BISP most successful Social Protection Programme for supporting poor & vulnerable segments of society: Shazia Marri

ISLAMABAD, Sep 16 (SABAH): Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety/Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Ms. Shazia Atta Marri has said that BISP is the most successful Social Protection Programme committed to support the poor and vulnerable segments of society. In recent floods across the country BISP has disbursed Rs. 27,645 million to 946,967 flood affected families.

She said this while expressing her views during a meeting with delegation of World Bank here at BISP headquarters in Islamabad.  

During the meeting the delegation was briefed on the multi-component social protection strategy and widespread operations of Benazir Income Support Program. She apprised the delegation that since the launch of Benazir Kafaalat Programme, Rs. 1.309 trillion have been disbursed to 7.9 million beneficiaries, Rs. 40 billion have been disbursed to 8.04 million children under Benazir Taleemi Wazaif, Rs. 20.5 billion have been disbursed for 92003 Benazir Undergraduate Scholarships and Rs. 833 million have been disbursed to 196,989 beneficiaries under Benazir Nashonuma Programme.

Shazia Marri said that currently Benazir Nashonuma Programme is operational in 29 districts and more Facilitation Centers are being established in other districts of the county to address the issue of stunting among pregnant, lactating women and their children less than 2 years of age.

Shazia Marri appreciated the role World Bank, as a major development partner in providing continuous and valuable support to BISP for strengthening the social protection system in Pakistan. World Bank support has been instrumental in the social safety net in Pakistan and helped in human capital development through focus on health and education related cash transfer programmes. We have to take the provinces and federating units onboard to ensure that we are not leaving anyone behind in providing assistance to flood affected families across the country, she added.

The representatives from WB lauded the efforts of BISP in flood affected areas and ensured full support from WB in future development of the programmes like Benazir Nashonuma. The delegation also congratulated BISP on updating the national socio-economic registry.

The delegation comprised of Ms. Lynne Sherburne-Benz, Regional Director, Human development South Asia Region, Stefano Paternostro, Practice Manager, Social Protection and Jobs, Lire Ersado, Practice Leader Human Development and Amjad Zafar Khan, Senior Social Protection Specialist.

Meanwhile Benazir Income Support Programme has so far distributed Rs.25,041,000,000 among 1,001,640 flood affected families in a transparent manner across the country. An amount of Rs.25,000 per family is being provided to the flood affected families of Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab under Flood Relief Cash Assistance.

In Balochistan 127,567 flood affected families have received Rs.3,189,175,000; 600,150 families have received Rs.15,003,750,000 in Sindh; 122,882 families have received Rs.3,072,050,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 151,041 families of Punjab have received Rs.4,027,000,000.

On Friday 9,120 flood affected families received cash assistance from different campsites established in flood hit areas of Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. A control room has been established at Benazir Income Support Pogramme headquarters to ensure smooth payments.