classrooms, training teachers in new instruction techniques, and encouraging schools to dedicate more classroom time for reading.

This early grade literacy project has also worked closely with the government of Pakistan to improve policies and systems for early grade reading across national, provincial, and local levels, said the statement.

“We’re very honoured and pleased that the Pakistan Reading Project is this year’s Library of Congress recipient of this International Literacy Award,” said USAID/Pakistan Mission Director Julie Koenen.

“The programme has proved to be a cornerstone of our partnership with Pakistan in education by increasing the literacy rates across the country and improving the reading of so many Pakistani students,” said Koenen.

In 2013, the Library of Congress created the Literacy Awards to honour organizations working to promote literacy and reading in the United States and internationally. The project’s implementing partner, the International Relief Committee, will receive $50,000 from the Library of Congress for winning this.

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Pakistan Reading Project’s strategy is threefold: improve learning environments for reading in the classroom, advance policies and systems for reading instruction and rally community-based support for reading. In doing so, the project intends to reach 1.3 million students in grades one and two with reading interventions, not to mention training more than 23,000 teachers in reading instruction and developing reading curricula for more than 100 collegiate teaching programs.

From scholarships and grants for students pursuing teaching degrees to mobile bus libraries that bring books directly to children and their communities, the Pakistan Reading Program aims to comprehensively integrate reading into the lives of Pakistani children. The holistic approach of incorporating reading into both the institutional and communal lives of Pakistanis ensures the sustainability of the project’s efforts. In this way, children in Pakistan will be developmentally prepared for educational challenges they will face throughout their lives and consequently better able to pursue their goals and break from the cycle of poverty.


https://borgenproject.org/tag/pakistan-reading-project/

Human Development Report 2020
The Next Frontier:
Human Development and the Anthropocene
Briefing note for countries on the 2020 Human Development Report

http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/PAK.pdf


Pakistan’s HDI value for 2019 is 0.557— which put the country in the medium human development
category—positioning it at 154 out of 189 countries and territories.
Between 1990 and 2019, Pakistan’s HDI value increased from 0.402 to 0.557, an increase of 38.6 percent.
Table A reviews Pakistan’s progress in each of the HDI indicators. Between 1990 and 2019, Pakistan’s
life expectancy at birth increased by 7.2 years, mean years of schooling increased by 2.9 years and
expected years of schooling increased by 3.7 years. Pakistan’s GNI per capita increased by about 64.1
percent between 1990 and 2019.

--------

The 2010 Human Development Report introduced the MPI, which identifies multiple overlapping
deprivations suffered by individuals in 3 dimensions: health, education and standard of living. The health
and education dimensions are based on two indicators each, while standard of living is based on six
indicators. All the indicators needed to construct the MPI for a country are taken from the same
household survey. The indicators are weighted to create a deprivation score, and the deprivation scores
are computed for each individual in the survey. A deprivation score of 33.3 percent (one-third of the
weighted indicators) is used to distinguish between the poor and nonpoor. If the deprivation score is
33.3 percent or greater, the household (and everyone in it) is classified as multidimensionally poor.
Individuals with a deprivation score greater than or equal to 20 percent but less than 33.3 percent are
classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. Finally, individuals with a deprivation score greater
than or equal to 50 percent live in severe multidimensional poverty.
Since 2018, HDRO and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative jointly produce and
publish the MPI estimates. The latest release from July 2020 covers 107 developing countries (countries
that lack survey data that allow for the calculation of the MPI are not included): ‘Charting pathways out
of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs’ (also available in French and Spanish). Definitions of
deprivations in each indicator, as well as methodology of the MPI are given in Technical note 5.
Continuing with the practice from the previous years, HDRO is making public the statistical programs
used in the calculation of the 2020 MPI for a large selection of countries (see
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/mpi-statistical-programmes).
The most recent survey data that were publicly available for Pakistan’s MPI estimation refer to
2017/2018. In Pakistan, 38.3 percent of the population (81,352 thousand people) are multidimensionally
poor while an additional 12.9 percent are classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty (27,419
thousand people). The breadth of deprivation (intensity) in Pakistan, which is the average deprivation
score experienced by people in multidimensional poverty, is 51.7 percent. The MPI, which is the share
of the population that is multidimensionally poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.198.
Bangladesh and India have MPIs of 0.104 and 0.123, respectively.

Pakistan’s Ehsaas program

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2277535/ehsaas-stirs-up-a-genuine-paki...


Welcome to the collision of Riyasat-e-Medina with 21st century public policy tools. In the largest cash transfer in Pakistan’s history, 15 million Pakistani households received Rs12,000 each during Covid-19 without a whiff of corruption. That’s around 100 million Pakistanis benefiting if you multiply by size of household (roughly half the country’s population). Beneficiaries were identified through data rather than political patronage (with opposition-run Sindh benefiting the most from a PTI government programme). This revolution will not be televised or tweeted because the beneficiaries of Ehsaas don’t have a voice in the public square. But this is a real revolution — a revolution for the people.

--------------

Welcome to the collision of Riyasat-e-Medina with 21st century public policy tools. In the largest cash transfer in Pakistan’s history, 15 million Pakistani households received Rs12,000 each during Covid-19 without a whiff of corruption. That’s around 100 million Pakistanis benefiting if you multiply by size of household (roughly half the country’s population). Beneficiaries were identified through data rather than political patronage (with opposition-run Sindh benefiting the most from a PTI government programme). This revolution will not be televised or tweeted because the beneficiaries of Ehsaas don’t have a voice in the public square. But this is a real revolution — a revolution for the people.
And this is only one slice of Ehsaas. Here’s some more flavour: two million underprivileged families with a disabled person will receive Rs2000 stipend a month; 80,000 interest-free loans are being given every month, over four years, half of them reserved for women, to help them start new businesses and graduate out of poverty; and 50,762 undergraduate scholarships have been given to deserving students so far, with the number expected to go up to 200,000 students over four years.
Additionally, let’s talk about an education conditional cash transfer programme that provides stipend to underprivileged families to encourage their children to go to school. Children of poorest families are provided conditional cash grants of Rs1,500 for boy child and Rs2,000 for girl child per quarter on fulfilment of 70% attendance in school. Payments are made biometrically to mothers of children.
Ehsaas Amdan is a programme through which assets are given to the deserving (60% women) to enable them to graduate out of poverty. For the purpose of this programme, assets include livestock (goats, cows, buffaloes and poultry), agricultural inputs, body of Chingchi rickshaws, and inputs for small retail outlets and small enterprises. Amdan is being implemented in 25 of the poorest districts across the four provinces of Pakistan. More than a million people will benefit from this four-year programme.

The project approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) includes Rs45 billion for new healthcare facilities, Rs7 billion for national health surveillance, Rs13 billion water sanitation, hygiene as well as interventions in less developed areas, said Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar.

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/pakistan-federal-governmen...



Besides the healthcare project, the economic body also approved several projects regarding infrastructural and human development, education and water resources worth around Rs209 billion.

Focus on heath amid pandemic
Pakistan is investing in stronger health systems after the coronavirus pandemic unveiled the shortcomings of the country’s health system. The government’s focus is on strengthening the health system and engaging communities to protect people from future health threats. Pakistan government has also allocated $250 million initial funds for the purchase of the COVID-19 vaccine and has announced to provide coronavirus vaccines free of charge to its citizens.

Universal health coverage
Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to improve healthcare spending and also announced universal health coverage for all citizens for the first time in Pakistan. The programme, first initiated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2020, would soon be extended to other provinces. Under the universal health insurance programme, each family would be entitled to medical treatment of up to Rs1 million ($6,000) a year at over 250 government and private hospitals across Pakistan.

“The development of the Universal Health Coverage benefit Package of Pakistan and its implementation will become the cornerstone of health reforms across Pakistan” believes PM’s Special Assistant on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan.

------------------

The government plans to establish 48 nutrition centres under its Ehsaas programme to overcome common health problems like stunting, underweight and overweight in children under five years of age, especially in under-developed and poor areas of the country.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1601030/48-nutrition-centres-to-be-set-up...

Under this programme, nutrition/health services and conditional cash transfers will be made available to mothers and children. In the beginning, these centres will be set up in 13 districts.

This was decided at a meeting of the Ehsaas Na­­shonuma (nutrition) Steer­ing Committee presided over by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on So­­cial Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar here on Monday.

The meeting was informed that the programme was being implemented in partnership with the World Food Programme and provincial governments. The participants of the meeting discussed issues related to coordination between the parties which will implement the programme and how to effectively address the issue of undergrowth and malnutrition in the country.


The meeting was infor­med that it is a three-year programme which delivers conditional cash transfers to vulnerable pregnant women, mothers and children under five and provide them specialised nutritious food, immunisations and health-awareness sessions.

Representatives from the federal and provincial ministries, Foreign Commonwealth and Deve­lopment Office, Wor­­­­­ld Bank, World Food Pro­gramme, Wor­ld Health Orga­nisation, Asian Develo­p­ment Bank and Unicef atten­ded the meeting. Nutri­tion under the Ehsaas progra­mme aims to support multi-sectoral stra­tegies through poor-friendly programmes by targeting mothers and children.

How Pakistan is Using Moringa Tree to Alleviate Malnutrition


https://www.voanews.com/episode/how-pakistan-using-moringa-tree-all...

As part of an ongoing project in Pakistan’s Sindh province, efforts are underway to integrate a uniquely nutritious and drought-resistant tree called Moringa, into the local diet to help alleviate malnutrition. Muhammad Saqib has details from Matiari in Sindh province in this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.

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Moringa contains many healthful compounds such as:

vitamin A
vitamin B1 (thiamine)
B2 (riboflavin)
B3 (niacin), B-6
folate and ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
calcium
potassium
iron
magnesium
phosphorus
zinc
It is also extremely low in fats and contains no harmful cholesterol.

Growing moringa to cure malnutrition in Sindh

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/773297-growing-moringa-to-cure-mal...

Plant nursery managers in Sindh have started to understand the growing demand and importance of moringa (oleifera) tree, because of its nutritional and medicinal value.


Nursery managers collect moringa seeds from neighbourhood trees and also buy from the local markets. Hundreds of plants are readily available for sale at the nurseries to meet the rising demand from the locals.

Alisher Hajano, associated with the government's social forestry department, near the famous Mayani forest, Hyderabad said, “It is only recently that this tree got popularity at a larger scale.”

Each nursery at the highway grows as much as 10,000 to 50,000 plants of moringa for contributing to annual tree plantation drives. Many people mostly use leaves and pods as organic food.

Hajano receives a number of people from different areas demanding two-five kilogram of fresh leaves to cure some ailments. He doesn’t own mature trees himself, and procures the product from neighbouring villages.

Moringa leaves are dried by these people at room temperature, to later use for curing some diseases. “I know many entrepreneurs in the neighbouring villages, who sell moringa fresh and dried leaves, powder and roots, which they prepare at homes and farms. They also consume fresh and dried leaves, pods and roots themselves as an organic vegetable,” he said.

In the past, people preferred planting neem and other varieties of fruit trees at home and workplaces, but now they prefer moringa trees because of its various uses.

Moringa tree saplings are available at almost all private nurseries for Rs20-80 each, depending on size and health.

Various government and non-governmental organisations have taken initiatives to tackle malnutrition via community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM). However, very few long-term interventions have been noted that are linked to building the capacity of local communities, especially in the areas of cropping, plantations and livelihood mechanisms.

After realising the importance of moringa in eradicating malnutrition, many organisations have taken different steps to promote this magical tree on a larger scale, while also disbursing knowledge and awareness about its usage as food and for curing health problems.

A report of Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam shows that they had initiated a project in Tharparkar district, to address the issue of malnutrition. The university had planted 5,000 moringa trees with 500 households, believing in its nutritious value for both humans and livestock.

Residents of Thar Desert, due to inherent structural poverty, poor socioeconomic indicators and limited livelihood options, suffer from chronic food insecurity. Moringa tree is considered the best substitute to provide necessary nutrition to children under five, and pregnant and lactating mothers.

The report said that 5,000 mature trees would be sufficient not only for the communities’ own consumption, but also for their livestock. Apart from this, parts of the tree could be used to treat various diseases.

