The Ministry of Finance released Rs 30 billion to Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) during the first eight months of the current fiscal year against the target of Rs 50 billion set for 2011-12 while the programme has received Rs 102 billion since its inception in 2008 till date.
Informed sources told Business Recorder here on Friday that USAID is likely to grant $75 million to the BISP during the current fiscal year 2011-12. "The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided $150 million as budgetary support to BISP while USAID has already granted $85 million to the program", sources informed. According to the sources, "It was right that the poverty survey that was started in 2010 is still going on in FATA. The survey has been completed in Kurram Agency, Khyber Agency and Bajur while in Aurakzai the survey is under process. Due to the security issues, it can not be started in North and South Waziristan yet."
The World Bank has been a major financer to BISP. The World Bank supported the BISP through the Social Safety Net Technical Assistance Project (SSN TA) with US $60 million, approved by the Bank's Board in May 2009. The project also included support to the Planning Commission to develop and monitor the National Social Protection Policy - this was intended to foster policy dialogue on social protection at national and provincial levels to guide formulation of programmatic interventions that can help the poor in graduating out of poverty.
The Bank has recently approved a credit worth US $150 million as additional financing for the Pakistan Social Safety Net Project aimed at supporting the expansion and strengthening the performance of Pakistan's safety net system under the BISP. According to a recent report of the World Bank, BISP needs to do continuous course correction to address institutional challenges and questions regarding corporate management and long-term sustainability.
The Bank says that to date, BISP has disbursed more than Rs 85 billion ($1 billion) in cash grants of Rs 1000 ($12) per month to 3.5 million beneficiary families in all regions and areas of the country, thus benefiting more than 20 million people directly.
The report reveals that BISP has introduced various innovations such as technology based payment systems to ensure efficiency and transparency in service delivery. As a next step, the BISP is now introducing Co-responsibility Cash Transfers for its beneficiaries, linking cash benefits to school enrolment and regular attendance of BISP beneficiaries' children. In addition, BISP is also developing other options for the "graduation" of its beneficiaries out of poverty, including life insurance, catastrophic health insurance, and skills development.
BISP has signed MOUs for collaboration with the Governments of Sindh, KP, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Whereas, dialogue is underway with the Government of Punjab and an agreement is expected to be signed soon. The identification of beneficiaries is being done through a Proxy Means Test based targeting instrument that is the Poverty Score Card (PSC) that has been rolled out through a door to door national census, which has to date collected information on more than 27 million households in Pakistan and resulted in qualifying around 6 million families as program beneficiaries.
The information collected through poverty scorecard is also validated by the National Identity Database through a comprehensive Management Information System. This exercise has helped the Government to set up a National Poverty Data Registry- first in the South Asia region. This registry can potentially harmonise pro-poor initiatives of federal and provincial governments and other partners, and serve for planning and delivery of targeted social services to the poor.