Muhammad Siddiq, leading Rural Development Association (RDA) in Mithi, Tharparkar district claims to have planted 5,600 moringa saplings in different areas of the desert. Some plants cultivated in 2017, have now matured and people have access to fresh leaves and pods to use as vegetables.

“It is a fast growing tree and the desert area is suitable for its plantation. It has also been proved one of the best solutions to tackle malnutrition on a sustainable basis,” he said.

There are more species of moringa, but oleifera is said to be more effective with medicinal properties. The tree is highly rich in nutrients, which are required by children under the age of five and pregnant and lactating mothers.

1. More than 4.5 million children are enrolled in Sindh's schools
2. 133,000 teachers have been appointed for 49,103 schools
3. In 26,260 schools, facility for drinking water is not available

https://www.geo.tv/latest/334312-more-than-10000-government-schools...


More than 10,000 government schools are nonfunctional in Sindh, the Reform and Support of the Sindh Education and Literacy Department has revealed in a report.

Titled "Profiting for Government Schools," the report shows data from 2018-19 and has been released after a gap of two years. According to the report, there are more than 4.5 million children enrolled in the province's schools.

The report says that 133,000 teachers have been appointed for 49,103 schools, out of which only 36,659 schools are functional.

In 26,260 schools, there is no facility for drinking water, while 19,469 are without washrooms' facility. The report further revealed that more than 31,000 schools do not have electricity.


Moreover, 21,00-plus schools do not have boundary walls, while over 47,000 schools are deprived of lab facilities, while as many as 36,000 do not have playgrounds.

It is pertinent to mention here that a chunk of schools, more than 47,000, do not have libraries in them — a necessary facility for students' grooming.

The report said that 2,812,000 male and 1,749,140 female students were enrolled in the schools.

As many as 2,91,9862 students are enrolled in primary, 185,047 in middle, 140,032 in elementary, 918,706 in secondary, and 397,493 in higher secondary schools.

Meanwhile, out of the total 49,103 school buildings in the province, 14,998 are considered to be in satisfactory conditions, 8,426 are weary, while 14,977 need repairs.

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25.2pc of revenue to be spent on education, says Murad

While presenting Sindh’s education budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 on Wednesday, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that the budget of education sector, in a macro perspective, had been increased to Rs244.5 billion when compared with Rs212.4bn for 2019-20.

“Despite resource constraints we have allocated funds which is 25.2 per cent of our current revenue budget,” he said.

He said that education was one of the key priority areas for the government of Sindh. “We aim at improving access to equitable, inclusive and quality education for all to realise their fullest potential and contribute to the development of society and economy, thus creating a sense of nationhood, inculcating values of tolerance, social justice and democracy in students,” he said.

He explained that in order to manage education-related functions in an efficient manner, enhance the quality of education and provide better facilities at educational institutions, the department of education was divided into two departments — the school education and literacy department (SELD) and the college education department (CED) back in 2016.

To provide survivor-centered care, health workers in Pakistan learn to ask about gender-based violence with empathy

https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/to-provide-sur...

Early in her career, Dr Rukhsana Bashir, a clinician in Pakistan, was used to seeing women in her clinic with symptoms of pain, headaches, insomnia and depression. She would listen and treat each symptom, but the underlying causes went unnoticed.

She did not know that some of those women were experiencing gender-based violence (GBV) – a pervasive health challenge throughout the country and world, and one she personally had experienced.

Approximately, 34% of ever married women in Pakistan have experienced spousal violence, either physical, sexual or emotional, in their lifetime, with rates increasing as high as 52% in Khyber Paktunkhwa Province.

“It never came to my mind that these women might be experiencing gender-based violence,” says Dr Bashir, who works at the Family Planning Association of Pakistan’s Family Health Hospital in the city of Lahore.

Now years later, Dr Bashir has been trained by WHO to use its clinical and policy guidelines: Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women. She further trains health workers how to provide survivor-centered care including how to ask about violence and how to provide first-line support.

Dr Bashir is one of more than 1000 doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and community health workers, including midwives who were trained between 2018-2020 as part of the roll out of the clinical and policy guideline package by Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination and provincial health departments, with technical support from WHO and sister UN agencies, to strengthen the country’s health systems response to gender-based violence.

Thanks to the training she received, Dr Bashir has changed her practice. Unexplained symptoms of chronic pain or headaches, insomnia or depression, lead her to ask more questions to women about potential violence at home.

“When women come to the clinic, they don’t think that they are going to discuss the problem [of violence], but I have to ask them a few bold questions. In the beginning they are afraid and don’t want to tell me anything, but you have to identify their problems. Only then can you offer better services and treatment.”

A decade long effort to support survivors
The training Dr Bashir completed is part of a decade long effort WHO’s Pakistan office to work with the Government to strengthen the health and multisectoral response to gender-based violence. However, in order to strengthen the health sector response, the country needed manuals, job aids and trainings for health workers. In 2010 there were none.

In response, the Government developed a national protocol for medico-legal care for gender-based violence survivors in 2011. This was accompanied by ongoing policy dialogues and advocacy to strengthen health sector response to gender-based violence.

In 2017, the WHO clinical handbook: Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence, was adapted and piloted in selected provinces and districts. The adaptation process, led by the Government and WHO, included multiple stakeholders, such as provincial ministries of health, UN Women, UNFPA, non-governmental organizations, medical associations and health workers.

As a result, the Pakistani clinical handbook for health workers on the management of sexual and gender-based violence, and localized job aids and materials for training providers were produced. The Government and WHO conducted 30 trainings for master trainers, health workers, and medico-legal experts in four provinces.

#Pakistan PM #ImranKhan launches initiative to feed the hungry. Free meals will be provided through Ehsaas Food Trucks at designated delivery points to people in need, especially those at risk of or experiencing #hunger. #poverty #malnutrition #Covid19

https://nation.com.pk/11-Mar-2021/pm-imran-khan-launches-initiative...

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday formally launched ‘Ehsaas Koi Bhuka Na Soye’ (No One Sleeps Hungry) initiative at a ceremony held here.

Addressing the launching ceremony, the Prime Minister regretted that there were many areas in Pakistan where people go to bed hungry.

“Most people in Pakistan are on daily wages and when they don’t get their wages, they have to sleep empty stomach,” he added.

He said that the government is starting the programme in Islamabad at the moment but it would soon reach other cities as well. “One day, these vans would feed people in entire Pakistan.”

As per the programme, cooked meals will be provided through mobile trucks at designated delivery points to people in need especially those at risk of or experiencing hunger.


Initially, the Ehsaas Food Trucks are being operated in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and at later stage this programme will be further expanded to other parts of the country.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said the programme is a step towards a welfare state, which always cares for its poor and deserving people.

He said he always feels happy to see that deserving people are given shelter and food with honour and dignity at various Panahgahs established across the country.

He also announced to launch a subsidy programme by June this year under which money will directly be transferred to the accounts of 30 million families.

He said it will enable the poor and deserving people to procure kitchen items.

It was his dream to extend the ‘Koi Bhuka Na Soye’ programme to the whole country and “Insha Allah we will do it”, he added.


Imran Khan said a large number of philanthropists in the country desired to participate in such programmes, and he believed that the success of pilot project in the twin cities would help win their trust to contribute towards its extension across Pakistan.

He also mentioned with pride the government’s health card scheme in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Gilgit Baltistan, under which each family was entitled for medical treatment worth Rs one million from any public or private hospital.

The prime minister, in a briefing on the occasion, was informed that after extensive deliberations on different avenues, the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) initiated the Meals on Wheels programme to tackle the extended demands of Panahgaahs.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar said the programme was aimed at providing two time hygienic packed food – lunch and dinner – to the needy individuals through real time mobile kitchens in urban and rural areas of Islamabad. The project would be later scaled up to other areas of the country.

PBM Managing Director Aon Abbas, in his briefing, said at present two Ehsaas food trucks were serving free quality cooked food at various points across the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, including hospitals, bus stations and other public places with utmost dignity. The meals were cooked, stored and distributed from the truck kitchen.

As per estimates, each food truck would feed two meals to around 2,000 people daily, and would target those, who could not reach the Panahgaahs for food.

The programme had been designed in a public private partnership mode whereby the PBM would be responsible for the operations of food trucks and Saylani Welfare International Trust would be responsible for the provision of meals.

The Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal had already been working on the component of Panahgaahs to provide food and shelter to the extremely poor and needy.It had so far established 15 Panahgaahs in different provinces.

#Pakistan to get $1.3 billion #WorldBank loan for social safety net (#EhsaasKafaalat), #infrastructure & governance. Projects include 35 small rainwater-fed #groundwater recharge #dams in #Sindh: #Karachi, Jamshoro, Thatta, Dadu, & Tharparkar. #water
https://www.geo.tv/latest/341738-pakistan-strikes-13-billion-develo...


Pakistan has reached an agreement with World Bank to work on seven projects worth $1.3 billion aimed at improving social protection, infrastructure, and governance, a statement from the Ministry of Economic Affairs said Friday.

Minister for Economic Affairs, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar witnessed the signing ceremony of seven project agreements at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

"This financing will support the government’s initiatives in Social Protection, Disaster and Climate Risk Management, Improving Infrastructure for Resilience, Agriculture and Food Security, Human Capital Development and Governance Sectors," the statement said.

The agreement includes the Crisis-Resilient Social Protection Programme (CRISP) worth $600 million. The objective of the programme is to support the development of a more adaptive social protection system that will contribute to future crisis-resilience among poor and vulnerable households in the country.

"The programme is focused on the key initiatives being undertaken by Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) under the Ehaas Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes," the statement said.

The second project worth $200 million is the Locust Emergency and Food Security Project that will introduce a set of customised activities — such as conducting locust surveillance and controlling operations, rehabilitating livelihoods of affected rural communities and farmers — to effectively address the desert locust outbreak.

The third project worth $200 million is the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Human Capital Investment Project.

It aims to improve the availability, utilisation, and quality of primary healthcare services and elementary education services in four districts — Peshawar, Nowshera Haripur, and Swabi — of KP that have been hosting refugees.

The Sindh Resilience Project worth $200 Million — the fourth project — is to mitigate flood and drought risks in selected areas and strengthen Sindh’s capacity to manage natural disasters and public health emergencies.

"The project will support the establishment of the Sindh Emergency Service, including the development of six divisional headquarters operational facilities, provision of equipment, and training of personnel," it said.

It will also support the construction of 35 small rainwater-fed recharge dams in drought-prone regions of Sindh including Karachi, Jamshoro, Thatta, Dadu, and Nagarparker in Tharparkar districts.

The fifth project and sixth projects, Balochistan Livelihood and Entrepreneurship, and Balochistan Human Capital Investment Projects, worth $86 million aim to promote employment opportunities for rural communities; achieve sustainability of enterprises, and improve utilisation of quality health and education services in the province.

The final and seventh project, the Supporting Institutional Interventions for Management of Refugees Project, worth $50 million, aims to improve organisational and institutional capacity for managing refugees and host communities.

Secretary Ministry of Economic Affairs Noor Ahmed signed the financing agreements on behalf of the federal government, while representatives of Sindh, KP, and Balochistan signed their respective project agreements online.

World Bank's Country Director Najy Benhassine signed the agreements on behalf of the World Bank. The country director assured his institution's continuous financial and technical support to Pakistan in a bid to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the country.

World Bank Supports Expansion of the Ehsass Social Protection Program in Pakistan to Increase Household Resilience to Economic Shocks


https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/03/25/pakistan...


The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved $600 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA) for the Crisis-Resilient Social Protection Program (CRISP) that will support Pakistan to expand Ehsaas, the national poverty alleviation program, to protect vulnerable households and increase resilience to economic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of families across Pakistan face economic hardship, particularly those working in the informal sector, who have no savings or are not covered by existing social safety net programs,” said Najy Benhassine, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. “This investment supports Ehsaas in developing an adaptive social protection system that is more efficient and offers a new model for crisis-response and increasing household resilience to future shocks.”

CRISP will facilitate the gradual expansion of Ehsaas social protection programs to better reach informal workers through an innovative, hybrid approach that blends social assistance with promotion of increased savings that informal workers, particularly women, can depend on in the event of economic shocks. It will provide a platform through which the government can rapidly respond to support the most affected households during an economic crisis.

“In the event of a crisis, a more flexible and dynamic social protection system can significantly reduce the time needed to respond to peoples’ needs as well as supporting a faster recovery,” said Amjad Zafar Khan, Task Team Leader for the Crisis-Resilient Social Protection program.

CRISP will also improve the capacity of the social registry to maintain up-to-date accurate household data and exchange data among social programs, while providing greater beneficiary choice in the biometric payment systems. It will also help Pakistan address longer-term impacts on human capital caused by the pandemic, resulting from foregone health and medical services and a substantial loss of education due to prolonged absence from schools.

To help prevent losses in human capital accumulation, which is critical to long-term resilience, CRISP leverages two existing Ehsaas programs that provide conditional cash transfers (CCT) to eligible households. These include Waseela-e-Taleem, a CCT program linked to primary school attendance and Nashonuma, a nutrition-focused CCT program aimed at improving child and maternal health, which will benefit more than three million families across the country.

The World Bank in Pakistan

Pakistan has been a member of the World Bank since 1950. Since then, the World Bank has provided $40 billion in assistance. The World Bank’s program in Pakistan is governed by the Country Partnership Strategy for FY2015-2020 with four priority areas of engagement: energy, private sector development, inclusion, and service delivery. The current portfolio has 57 projects and a total commitment of $13 billion.

#WorldBank recognizes #Pakistan's #EhsaasEmergencyCash among world's largest. Pakistan is among top 5 lower middle income nations by level of #social protection spending. #Mongolia (8% of #GDP), #Zimbabwe (5%), #Bolivia (3%), #Pakistan (1.2%), Others <1% https://www.brecorder.com/news/40092285

As per World Bank’s latest report titled Social Protection and Jobs Responses to COVID-19: A Real-Time Review of Country Measures, India’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) program with over 206 million individuals covered, is the largest Covid-related cash transfer scheme worldwide. Such program is followed by three cash transfer interventions all reaching over a hundred million people, namely the US first stimulus check (160 million), Japan’s one-off universal program reaching about (116.5), and Pakistan’s Ehsaas (100.9).

The report stated that Pakistan was also among the top 5 lower-middle-income countries by level of social protection spending. The highest level of spending in lower-middle-income countries is observed in Mongolia (8% of GDP), Zimbabwe (5%), Bolivia (3%), Pakistan (1.2%), and with a range of others spending 1% of GDP.

As per the report, Pakistan’s provincial governments also implemented supportive fiscal measures from the onset of the shock, including cash grants to low-income households, tax relief, and additional health spending (including a salary increase for healthcare workers).

The government of Punjab implemented a PKR 10 billion cash grants program. The government of Sindh's measures included a cash grant.

The Government of Pakistan allocated Rs. 203 Billion (USD 1.23bn) to deliver one-time emergency cash assistance to 15 million families at risk of extreme poverty. This represents nearly 109 million people. Each family receives Rs. 12,000 (USD 75) for immediate subsistence.

The Economic Coordination Committee approved Rs. 75 billion among 6.2 million daily-wage earners with cash assistance for the daily wagers working in the formal industrial sector and who had been laid off because of the COVID-19 outbreak. It was part of the PM’s Relief Package of Rs 200 billion.

As part of the supportive fiscal measures, the Government of Pakistan implemented additional health spending. The government of Sindh's measures included a cash grant and ration distribution program of PKR 1.5 billion for low-income households.

The report stated that a relief package worth PKR 1.2 trillion was announced by the federal government on March 24, which has been almost fully implemented. The economic package earmarked resources for accelerated procurement of wheat (PKR 280 billion), financial support to utility stores (PKR 50 billion), a reduction in regulated fuel prices (with a benefit for end-consumers estimated at PKR 70 billion), support for health and food supplies (PKR 15 billion), electricity bill payments relief (PKR 110 billion.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in April last year approved the deferment of monthly and quarterly fuel adjustments in the electricity bills for power consumers for the next three months (till June 2020) under the government relief package. 06 April 2020 Power Division has reportedly prepared power tariff freezing for three months aimed at minimizing the financial burden on the Coronavirus-hit consumers, estimated financial impact of which will be Rs 381 billion, stated the report.

Is Covid-19 a turning point in social protection?

https://nation.com.pk/17-May-2021/is-covid-19-a-turning-point-in-so...


A number of social protection interventions, monetary interventions such as a cut in policy rate by the central bank, and flexible credit facilities were introduced by the government. Most notably, it introduced the Ehsaas Emergency Cash (EEC) programme, covering 5 million existing Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries and new temporary beneficiaries who were either uncovered or ineligible before the pandemic. Identified through an SMS campaign, many of the new beneficiaries are daily labourers and informal workers whose livelihoods have been adversely affected by the corona-induced economic downturn. An immediate cash relief of Rs.12,000 was extended by the government to these families. Moreover, the Prime Minister launched a web-portal soliciting applications from those who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and committed the Prime Minister’s Covid Pandemic Relief Fund to those qualifying for aid. These funds are being disbursed through the EEC programme.

When analysing the shock responsive social protection pathways, the following points are important to consider. Pakistan already has a social safety net in place which targets the poorest quintile of the population. Therefore, it might have been ideal to expand on the already existing cash transfer programmes. In that instance, a lot of people, including daily wage labourers, who have been adversely impacted by this pandemic crisis but weren’t part of any existing social safety net might have missed out. Hence, it was imperative to reach out to people who were not part of such safety nets, but desperately needed support.

In such a scenario, one option was to give out a one-time universal payment, such as in developed countries, but that means some of the money would have gone out to the undeserving people as well. Keeping in view the limited resources, this wasn’t a viable option and the approach of targeted support was better suited. Hence, the EEC programme that leveraged on the existing Ehsaas infrastructure was launched and it has effectively targeted the vulnerable segment of the society.


Fortunately, over the past decade, Pakistan has developed asocial safety net structure which provided a foundation to expand upon and deliver shock responsive aid efficiently in form of the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme. However, this piggyback model through which the existing systems of Ehsaas are being utilised is a short-term intervention. Though helpful, it doesn’t cover broader aspects of social protection such as enabling the poor to graduate out of poverty. This will be a critical factor in offsetting the adverse impact of the pandemic in the long run.

A strong sustainable social protection system guides the beneficiaries towards self-sufficiency and enables them to earn their own livelihoods, addressing inequality as a result, ensuring social inclusion and empowering the vulnerable. During the pandemic cinduced joblessness, it is essential that the social protection framework sprioritise the vulnerable, provide access to health services, support people in adopting necessary prevention measures, ensure income security, protect human capabilities and livelihoods, scale up and strengthen already existing social protection programmes and its delivery capacities and design crisis response measures with a view to strengthen social protection systems in the long term.

Pakistan highly values its relations with EU: COAS Bajwa
The Ehsaas programme has done well but the harsh reality is that there is a need to improve the existing social protection mechanism, build state capabilities, make shock responsive social protection a permanent feature and transition to a broader comprehensive scale of welfare for a better, inclusive and sustainable future. Hopefully, the Covid-19 pandemic would turn out to be a turning point in the social protection domain in Pakistan.

In Pakistan we are developing a Covid-19 legacy to end poverty and drive health for all

The pandemic shines a bright light on inequity and we now have a window of opportunity to help people bounce back along with the economy

BY SANIA NISHTAR

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/pakis...


While our immediate focus is to bring down the current number of cases, we are also preparing for future shocks and are further investing in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of a welfare state that works for everyone in Pakistan and tackles the foundational inequities that the virus exploited.

Many lessons have been learned from this pandemic, both in terms of what works and where we need to improve – lessons that are relevant for both social protection and health systems. The first lesson is the importance of “building systems”.

We were able to deliver the emergency cash program because of preexisting digital capabilities that Ehsaas, Pakistan’s groundbreaking poverty alleviation initiative, had already created. These digital capabilities, which included a biometric cash distribution system, were quickly adapted alongside an SMS based request platform and data analytics.

A recent report by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth found that the Ehsaas emergency cash transfer program, which distributed US$1.2 billion to 15 million families, was pivotal in preventing a catastrophic explosion in poverty during the pandemic.

Similarly, systems established by the Covid-19 National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) delivered results due to data driven decision making and coordination. Pakistan’s polio infrastructure was heavily utilised during the Covid-19 pandemic to track the virus, break chains of transmission and ultimately save lives.

For the vaccine rollout, existing systems of immunisation and its cold chain were augmented. The second lesson is the importance of reaching the most breaking the chains of poverty to achieve sustainable prosperity.

Since Ehsaas was established in 2019, the Prime Minister has maintained its focus on reaching the most marginalised communities, with the understanding that as well as being the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do.

We have seen from other health and development programs that this is not always an easy task. Yet while noting the success and critical role of the polio programme in the current pandemic, Pakistan is yet to eliminate polio.

This is primarily due to inability to reach some children and this is especially true of the Pashtun community, in certain parts of the country. We can’t accept this for polio, health services or social protection.

The philosophy behind Ehsaas’ efforts is to ensure that everyone can access quality health and nutrition services, that our children get a good education which opens their horizons for the future and a strong social safety net so that when needed the most disadvantaged groups have something to fall back on it.

Third, innovations are only as good as the capacity to scale. In the wake of the pandemic, we have fast-tracked our work on building the social protection registry; we are expanding our social protections operations and are opening ‘one-window centres’ for Ehsaas so that those accessing the benefits can do it all in one go.

Hiring and training people to deliver Ehsaas services was key to being able to scale up quickly and effectively and responding to the acute economic challenges that ordinary people faced. And the same goes for strengthening our own health systems to end this pandemic and prepare for future ones.

The Government of Pakistan is working to strengthen our own domestic vaccine manufacturing. Nationally and internationally, we’re working with public and private stakeholders to encourage the sharing of licensing, technology and know how and waiving intellectual property through the duration of the pandemic.

#WorldBank grants #Pakistan $442.4m for uplift of #social #infrastructure in #Punjab. Project aims to provide equitable and sustainable access to clean drinking #water; improve #sanitation; reduce child stunting in Punjab to cover 2,000 poorest villages https://www.geo.tv/latest/357246-world-bank-grants-4424m-for-uplift...

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Government of Pakistan and the World Bank signed the financing agreement of “Punjab Rural Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Project” on Sunday, said a press release issued by Ministry of Economic Affairs (EAD).

Secretary Economic Affairs Noor Ahmed signed the financing agreement on behalf of the Government of Pakistan while Country Director, World Bank Najy Benhassine, signed the agreement on behalf of the World Bank.

The project aims to provide equitable and sustainable access to clean drinking water; improve sanitation; and reduce child stunting in Punjab.

The project interventions will cover 2,000 villages including 2,000 main settlements and 8,000 small settlements in 16 districts of Punjab that are the poorest and have the worst social infrastructure, besides stunting issues.

In line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to ensure equitable and inclusive socioeconomic opportunities, eight districts from South Punjab; Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, DG Khan, Lodhran, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur have been included in the project.

Furthermore, eight other districts from Central and North Punjab i.e. Bhakkar, Chakwal, Chiniot, Jhang, Khushab, Mianwali, Pakpattan and Sarghodha were included after due diligence.

The project will have a direct impact on the life of citizens and create employment opportunities in the rural areas.

The government will invest in social infrastructure and improve service delivery to provide potable water through cost-effective and sustainable investments; offer safely managed sanitation facilities to reduce the total fecal burden in the village environment; and raise awareness and promote behaviour change for better hygiene practices at the household and community levels to promote health and ensure the sustainability and quality of the water source.

The project interventions will directly benefit six million rural people of Punjab and will support in reducing the incidence of stunting among children aged 0-3 years (40%) in Punjab.

Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub Khan appreciated the World Bank’s efforts by highlighting that this was a signature project which reflects the vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to invest in human capital and to improve the standard of living of the people.

The minister further stated that today’s event was a reflection of the continued confidence by the IFIs on the government’s policies, economic reforms and people-centered programmes.

He reiterated the commitment of the federal government to extend all possible support to the provincial governments in their efforts to invest in human capital by addressing challenges to health and education; building resilience, improving service delivery and promoting economic opportunities to ensure inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the country.

The Secretary EAD thanked the World Bank's country team for extending their continuous support to the government of Pakistan to help achieving sustainable economic development in Pakistan.

Country Director World Bank, Najy Benhassine ensured the World Bank’s continued financial and technical support to Pakistan in achieving the priority development objectives and to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the country.

In Pakistan we are developing a Covid-19 legacy to end poverty and drive health for all
The pandemic shines a bright light on inequity and we now have a window of opportunity to help people bounce back along with the economy

by Sania Nishtar

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/pakis...


Developing a Covid-19 Legacy to End Poverty and Drive Health for All As Prime Minister Imran Khan and I travelled to Larkana, a city in the Sindh province of Pakistan to meet with the people effected by the pandemic, we met with a street vendor called Arshaq who broke down as he received the Rs.12,000 Ehsaas emergency cash – Pakistan’s flagship welfare state system.

He told us that he intended to invest about a fifth of the money to rent a pushcart and buy bananas to sell. He was confident that he’d make enough money for his family to live off. With tears in his eyes he went on to say he would buy food rations with the rest of the money as his daughters had not eaten properly for weeks.

It was deeply humbling and reflects the hardship millions of people have gone through over the last 18 months of the pandemic. The latest increase in cases of Covid-19 appear to be dropping and vaccines, which are key to us and the world getting through the acute stage of this pandemic, continue to be rolled out across Pakistan, the country is finally starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

---------

For the vaccine rollout, existing systems of immunisation and its cold chain were augmented. The second lesson is the importance of reaching the most breaking the chains of poverty to achieve sustainable prosperity.

Since Ehsaas was established in 2019, the Prime Minister has maintained its focus on reaching the most marginalised communities, with the understanding that as well as being the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do.

We have seen from other health and development programs that this is not always an easy task. Yet while noting the success and critical role of the polio programme in the current pandemic, Pakistan is yet to eliminate polio.

This is primarily due to inability to reach some children and this is especially true of the Pashtun community, in certain parts of the country. We can’t accept this for polio, health services or social protection.

The philosophy behind Ehsaas’ efforts is to ensure that everyone can access quality health and nutrition services, that our children get a good education which opens their horizons for the future and a strong social safety net so that when needed the most disadvantaged groups have something to fall back on it.

Third, innovations are only as good as the capacity to scale. In the wake of the pandemic, we have fast-tracked our work on building the social protection registry; we are expanding our social protections operations and are opening ‘one-window centres’ for Ehsaas so that those accessing the benefits can do it all in one go.

Hiring and training people to deliver Ehsaas services was key to being able to scale up quickly and effectively and responding to the acute economic challenges that ordinary people faced. And the same goes for strengthening our own health systems to end this pandemic and prepare for future ones.


The Government of Pakistan is working to strengthen our own domestic vaccine manufacturing. Nationally and internationally, we’re working with public and private stakeholders to encourage the sharing of licensing, technology and know how and waiving intellectual property through the duration of the pandemic.

Pandemic proofing our systems is smart economics when you consider the trillions lost over the last 18 months. None of this would have happened without the steadfast leadership of the Prime Minister, Imran Khan.

Embarking on the most ambitious anti-poverty drive in Pakistan prior to the pandemic was challenging but it was also critical to leverage key resources to help us tackle the acute need while laying the groundwork for a long-term recovery.

Sehat Sahulat Programme: SLIC Pakistan’s role


https://www.brecorder.com/news/40108406


Sehat Sahulat Programme is one of the key milestones of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa towards social welfare reforms with an objective to improve access to quality medical services in a swift and dignified manner without any financial obligations. It is the first-ever initiative aimed at providing free of cost indoor healthcare services to the entire population of the province in private and public sector hospitals.

The federal government, in collaboration with the Punjab government, is also implementing the Sehat Sahulat Programme covering the entire population of AJK, FATA, Tharparkar, Sahiwal and D G Khan Division. At the same time, the below poverty population of Islamabad, GB and the rest of Punjab is covered under the Federal Scheme.

At present, the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan manages both programmes making it the largest micro-health insurance provider in the country, covering more than 100 million members in the designated areas. State Life offers healthcare services in more than 90 districts of Pakistan, with its extensive network of more than 500 hospitals across Pakistan.

The organisation is responsible for enrolment of families, empanelment of hospitals, treatment rate negotiations, in-patient care provision, complaint redressal, hospital claims processing, fraud control, risk and financial management of the programmes.

As part of the implementation process, SLIC has stationed its own staff Health Facilitators at each panel hospital while District Medical Officers conduct regular rounds to observe the quality medical practices. Different IT enhancements, including real-time information and mobile application, were introduced to improve customer experience, cost efficiency and ease of delivery of services. State Life has, therefore, a significant role in the successful implementation of health insurance programmes.

Over the course of five years, State Life has developed strong technical capacity, ground network, IT and human resource development to ensure effective implementation of programmes. More than 1.1 million patients are treated under the health programmes with more than 97% satisfaction rate as per 3rd party, i.e., NADRA’s assessment. The maximum amount of ground-work completed by State Life makes those programmes successful.

It is pertinent to mention that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa carried out an open tendering process in 2020 among leading private and public sector insurance companies to implement the Sehat Sahulat Programme. The shortlisted organisations include i) State Life Insurance Corporation; ii) A joint consortium of Askari Insurance, Jubilee Life, Jubilee General, AXA, Takaful Pakistan and System International; and iii) A joint consortium of United Insurance, SPI Insurance & Association of Development of Public Health.

State Life was awarded the contract for the implementation of SSP as a result of its highest technical score depicting the solid technical knowledge, historical experience, strong liquidity and financial strength of the corporation. Besides technical weightage, State Life has also quoted the lowest premium in comparison with other insurance companies. All the other insurance programmes procured by State Life have resulted from a similar open bidding process. As such, the perception of direct awarding of the Sehat Sahulat Programme to State Life is incorrect.

The organisation is in competition with other private sector insurers for UHI in Punjab, GB and ICT. The programme is expected to implement in phases, whereas State Life has already covered the entire DG Khan and Sahiwal divisions.

Exploring willingness to pay for health insurance and preferences for a benefits package from the perspective of women from low-income households of Karachi, Pakistan

https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-...

Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and reduction in out of pocket (OOP) expenditures on health, is a critical target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In low-middle income countries, micro-health insurance (MHI) schemes have emerged as a useful financing tool for laying grounds for Universal Health Coverage. The aim of this study was to provide evidence for designing a feasible health insurance scheme targeted at urban poor, by exploring preferences for an insurance benefits package and co-payments among women from low-income households in Karachi, Pakistan.

Respondents reporting expenditure on OPD and hospitalization in the last 2 weeks were 93.4 and 11.9% respectively. The highest median expenditure was incurred on medicines. Out of the proposed benefits package, a majority (53%) of the study participants opted for the comprehensive benefits package that provided coverage for emergency care, hospitalization, OPD consultation, diagnostic tests and transportation. For the co-payment plan, 38.9% participants preferred no co-payments that is 100% insurance coverage of medicines followed by hospitalization (25.9%). Nearly half of the respondents (49.4%) chose outpatient consultation for 50% co-payment. A majority of the participants (65.3%) agreed to 100% co-payment for the transportation cost.

Health insurance schemes can be introduced in urban areas, against collection of micro-payments, to prevent low-income households from facing financial catastrophe. A comprehensive benefits package covering emergency care, hospitalization, OPD consultation, diagnostic tests and transportation, is the most preferred among low-income beneficiaries.

Govt To Provide Loan To Deserving People Under Kamyab Pakistan Programme: Tarin

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/govt-to-provide-loan-to-deser...

:Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin Wednesday said the government would provide loan to deserving people to set up their business or purchase house through transparent process.

Talking to a private news channel, he said under Kamyab Pakistan Programme, low-cost housing scheme would be launched for lower income groups enabling them to own their houses.

Tarin said the data of deserving beneficiaries was available with department concerned in that regard.

The minister further said the incumbent government was providing loan on easy conditions and Kamyab Pakistan Programme beneficiaries could easily access to agriculture and business loans at zero-mark up without collateral.

He said the government under visionary leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan had strengthened and stabled the national economy through prudent economic policies.

-------------------------------

Kamyab Pakistan Program to bring 3 million families out of poverty: Shaukat Tarin


https://dunyanews.tv/en/Business/614415-Kamyab-Pakistan-Program-to-...


Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that beneficiaries of Kamyab Pakistan Program would enjoy easy access to agricultural and business loans at zero-mark up without collateral.

He was talking to Prime Minister s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar in Islamabad.

The Finance Minister said Kamyab Pakistan Program will provide low-cost housing scheme for lower income groups enabling them to own their houses.

He said the program will bring at least three million families out of the vicious cycle of poverty in the next three to five years.

PM #ImranKhan: Kisan Card will 'transform' farming in #Pakistan. #Technology will eliminate bribes and let #farmers get #agriculture loans and have direct access to agriculture #subsidies for #seeds, #pesticides & #fertilizer.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1620494


The premier said that the subsidy on DAP (diammonium phosphate), which was previously Rs500, would also be increased to Rs1,000 under the Kisan Card.

"Subsidies will also be available for seeds and pesticides," said the prime minister, adding that loans to farmers would also be provided through the card and preparations for this were already under way.

---"

The premier said that during the PTI government's tenure, farmers had gained an additional Rs1,100 billion due to the prices they received for produce such as sugarcane, wheat and corn.

"Pakistan's poverty is concentrated in rural areas," he said, adding that the additional money that farmers would gain would help to improve their standard of living. He said that reducing poverty had been the "real purpose" of the PTI government since day one, adding that it was now "moving towards that target".

The prime minister also mentioned other measures the government was taking to improve the agricultural sector and pointed out the Rs300bn transformation package.

"Water is a very big problem. If farmers face water shortages then their produce is affected," he said, adding that two big dams were being made after 50 years to address this issue and Rs220bn from the transformation package was set aside for the fortification and lining of canals. Additional small scale water projects were also being carried out, he said.

He also stated that due to his efforts, agriculture had been brought under the scope of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to benefit from Beijing's agricultural technology and seed development. Pakistan's own research institutions on seed development would also be revamped, the premier said.

The prime minister also stated that a lot of agricultural produce that was imported, would now be grown in Pakistan, adding that the country's favourable climate and temperature provided the necessary conditions to increase crop yield.

"Our farmers are still using old methods," lamented the premier and stated that extension services were being privatised. A trained professional per Union Council would be responsible for visiting farmers on a motorcycle in the area and informing them about new agricultural techniques.

"There is great need for this because we need [to adopt] new [agricultural] practices," said the prime minister, adding that Pakistan's agriculture was subsistence level so "we will train them (farmers) through extension services to increase their productivity."

He also pointed out initiatives to develop Pakistan's livestock and said Pakistan still imported milk due to low productivity. Thus, Rs40bn have been set aside to import semen so livestock breeds could be improved, said the premier.

"You will see that change will come in one to two years and because of that, milk production will increase three-fold," he said, adding that improving the breed of livestock will not only allow Pakistan to provide cheap milk but also export cheese and milk.

"We can earn $25bn just from cheese and milk exports in the next three years."

Prime Minister Imran Khan lamented the losses that vegetables and fruits suffered at 50 per cent and 20pc for grains. "So we have decided to develop storage for them and food processing plants," he announced, adding that billions of rupees were lost due to 20pc of wheat being lost and fruits and vegetables could otherwise be provided much cheaper.

Among other measures he mentioned were doubling of loans for farmers, local production of fertilisers, doubling cereal production as well as improving local production of medicinal plants, corn and developing the fishery sector such as prawns.

#Pakistan #infant mortality rate (#IMR) has declined from 278 deaths per 1000 live births in 1950 to 58 deaths per 1000 live births in 2020. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/PAK/pakistan/infant-mortality...

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1426956456843038720?s=20

Chart and table of the Pakistan infant mortality rate from 1950 to 2021. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.
The current infant mortality rate for Pakistan in 2021 is 57.998 deaths per 1000 live births, a 1.88% decline from 2020.
The infant mortality rate for Pakistan in 2020 was 59.109 deaths per 1000 live births, a 1.84% decline from 2019.
The infant mortality rate for Pakistan in 2019 was 60.219 deaths per 1000 live births, a 1.81% decline from 2018.
The infant mortality rate for Pakistan in 2018 was 61.330 deaths per 1000 live births, a 2.16% decline from 2017.

At the time of the first census in 1950, the overall literacy rate was 20% in India and 14% in Pakistan, according to UNESCO. As of 2012, India has achieved 75% literacy rate while Pakistan is at 58%. Pakistan Youth (15-24 years) literacy rate is 79.1% for males and 61.5% for females. Each new generation of Pakistanis is more literate than its predecessors:

Over 55 years 30% literate

45-55 years 40%

35-45 years 50%

25-35 years 60%

15-25 years 70%

http://www.riazhaq.com/2014/03/history-of-literacy-in-pakistan-1947...

Muzammil Aslam on Ehsaas, Sehat, Kisan cards in Pakistan


PTI
@PTIofficial
·
1h
وزیر اعظم نے احساس پروگرام شروع کیا ، مفت ہیلتھ انشورنس دی اور کاشتکار کو کسان کارڈ دیا جس سے عام آدمی کی زندگی بہتر ہوگی : مزمل اسلم
@MuzzammilAslam3

https://twitter.com/PTIofficial/status/1428105923629752322?s=20

#Pakistan to launch 911 #emergency helpline PEHEL (Pakistan Emergency HELpline) across the country. https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/single-emergency-helpline-...

Different emergency numbers will be merged into one hotline

Islamabad: The Pakistan government is set to launch an all-in-one emergency helpline 911 to swiftly respond to call for help across the country.

Different emergency numbers will be merged into one hotline called Pakistan Emergency Helpline (PEHEL). The idea is to launch a service similar to the 911 helpline in the United States.

The project is being implemented by the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) and the Digital Pakistan initiative of the IT ministry. NTC, which is responsible for providing secure and reliable telecommunication services to government organizations, is spearheading the initiative to help the citizens in distress. The software applications are being developed by NTC and the National Information Technology Board (NITB).

The dedicated emergency response number can be dialled to avail different services including police, ambulance, and other rescue and support so that the citizens will not have to go through different helplines during emergencies.

The decision was taken in the wake of the horrific rape incident at Lahore-Sialkot Motorway in September 2020 in which the victim failed to get any help through the motorway helpline. The incident prompted Prime Minister Imran Khan to launch a dedicated hotline to prevent such crimes and offer citizens immediate help during the emergency situation.

Khan had asked the PM Delivery Unit (PMDU) to complete work on the emergency helpline by December 2020. However, the launch of the pilot project in Islamabad is expected to take another two months. The testing of the service has been completed. The operations would initially begin at Safe City Islamabad.

The PEHEL 911 service would offer a “unified and one-window access to all emergency services” in Pakistan, according to IT Minister Syed Aminul Haq. The IT ministry will provide technical support and infrastructure and the interior ministry will ensure the smooth....

The missing third: An out-of-school children study of Pakistani 5-16 year-olds

https://www.dawn.com/news/1643918

The proportion of out-of-school children at the district, provincial and national level has been extracted from the Pakistan Social and Living Measurements Standards survey 2019-20 (PSLM). PSLM is conducted every two years by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, with data collection at the provincial and at the district levels in each alternate iteration.

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Out of all children in Pakistan between the ages of five to 16 years, 32 per cent, i.e. one third, are out of school (Note: 49% of these never enroll while 51% drop out by the age 16). This amounts to an estimated total of over 20 million. Balochistan has the highest proportion of OOSC at 47 per cent followed by Sindh at 44 per cent.

In absolute terms, Punjab has the largest total population of OOSC roughly estimated at 7.7 million followed by Sindh at 6.5 million.

---------------

There are two types of OOSC (Out of School Children):

• Children who have never attended school

• Children who have attended school in the past but have since dropped out

---------------------

https://mathsandscience.pk/

From Dawn's story "The missing third"

Of all children between the ages of 5-16, the highest enrolment rate is observed among nine years olds (82 per cent) followed by 11 year olds (81 per cent). It is interesting to note that the same trend is observed for boys and girls virtually across the range of five to 16 years. The only difference is percentage of enrolment of each age group is higher for boys than girls.

The data indicates two underlying themes:

• First time enrolments happen later than required — The data shows that enrolment rates pick up steadily from five years to nine years. It shows that more and more children are enrolled into the system much beyond the age of five. It also indicates lack of emphasis on early childhood education leading up to class 1.

• Drop outs start to happen between 9-11 years of age — The data shows a steady decline in enrolment percentages after 11 years, as children go beyond the primary school age. Possible reasons are limited access to middle and high schools which are typically fewer and farther compared to primary schools and rising opportunity costs.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1643918

3 Ways Hunar Ghar Helps Women in Pakistan


https://www.borgenmagazine.com/hunar-ghar-helps-women-in-pakistan/

Hunar Ghar helps women in Pakistan find confidence in themselves. Professional instructors teach skills such as embroidery, sewing, hairdressing, block printing and bag-making. Women enrolled in Hunar Ghar’s courses receive high-quality training allowing them to master their chosen skills. Learning improves by providing materials such as sewing machines, needles and cloth. All are entirely free for students. After completing their course, the women get an official certification to honor their hard work and achievements. Armed with the certificate, students can feel more confident in themselves and their abilities.

Hunar Ghar guides Pakistani women through the path of starting a business. After students complete their course, Hunar Ghar offers them the chance to sell their handmade products at the organization’s fundraisers and other events. Enrolled women get the opportunity to show their intricate kurtas, block print bags, hand-painted kitchenware and more to a large audience. As a result of more Pakistani consumers viewing their work, the women may begin to make a profit for themselves. Every year, nearly 250 Hunar Ghar course graduates can become entrepreneurs and establish their businesses.

PM Imran Khan launches Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP).
Under the programme, the government will provide Rs1.4 trillion micro loans to 3.7 million households across the country.
Kamyab Pakistan Programme has been designed to transform the lives of the marginalised segments of the society.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/373832-pm-imran-to-inaugurate-kamyab-paki...


Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday launched ambitious Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP) worth Rs1400 billion in Islamabad to facilitate the vulnerable segments of the society.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Kamyab Pakistan Programme in the federal capital, PM Imran Khan said that the project should have been launched 74 years ago.

The prime minister termed the KPP a landmark initiative and said that it will bring improvement in the living standards of the common man.

“Our system is made to facilitate the elite class,” the prime minister said, adding that the state of Madina was a role model for him.

Terming the Madina state the world’s most successful model, PM Imran said that people become prosperous after a welfare state was established in Madina.

Lashing out at the previous governments, the prime minister said the flawed policies of the past left far behind our marginalized segments of the society.

“Inequality is the basis of the downfall of any society,” PM Imran added. He maintained that no government worked on the uniform syllabus in the country.

Referring to China’s progress, the prime minister said that Beijing took measures to facilitate the vulnerable segments of the society and became a developed country within 35 years.

PM Imran, while talking about petrol prices, said, “In Pakistan, prices of petroleum products are less as compared to other countries of the region.”

“We have also tried to absorb the maximum pressure of international increase in the prices of commodities. There has been 100% increase in the prices of petroleum products over the last few months but we only increased their prices by 22%,” said the prime minister.

He maintained that his government reduced sales tax and levy on petrol to facilitate the masses.

It is pertinent to mention here that under the flagship programme, the government will provide Rs1.4 trillion micro-loans to 3.7 million households across the country.

The KPP will be rolled out in phases. During the first phase, the loans will be provided to the deserving families in Gilgit-Baltistan, AJK, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the underprivileged areas of Punjab and Sindh.

In line with the vision of the prime minister to empower the masses, the government has taken multiple initiatives, which are targeted towards poverty alleviation, employment generation and provision of affordable housing for the people.

The KPP initiative has been designed to transform the lives of the marginalised segments of society. The programme shall disburse microcredit amounting to Rs1,400 billion for the poorest of the poor, providing them with much needed financial support to improve their livelihood. Financing under the KPP shall only be extended to families with a cumulative average monthly income of up to Rs50,000 per month.

This is the first programme of its kind in Pakistan’s history wherein the banks are being connected to the lowest income segment through micro-finance institutions. KPP, a brainchild of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, is based on the concept of financial empowerment i.e. creating opportunities to improve the financial health of people with limited access to resources.

The finance minister stated that the government is firmly committed not to provide fish to the poor people but teach them how to catch one for a sustainable living arrangement under the umbrella of KPP. The whole paradigm of KPP will change the lives of the underprivileged people in Pakistan over the years. The programme is based on the most innovative financing structure in recent times.

PM Imran Khan launches Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP).
Under the programme, the government will provide Rs1.4 trillion micro loans to 3.7 million households across the country.
Kamyab Pakistan Programme has been designed to transform the lives of the marginalised segments of the society.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/373832-pm-imran-to-inaugurate-kamyab-paki...

What is Kamyab Pakistan Programme?
KPP has five components namely (i) Kamyab Kissan (ii) Kamyab Karobar (iii) Naya Pakistan low-cost housing (iv) Kamyab Hunarmand and (v) Sehatmand Pakistan.

Under the first 3 components, micro-loans shall be disbursed amongst eligible persons registered with Ehsaas Data, scientifically collected through National Socio-economic Registry (NSER).

The last two components of KPP will be integrated with the government’s existing initiatives. Kamyab Hunarmand is designed to integrate with the government’s ongoing skill development programme for imparting educational and vocational training to our talented youth.

The KPP also includes a user-friendly portal called Kamyab Pakistan Information System (KPIS). The portal will be integrated with Ehsaas and Nadra databases for verification of beneficiaries’ eligibility to facilitate the executing agencies (i.e. MfP’s) for finalising the financing modalities in a most efficient and seamless manner.

KPP will complement the efforts of the government to counter inflation by enabling the masses to improve their livelihood.

KPP is a true dispensation of a responsible state to uplift its poor and vulnerable segments with a key focus on a “bottom-up approach” for achieving all-inclusive and sustainable economic growth as envisaged by the prime minister.

Pakistan’s ‘miraculous’ new health card scheme provides affordable treatment for the poor


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/pakist...

Ishtiaq Ahmad has had heart trouble for years, but on security guard wages of only £72 per month, the chances of finding the £2,000 he needed for surgery had long seemed impossibly remote.

In his home city of Peshawar, in north west Pakistan, the free public hospitals are too often notorious for their poor care, while the better-regarded private hospitals are beyond the reach of all but the rich.

“I would look towards God to help, otherwise there was nothing. It was natural that if a person did not have the money, he will die, or suffer a lot,” he explained to The Telegraph.

The reason Mr Ahmad is now finally convalescing after heart valve surgery is a new government-funded health insurance scheme which is being rolled out across Pakistan.

The scheme's architects claim it has the power to quickly transform healthcare in a country where it has long lagged behind other developing nations. The Sehat health card which began as a flagship policy for prime minister Imran Khan's ruling party will soon be rolled out to cover most of the world's fifth most populous nation.

---------------

Dr Syed Shahkar Ahmed Shah, chief executive of the public Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, said: “Previously it was very frustrating because you could see these kids and adults who did not have money to pay and the government did not have enough money to fund the public hospitals.

“The families out of desperation would end up selling their land or cattle or homes to be able to afford these surgeries and the whole family would go deeper into poverty. Literally if you had a major health issue in Pakistan, it was a death sentence for the whole family. Economically they were just ruined. The Sehat card has been amazing. It really is a miraculous scheme.”

Treatment is provided through approved public or private hospitals and the comparatively low cost of healthcare in Pakistan has meant the state-owned insurance provider has been able to provide cover at around £3 per head. The card is currently costing 22bn rupees (£93m) out of a total health budget in the province of 146bn rupees (£620m).



Taimur Jhagra, a former McKinsey consultant who now holds both the health and finance ministerial portfolios in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said: “It shows us we can do big things in this country in a short amount of time. Somehow in Pakistan, and perhaps it's true the world over, you almost always feel that if there's anything with a good story, it has to be too good to be true.

He went on: “It's giving quality access to those that tend to be viewed by many as second class citizens and deserving of only second class facilities.”

The scheme will plough money into both public and private healthcare, he said, which he predicted would raise the standard in both. He defended giving money to the private sector, saying the government already funded public care. “We are not funding the private sector, we are funding health care for our citizens, wherever they want.,” he said.

Dr Shah said he had been able to use payments from the scheme to increase his doctors' pay, which he predicted would stop them jumping ship to private providers.

Pakistan PM unveils country’s ‘biggest ever’ welfare programme
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan unveiled $709m package of subsidies for low-income households struggling with food price inflation.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/11/4/pakistan-pm-unveils-cou...

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan unveiled a $709m package of food subsidies to ease the financial burden on low-income households as the prices of essentials continue to soar in the South Asian country.

Addressing the nation on Wednesday evening, Khan described the benefits package as “Pakistan’s biggest ever welfare programme”.

“This package is of Rs 120 billion ($709.2m), which the federal and provincial governments are giving jointly,” he said. “In this, we are [targeting] the three most important food items, ghee, flour and pulses.”

Under the plan, some 20 million qualifying low-income households will be entitled to a 30 percent discount on the purchase of the three items. The federal and provincial governments will make up the difference to retailers in the form of subsidy payments.


The subsidies will last for six months, Khan said, and are aimed at the poorest households, as classified by the government-run Ehsaas welfare programme.

Pakistani households have been dealing with spiralling consumer price inflation (CPI) in recent months, with October’s CPI clocking in at 9.2 percent compared with a year earlier.

Food inflation for core commodities has been particularly high, with the price of ghee increasing by 43 percent, flour by 12.97 percent and certain pulses by 17.62 percent over the last year, according to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The coronavirus pandemic hit the country’s economy hard, with economic growth slowing to 0.53 percent in 2020, according to the World Bank.

Prices for food, energy and other essential goods have skyrocketed around the world this year as countries cast off COVID-19 restrictions, triggering supply shortages and bottlenecks.

World food prices rose for a third straight month in October, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization said on Thursday, hitting a new 10 year high. Last month’s increase was driven by vegetable oils and cereals.

Khan blamed Pakistan’s inflation on international commodity prices, including petrol, claiming that his government had done a better job than others to absorb global price increases.

“What can we do about this? The inflation that is coming from outside. Let Allah make it so that we have all these things in our country, then we can reduce prices, but [not for things being imported],” he said.

Pakistan, which relies heavily on imports of essentials as well as other goods, has also been hit hard by a devaluation of its currency this year.

The Pakistani rupee has lost 13.1 percent of its value against the US dollar since May.

Khan’s government has expanded welfare spending during the pandemic to address unemployment and poverty, disbursing 179 billion rupees ($1.06bn) in grants to low-income families this year, according to government data.

Consumer Price Inflation, however, appears set to continue to increase, with Khan warning in his speech on Wednesday that the government would likely have to raise petroleum and diesel prices, in response to global oil price increases.

What are the key findings of the Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021?
Key findings at the global level
The report mentions that there are 1.3 billion multidimensionally poor people globally.


https://blog.forumias.com/in-india-5-out-of-6-multidimensionally-po...


The top five countries with the largest number of people living in multidimensional poverty are India (381 million), Nigeria (93 million), Pakistan (83 million), Ethiopia (77 million) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (56million).

Women and Children: Almost two-thirds of global multidimensionally poor people – 836 million- live in households in which no female member has completed at least six years of schooling. These people live mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa (363 million) and South Asia (350 million).

The report also found that half of global multidimensionally poor people are children.

Women-led houses: One in six multidimensionally poor people across 108 countries live in female-headed households.

Key findings related to India
The report mentions that, in India, five out of six multidimensionally poor people are from lower tribes or castes.

The Scheduled Tribe group accounts for 9.4% of the population and is the poorest, with 65 million of the 129 million people living in multidimensional poverty. They account for about one-sixth of all people living in multidimensional poverty in India.

Following the Scheduled Tribe group is the Scheduled Caste group with 33.3 percent – 94 million of 283 million people living in multidimensional poverty.

The report further said that 27.2 percent of the Other Backward Class group– 160 million of 588 million people — live in multidimensional poverty.

Overall, five out of six multidimensionally poor people in India live in households whose head is from a Scheduled Tribe, a Scheduled Caste or Other Backward Class.

In India, close to 12 percent of the Multidimensional poor population — 162 million people — live in female-headed households.

About the Multidimensional Poverty Index
The report is developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 2010 for UNDP’s Human Development Reports.

ASER Report Findings:

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/913975-educational-outcomes

These poor living conditions (in urban slums) are also reflected in the delivery of education. Around 20 percent of the urban slums surveyed did not have a government school. The majority of children living in the surveyed urban slums were enrolled in private schools (59 percent) that include madrassahs (eight percent) and non-formal education providers (one percent) and the remaining children (41 percent) were enrolled in government schools. Enrolment is higher in the 5-10 age bracket, while one in three children of 16-year-old is out of school.

There are also inter-district variations. Government school enrolment is higher in Lahore (59 percent) while private school enrolment is higher in Korangi, Karachi (again 59 percent). In terms of madrassah enrolment, it varies between two and three percent in Lahore, Malir, and Korangi, and it is 24 percent in Karachi-West where one in four children is studying in a madrassah.

Girls relatively fall behind in terms of enrolment. With regard to evaluating learning outcomes, children studying in urban slums lag behind the ASER assessment in 2019 in these very same districts conducted as part of the ASER survey. However, urban slums of these four districts are being assessed systematically for the first time in this pilot study.

According to the report, “In 2019, learning outcomes (5-16 year old) gathered in the same four districts revealed Urdu/Sindhi story reading at 46 percent, while in 2021 the four district katchi abadis, story reading in Urdu/Sindhi is 35 percent. For two-digit division in 2019, 41 percent children were competent, while in katchi abadis in 2021, it is 26 percent; in 2019, 46 percent children could read sentences in English, but in katchi abadis in 2021, 37 percent children can read English sentences. The challenges can be interrogated by gender, institution, mother tongue, psychosocial well-being etc.”

Despite challenges, girls performed relatively better in numeracy and literacy in urban slums. Similarly, children studying in private schools showed relatively better results than those studying in government schools. It is again something that has already been highlighted by me in an article ‘Private education’ (October 31) published on these pages. Madrassah students’ educational outcomes were extremely poor. Only 7.4 percent could read a story in Urdu/Sindhi, 10 percent could read sentences in English, and 4.4 percent of more than 400 madrassah students (5-16 years old) who were assessed as part of the pilot study could solve division problems.

The other important factors are learning in the mother tongue, household wealth, parents’ – particularly mother’s – education, technology availability and usage that are positively correlated with higher learning outcomes of children. The report also states that psychosocial well-being is important, and as someone who has always believed and practised in never ever giving up and always having a good fight with a positive frame of mind no matter how difficult and arduous circumstances might be at some point in one’s life, one sees the wisdom in including this variable in the report while assessing children’s well-being.

Another positive finding of the report is that technology and internet usage is prevalent in the majority of houses in urban slums. Roughly 80 percent of the households have mobile phones – 63 percent even have smartphones – and 21 percent have laptops/computers. In total, one-third of the participating households (33 percent) stated that they use the internet. This shows that there is tremendous potential for web-based technology-oriented learning and livelihoods solutions.

In Pakistan’s remote areas, midwives ensure care beyond safe birth

https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-s-remote-areas-midwi...

During the pandemic, 24-year-old Seema moved to Koohi Goth, an urban slum on the outskirts of Pakistan’s largest city, to be closer to her parents.

She had three daughters, the youngest of whom died as a newborn because of the lack of neonatal services in her former neighbourhood of Karachi City, a few miles from the Rehri Goth, coupled with limited prenatal care to address pregnancy complications.

Now she is pregnant again, but this time, she started visiting the midwifery-led care unit at the Koohi Goth Hospital, where she receives regular checkups for free.

A need to improve care

Reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health indicators remain poor in Pakistan. Early childbearing and lack of awareness put women at life-threatening risks. In remote areas, health facilities are scarce and births are mostly attended by unskilled midwives, further exacerbating the risk of maternal and child mortality. According to the 2019 Pakistan Maternal Mortality Survey, the maternal mortality rate is 186 deaths per 100,000 live births. (The number is higher in rural areas versus urban areas.)

As other hospitals shut down given COVID-19 restrictions, Koohi Goth Hospital’s doors stayed open to a rising number of visitors. Every day, almost 500 women visit the facility’s outpatient department and on average, five babies are safely delivered. “Hundreds of women visit the facility every day. I sometimes feel tired but these women need us,” says Noor, the facility’s senior midwife whose patients include Seema. “When we help them, we forget our pain.”

The midwives here come from the most underserved communities across Pakistan, including Sindh, Gligit-Balistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. UNFPA provides refresher training as well as Internet-based courses to enhance and expand their skills. UNFPA then works with local governments to deploy them to remote areas to staff Basic Health Units, the main way people access primary health care.

UNFPA is also working with Pakistan National Forum for Women’s Health, a pioneer in midwifery services and obstetric fistula prevention and treatment, to establish three more midwifery-led care units within hospitals in Sindh province. Midwives in these units handle low-risk pregnancies, provide family planning counselling and conduct antenatal and postnatal check-ups, referring more complicated cases to obstetricians/gynaecologists.

**Counselling for contraceptives **

Neelum is a midwife at Keti Bandar, a remote fishermen village at the old harbour in Thatta district, 150 kilometres away from Karachi. Family planning counselling, information and services “are essential and lifesaving, considering the high fertility trends in the coastal communities and short birth spacing, which many times leads to pregnancy complications,” she said.

When patients tell the midwives that their husbands and mothers-in-law pressure them not to use contraception, the midwives invite the husbands to learn about the consequences of repeated pregnancies. “Now, the use of long-acting reversible contraceptives is increasing,” said Neelum, who also makes house calls. “We are also introducing male contraceptives in the communities.”

There is a huge need to develop a cadre of midwives to ensure that women in remote communities receive care and services. UNFPA, with the support of Johnson & Johnson and other partners, is working with federal and provincial health authorities to raise the level of midwifery education and services in Pakistan.

Seema, who gave birth at 17 to her first daughter at home, said, “My mother-in-law prays for my life because a mother’s life is important for little children.”

Javed Hassan
@javedhassan
Superb initiative of school meals program for 23000 students of 100 Public primary schools of Islamabad by Fed Min of Education under
@Shafqat_Mahmood
. The program will help in ensuring significant reduction in dropouts and improved learning .

https://twitter.com/javedhassan/status/1496424187300356100?s=20&...

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“The ‘School Meal Program’ improved the attendance, health, and retention of students in schools where the program has already been initiated,” the (Punjab) minister said.

He said that the schools under this program have seen a 33 percent increase in attendance, and a 77 percent improvement in students’ health, and their BMI levels.


https://propakistani.pk/2022/02/04/punjab-govt-launches-free-lunch-...

Senator Dr Sania Nishtar
@SaniaNishtar
Anonymized data from the #Ehsaas Registry is being made public. This is a gold mine for researchers and globally, a stellar example of #DataDemocratisation. 3/3
https://bit.ly/3LZEnuZ

https://twitter.com/SaniaNishtar/status/1514183448109498370?s=20&am...

Ehsaas, the Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf government-run social safety net, achieved a historical landmark of completing the Ehsaas Survey for 34 million households in Pakistan.

This is South Asia’s first digital door-to-door ‘census-like’ survey, with multiple digital safeguards to hedge against abuse, said Dr Sania Nishtar, former special assistant to PM and Chairperson Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).

Senator Dr Sania Nishtar today shared an informational video on the Ehsaas National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) as she stepped down, highlighting an important component of Ehsaas that was completed but not yet publicly released.


On Twitter, she wrote, “Our Government achieved the historical landmark of completing the Ehsaas Survey for 34 Mn households. This is South Asia’s first digital door-to-door ‘census-like’ survey, with multiple digital safeguards to hedge against abuse”.


She further added “Ehsaas’ Registry enabled the govt to target Ehsaas’ social benefits effectively, target subsidies, and respond to shocks. Here are some insights from the survey across multiple dimensions and unique attributes of the registry. Anonymized Data from the Ehsaas Registry is being made public. This is a gold mine for researchers and globally a stellar example of #DataDemocratisation”.

Ehsaas achieved a historical landmark earlier this year to conclude the nationwide door-to-door NSER survey for more than 34 million households. The NSER survey is an all-encompassing survey designed to assess the socioeconomic status of the household and ascertain their poverty score through Proxy Means Testing (0 – 100). The survey has 43 unique variables and covers demographic, socio-economic, education, health, and asset profiles of the household.


The Ehsaas Registry is unique and important for its own reasons. It was not just Pakistan’s but also South Asia’s first digital and census-like door-to-door survey. Multiple digital safeguards, logical checks, and 3rd party validation and profiling were conducted to hedge against the risk and ensure data credibility. And through its credible and reliable database, it became a key enabler in decision making for all Ehsaas programs and facilitated making evidence-based and impartial decisions on the basis of need and merit.

To promote transparency and encourage data sharing, Ehsaas has made selective data from the NSER registry public. The video shares key insights across four key dimensions including Household coverage, Socio-economic analysis, Education analysis, and Health and Disability analysis. A dynamic PowerBI-based dashboard has also been developed and can be accessed here:

Modest progress on SDGs
Khaleeq Kiani

https://www.dawn.com/news/1686708


Pakistan’s first Sustainable Develop­ment Goals (SDGs) Status Report (2021) is out and the country’s overall progress on SDGs is modest.

“Overall, Pakistan’s SDGs (composite) index score has increased from 53.11 in 2015 to 63.49 in 2020 i.e. 19.5 per cent up from the baseline of 2015,” according to Dr Shabnam Sarfraz, member of Social Sector and Devolution of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives.

In summary, the status report finds a considerable decline in extreme poverty, improvement in access to energy, increased industrial activities, reduction in maternal mortality, improvement in undernourishment, food insecurity, wash and housing, and climate action.

There are many areas identified by the report that need urgent collective attention such as education, children out of school, the proportion of youth not in education, employment and training, provision of decent work environment, implementation of climatic adaptation etc.

Since 2015, the Government of Pakistan has not published a consolidated report that presents the country’s progress on SDGs indicators viz-a-viz their baseline values. The report captures the existing data availability gap and compares the baseline 2014-2015 with values of the most recent available data on 133 SDG indicators.

The report says that Pakistan’s progress on SDG-1 — poverty reduction has been steady. Poverty has been on the decline between the period 2014-15 and 2018-19 with 9.3 million people lifted out of poverty away from the national poverty line. Similarly, Pakistan witnessed a significant decline in the proportion of the population affected by disasters.

In a drive towards zero hunger as espoused by SDG-2, undernourishment declined by 4.2pc from 20.2pc to 16pc from 2015 to 2019. Also, a moderate achievement was made through the reduction of stunting by 7pc and wasting by 4pc during 2013-18 among children under five years of age.

Improvements are seen in health outcomes for mothers by reducing anaemia among pregnant women by 16.5pc in seven years during 2011-18. There was a one per cent decrease in the agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture, from 39pc to 38pc, over four years during 2015-2019.

On good health and well-being under SDG-3, Pakistan has shown reasonable progress by improving most of the basic health indicators. The number of mothers dying during pregnancy and live births reduced by 32.6pc during 2007-2019. Births attended by skilled health personnel increased by 10pc in five years during 2013-18. National vaccination coverage improved by 11.5pc in five years between 2013 and 2018.

Concerning education achievements (SDG-4), the country’s progress has been dismal. The primary completion rate has stagnated at 67pc in five years during 2015-20. Similarly, the gender gap (SDG-5) of 9pc between the primary completion rate of males and females has also persisted in this period. The lower secondary completion rate has marginally increased from 50pc to 59pc during 2015-20. The national literacy rate stagnated at 60pc in five years during 2015-20, which is alarming and worrying.

More girls were enrolled in schools improving the gender parity in net enrolment at primary, middle and Matric levels during 2015-19. Large deficiencies and disparities persist in the provision of basic services to schools across the country.

Access to clean water and sanitation has also shown improvements at the national and provincial levels over time under SDG-6. Improved source of drinking water is available to 94pc of the country’s population. Access to drinking water in Balochistan has increased by 17pc in 5 years during 2015-20. The population having access to unshared toilets and handwashing facilities is 68pc and 54pc respectively, as per Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2019-20.

Modest progress on SDGs
Khaleeq Kiani

https://www.dawn.com/news/1686708


Pakistan’s first Sustainable Develop­ment Goals (SDGs) Status Report (2021) is out and the country’s overall progress on SDGs is modest.


On SDG-7, Pakistan’s commitment to the environment is shown by an increase in the share of renewable energy by more than four times between 2015 to 2019. The reliance on clean fuel (cooking) increased to 47pc in the period during 2018-19, from 41.3pc in 2014-15 at the national level. An increase of 3pc was recorded in 2019- 20 with 96pc of the population having access to electricity as compared to 93pc in 2014-15.

On SDG-8 ensuring decent work and economic growth, the economy experienced a slowdown with an annual growth rate of real GDP per capita declining to -3.36pc in the fiscal year 2019-20 from 2.04pc in 2014-15. Similarly, almost one-third of the total youth (30pc) in the age group (15-24 years) was not obtaining education, employment or training at the national level over the four year period of 2015-19 (SDGs indicator 8.6.1). Within the country, the highest instance of this category of youth was in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 38pc. The children aged 10-14 years engaged in work slightly reduced by over 2pc to 6.47pc from 8.64pc during 2015-19, at the national level.

Some progress was made on the SDG-9: industry, innovation and infrastructure targets. With the availability of new data from PSLM the baseline value is established with 88pc of the rural population living within two kilometres of an all-season road. The proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added increased to 10.50pc in 2019-20 from 8.40pc in 2014-15, despite the overall negative effects of Covid-19 in 2019-20. The proportion of the mobile phone-owning population increased by 1pc in two years, from 45pc to 46pc between 2018-20.

A slight dent was made by the reduction of income inequality by 2pc in 2016-2019 for SDG-10. A small decline of 7pc in the proportion of the urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing also occurred during 2014-2018 from 45pc to 38pc for SDG-11. Pakistan remains committed to addressing the problem of hazardous waste and to compliance with the Basel Convention as required under SDG-12 concerning sustainable consumption and production. Regarding SDG-13 on climate action, greenhouse gas emissions were 375.03 million tonnes in 2016, a 2.5pc increase from 2015.

Relating to the SDG-14: Life below Water, Pakistan has maintained the proportion of fish stocks at 30pc within biologically sustainable levels for the five years between 2015-20. Despite the growing population and rapid urbanisation pressures, Pakistan’s forest area as a proportion of total land remained unchanged at around 5pc in five years between 2015-2020 which is one of the targets of SDG-15: Life on Land.

On SDG-16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; in terms of counting the uncounted, birth registration of children under 5 years showed an improvement by 8.2pc in five years between 2013-18. Under SDG-17 developing partnerships for achieving SDGs showed significant improvement in its journey towards digital transformation as the fixed internet broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants increased by 20pc in three years during 2017-20.

SDG Rankings Report 2021:


https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings

Central African Republic 38.27 165

Nigeria 48.93 160

Haiti 51.35 150

Uganda 53.15 140

Rwanda 57.58 130

Pakistan score 57.72 rank 129

India 60.07 120

Bangladesh 63.45 109

Nepal 66.52 96

Sri Lanka 68.10 87

Bhutan 69.98 75

China 62.07 57

Russia 73.75 46

US 76.01 32

UK 79.97 17

Finland 85.90 1

Sindh to Finally Get #Rescue 1122 After Almost Two Decades. #PPP gov't in #Sindh has procured 288 new #ambulances and a loan of $70 million from the #WorldBank to launch the service. #Punjab launched it in 2004 in #Musharraf era. #Pakistan #emergency https://propakistani.pk/2022/05/10/sindh-to-finally-get-rescue-1122...

After noticing its effectiveness in Punjab, the Sindh government has decided to launch the Rescue 1122 emergency response service. The Punjab government launched this service in 2004, giving it an 18-year-headstart over Sindh.

According to a media report, the government has procured 288 new ambulances and a loan of $70 million from the World Bank to launch the service.

Sources say that authorities will deliver new ambulances to the health department soon. They added that Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) will begin work on the mobilization of Rescue 1122 next week.

Sources further stated that the ambulance service will work under Aman Foundation, while the fire brigade will operate under the Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) department of Sindh.

The government will set up Rescue 1122’s regional offices in all divisional headquarters and will continue to use PDMA’s machinery and staff to diffuse emergency situations.


Rescue 1122 will have five offices in Karachi. Also, the Sindh government will likely integrate the service with 10,000 cameras at 2,000 locations across the mega-city as a part of its latest Safe City project.

‘Pakistan SDGs Status Report 2021’ presents Pakistan’s progress on the SDGs using national and provincial data. The first of its kind, the status report, published by the Federal SDGs Support Unit at the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Pakistan, highlights the country’s progress on SDG indicators vis-à-vis their 2014-2015 baseline values. The report presents data on 133 SDG indicators with their corresponding latest values. Overall, the report assesses Pakistan’s progress on the SDGs as “modest.”


http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/measuring-progress-th...

https://www.sdgpakistan.pk/uploads/pub/Pak_SDGs_Status_Report_2021.pdf

Pakistan’s progress on SDG 1 (no poverty) is steady. Poverty consistently declined in the period from 2014-2015 until 2018-2019, with 9.3 million people lifted out of poverty, based on the national poverty line. Similarly, Pakistan witnessed a significant decline in the proportion of the population affected by disasters. In a drive towards zero hunger (SDG 2), undernourishment declined by 4.2% from 20.2% in 2015 to 16% in 2019.

Pakistan shows modest progress in the basic health indicators of SDG 3 (good health and well-being). The number of mothers dying during pregnancy and in child birth reduced by 32.6% from 2007 to 2019. Births attended by skilled health personnel increased by 10% in the five years from 2013 to 2018. National vaccination coverage improved by 11.5% in the period from 2013-2018.

The country’s progress on achieving quality education (SDG 4), however, is dismal. The primary school completion rate stagnated at 67% in the five years from 2015-2020. The national literacy rate remained at 60% in the same period.

On gender equality (SDG 5), Pakistan shows progress on several fronts. The proportion of women in managerial positions (SDG indicator 5.5.2) nearly doubled between 2015 (2.7%) and 2019 (4.53%). Physical violence reduced by 5.3% from 18% in 2012-2013 to 13.6% in 2017-2018 nationwide. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which had previously recorded the highest rates of physical violence against women (31%), saw numbers decline from 2013-2018 to 23.4% and 34.6%, respectively.

Access to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) also shows improvements at the national and provincial levels. Improved sources of drinking water are available to 94% of the country’s population. Access to improved drinking water in Balochistan increased by 17% from 2015-2020.

Pakistan’s commitment to the environment is evidenced by an increase in the share of renewable energy (SDG 7) by more than four times between 2015 and 2019. Reliance on clean fuel for cooking nationwide increased to 47% in the period from 2018-2019, from the floor of 41.3% in 2014-2015.

Progress on SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) indicators is slow. The economy experienced a slowdown, with an annual growth rate of real GDP per capita declining to -3.36% in the fiscal year 2019-2020, from 2.04% in 2014-2015. Some progress was made on the SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) targets. The proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added increased to 10.5% in 2019-2020, from 8.4% in 2014-2015, despite the overall negative effects of COVID-19 in 2019-2020.

A slight dent was made in the reduction of income inequality – a 2% drop from 2016-2019, contributing to SDG 10 (reduced inequalities). A decline of 7% in the proportion of the urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing (SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities) also occurred, from 45% in 2014 to 38% in 2018.

‘Pakistan SDGs Status Report 2021’ presents Pakistan’s progress on the SDGs using national and provincial data. The first of its kind, the status report, published by the Federal SDGs Support Unit at the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Pakistan, highlights the country’s progress on SDG indicators vis-à-vis their 2014-2015 baseline values. The report presents data on 133 SDG indicators with their corresponding latest values. Overall, the report assesses Pakistan’s progress on the SDGs as “modest.”


http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/measuring-progress-th...

https://www.sdgpakistan.pk/uploads/pub/Pak_SDGs_Status_Report_2021.pdf


Pakistan remains committed to addressing the problem of hazardous waste and achieving compliance with the Basel Convention as required under SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production). However, Pakistan’s contribution to SDG 13 (climate action) is minimal. The country has adopted and implemented national disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in line with the Sendai Framework on DRR, with the 2020 index score of 0.8, an improvement on 2018 when it was 0.4. However, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions grew by 375.03 million tons in 2016, a 2.5% increase from 2015.

With respect to SDG 14 (life below water), Pakistan maintained the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels at 30% between 2015 and 2020. Despite the growing population and rapid urbanization, Pakistan’s forest area as a proportion of total land – one of the targets of SDG 15 (life on land) – remained unchanged, at around 5% from 2015-2020.

Regarding SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), birth registration of children under five showed an improvement of 8.2% from 2013-2018. Pakistan is showing significant improvement on SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals) on its journey towards digital transformation. Fixed internet broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants increased by 20% in the three years from 2017-2020.

Pakistan’s 2021 SDG status report visualizes the country’s progress through a nationally computed index by the SDGs Section and Federal SDGs Unit of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives. Pakistan’s SDG index was developed on the basis of national data sources collated from authentic and reliable sources.

Pakistan’s generational shift
By Dr Ayesha RazzaqueMay 22, 2022

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/959718-pakistan-s-generational-shift

In this generation only 18.7 per cent of rural women are without an education, down from 75.5 per cent from their mothers’ generation. Nearly 50 per cent have an education ranging from a primary to secondary education, up from just 20 per cent in the previous generation. A stunning 22.9 per cent have a higher secondary or above education, up from an almost nothing 0.3 per cent in their previous generation.


---------------

Last year saw the publication of ‘Womansplaining – Navigating Activism, Politics and Modernity in Pakistan,’ a book edited by Federal Minister Sherry Rehman to which I was able to contribute a chapter. It connected education with women’s rights and argued that indigenous movements like the Aurat March should focus on education as a core part of their agenda.

Detractors of Pakistan’s women’s rights movement have been taking potshots at it by claiming that the issues it raises are not the issues of ‘real’ (read: rural) women. Put aside for a minute the fact that Pakistan’s rural population now accounts for 62 per cent, down from 72 per cent in 1980, and is on a steady decline. While the numbers may differ, and women’s power to negotiate may differ, rural and urban women share basic challenges and better education can yield similar opportunities and improvements in life circumstances.

Indigenous progressive and women’s rights movements have adopted the cause of education as an agenda item but should make it front and center, specifically K-12 education for girls in rural areas. New data further substantiates that connection with numbers. Education up to the higher secondary level, just the education that rural schools offer today, is the enabler that brings increased women’s labour force participation, delayed first marriage, lower rates of consanguinity, increased income, increased spousal income, and is a contributing factor to greater freedom of movement and communication – all positives.

Studies exploring the relationships between levels of education and life circumstances around the world are plentiful and capture the situation at a point and place in time. The Learning and Educational Achievements in Pakistan Schools (LEAPS) programme is qualitatively different because it already spans a period of almost two decades. The LEAPS programme has been tracking lower- and middle-income households in 120 randomly selected villages across three districts in rural Punjab since 2003. It has been revisiting them since then, most recently for the sixth time in 2018, roughly once every three years. That makes it one of the largest and longest panels of households in lower- and middle-income countries. This study is also unique as it looks at return on investment in education beyond an individual’s income and looks into the possible spillover into life circumstances and quality-of-life which is especially interesting for those interested in women empowerment and feminist movements.

In this latest round it surveyed 2006 women now aged 20-30. All these women were from the same 120 birth villages and have been tracked to their marital homes within or outside the village if they have married, migrated or moved for any other reason. Preliminary descriptive results of the long-running LEAPS study tell interesting stories. The headline finding of LEAPS investigators is that Pakistan is in the midst of a ‘generational shift’ where, for the first time in its education history, we have a ‘critical mass of moderately educated women’.



-----------

Existing plans, at least in the domain of education, remain unguided by some of the very excellent evidence that is available. Meanwhile, the Planning Commission is organizing a ‘Turnaround Pakistan’ conference perhaps as early as May 28 to conduct national consultations. Whether a hurriedly thrown together conference can change the way business is done remains to be seen.

Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment has registered 88,353 emigrants
during March, 2022 for overseas employment in different countries.

https://www.finance.gov.pk/economic/economic_update_April_2022.pdf

Social Sector
− PPAF through its 24 Partner Organizations has disbursed 44,386 interest free
loans amounting to Rs 2.0 billion during the month of March 2022. Since inception
of interest free loan component, a total of 1,805,297 interest free loans amounting
to Rs 64.9 billion have been disbursed to the borrowers.
− Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment has registered 88,353 emigrants
during March, 2022 for overseas employment in different countries.
− Under Kamyab Jawan Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (PMKJ-YES) the amount
disbursed stands at Rs 36,846 million till February 2022 to the youth for
businesses
− Covid-19 pandemic has been successfully contained by the government with its
mass vaccination drive. The NCOC is dissolved keeping in view the persistently
falling positivity rate.
− The Ministry of FE&PT and Malala Fund signed a Letter of Understanding (LoU) to
work together on promotion of STEAM in girls high schools.
− Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) has partnered
with the Easy-Paisa for facilitating students for digital fee-payments

Pakistan’s generational shift
By Dr Ayesha RazzaqueMay 22, 2022

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/959718-pakistan-s-generational-shift

Last year saw the publication of ‘Womansplaining – Navigating Activism, Politics and Modernity in Pakistan,’ a book edited by Federal Minister Sherry Rehman to which I was able to contribute a chapter. It connected education with women’s rights and argued that indigenous movements like the Aurat March should focus on education as a core part of their agenda.

Detractors of Pakistan’s women’s rights movement have been taking potshots at it by claiming that the issues it raises are not the issues of ‘real’ (read: rural) women. Put aside for a minute the fact that Pakistan’s rural population now accounts for 62 per cent, down from 72 per cent in 1980, and is on a steady decline. While the numbers may differ, and women’s power to negotiate may differ, rural and urban women share basic challenges and better education can yield similar opportunities and improvements in life circumstances.

Indigenous progressive and women’s rights movements have adopted the cause of education as an agenda item but should make it front and center, specifically K-12 education for girls in rural areas. New data further substantiates that connection with numbers. Education up to the higher secondary level, just the education that rural schools offer today, is the enabler that brings increased women’s labour force participation, delayed first marriage, lower rates of consanguinity, increased income, increased spousal income, and is a contributing factor to greater freedom of movement and communication – all positives.

Studies exploring the relationships between levels of education and life circumstances around the world are plentiful and capture the situation at a point and place in time. The Learning and Educational Achievements in Pakistan Schools (LEAPS) programme is qualitatively different because it already spans a period of almost two decades. The LEAPS programme has been tracking lower- and middle-income households in 120 randomly selected villages across three districts in rural Punjab since 2003. It has been revisiting them since then, most recently for the sixth time in 2018, roughly once every three years. That makes it one of the largest and longest panels of households in lower- and middle-income countries. This study is also unique as it looks at return on investment in education beyond an individual’s income and looks into the possible spillover into life circumstances and quality-of-life which is especially interesting for those interested in women empowerment and feminist movements.

In this latest round it surveyed 2006 women now aged 20-30. All these women were from the same 120 birth villages and have been tracked to their marital homes within or outside the village if they have married, migrated or moved for any other reason. Preliminary descriptive results of the long-running LEAPS study tell interesting stories. The headline finding of LEAPS investigators is that Pakistan is in the midst of a ‘generational shift’ where, for the first time in its education history, we have a ‘critical mass of moderately educated women’.

In this generation only 18.7 per cent of rural women are without an education, down from 75.5 per cent from their mothers’ generation. Nearly 50 per cent have an education ranging from a primary to secondary education, up from just 20 per cent in the previous generation. A stunning 22.9 per cent have a higher secondary or above education, up from an almost nothing 0.3 per cent in their previous generation.



-----------

Existing plans, at least in the domain of education, remain unguided by some of the very excellent evidence that is available. Meanwhile, the Planning Commission is organizing a ‘Turnaround Pakistan’ conference perhaps as early as May 28 to conduct national consultations. Whether a hurriedly thrown together conference can change the way business is done remains to be seen.

Our total consumption of wheat and atta is about 125kg per capita per year. Our per person per day calorie intake has risen from about 2,078 in 1949-50 to 2,400 in 2001-02 and 2,580 in 2020-21

By Riaz Riazuddin former deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.


https://www.dawn.com/news/1659441/consumption-habits-inflation

As households move to upper-income brackets, the share of spending on food consumption falls. This is known as Engel’s law. Empirical proof of this relationship is visible in the falling share of food from about 48pc in 2001-02 for the average household. This is an obvious indication that the real incomes of households have risen steadily since then, and inflation has not eaten up the entire rise in nominal incomes. Inflation seldom outpaces the rise in nominal incomes.

Coming back to eating habits, our main food spending is on milk. Of the total spending on food, about 25pc was spent on milk (fresh, packed and dry) in 2018-19, up from nearly 17pc in 2001-01. This is a good sign as milk is the most nourishing of all food items. This behaviour (largest spending on milk) holds worldwide. The direct consumption of milk by our households was about seven kilograms per month, or 84kg per year. Total milk consumption per capita is much higher because we also eat ice cream, halwa, jalebi, gulab jamun and whatnot bought from the market. The milk used in them is consumed indirectly. Our total per person per year consumption of milk was 168kg in 2018-19. This has risen from about 150kg in 2000-01. It was 107kg in 1949-50 showing considerable improvement since then.

Since milk is the single largest contributor in expenditure, its contribution to inflation should be very high. Thanks to milk price behaviour, it is seldom in the news as opposed to sugar and wheat, whose price trend, besides hurting the poor is also exploited for gaining political mileage. According to PBS, milk prices have risen from Rs82.50 per litre in October 2018 to Rs104.32 in October 2021. This is a three-year rise of 26.4pc, or per annum rise of 8.1pc. Another blessing related to milk is that the year-to-year variation in its prices is much lower than that of other food items. The three-year rise in CPI is about 30pc, or an average of 9.7pc per year till last month. Clearly, milk prices have contributed to containing inflation to a single digit during this period.

Next to milk is wheat and atta which constitute about 11.2pc of the monthly food expenditure — less than half of milk. Wheat and atta are our staple food and their direct consumption by the average household is 7kg per capita (84kg per capita per year). As we also eat naan from the tandoors, bread from bakeries etc, our indirect consumption of wheat and atta is 41kg per capita. Our total consumption of wheat and atta is about 125kg per capita per year. Our per person per day calorie intake has risen from about 2,078 in 1949-50 to 2,400 in 2001-02 and 2,580 in 2020-21. The per capita per day protein intake in grams increased from 63 to 67 to about 75 during these years. Does this indicate better health? To answer this, let us look at how we devour ghee and sugar. Also remember that each person requires a minimum of 2,100 calories and 60g of protein per day.

Undoubtedly, ghee, cooking oil and sugar have a special place in our culture. We are familiar with Urdu idioms mentioning ghee and shakkar. Two relate to our eating habits. We greet good news by saying ‘Aap kay munh may ghee shakkar’, which literally means that may your mouth be filled with ghee and sugar. We envy the fortune of others by saying ‘Panchon oonglian ghee mei’ (all five fingers immersed in ghee, or having the best of both worlds). These sayings reflect not only our eating trends, but also the inflation burden of the rising prices of these three items — ghee, cooking oil and sugar. Recall any wedding dinner. Ghee is floating in our plates.