ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar on Tuesday inaugurated the Ehsaas Delivery Unit (EDU) in Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (PASSD) that has been established to track the cadence of delivery across several components of Ehsaas programme.
The Unit was formally opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Islamabad.
The Secretary of the Division Muhammad Ali Shahzada together with the EDU team was also present at the ceremony to kick off the newly opened unit.
“The EDU will also track implementation of the goals and targets established under the “Performance Agreement” recently signed with the prime minister”, Dr. Sania Nishtar said.
Within Ehsaas, multi-sectoral collaboration and coordination are critical for the success of the programme.
The EDU is a dedicated unit to lead the delivery of Ehsaas strategy. The unit’s overall mandate is folded into four key functions including programme’s strategic roll-out, monitoring and evaluation, data analytics, advisory support, and communications and stakeholder engagement, among others.
Following the government of Pakistan’s policies and procedures, the relevant team has been hired in the unit to coordinate cross-ministerial, interprovincial and intersectoral implementation of Ehsaas.
While addressing the inaugural ceremony of the EDU, Dr. Sania Nishtar said, “The distinctive role and objective of the EDU is to oversee the implementation and assess the progress of the Ehsaas programme; coordinate, strategize and support the delivery of over 140 Ehsaas initiatives. The charge for end-to-end delivery of programmes, policies and initiatives ultimately rest with the respective ministries, divisions and agencies and, the EDU has been mandated to coordinate and track the performance and progress.”
Overall, the implementation of Ehsaas is the responsibility of several federal ministries, divisions, and agencies.
Under the Ehsaas framework, implementation actions are underway and progress towards these is being made with an integrated, multi-sectoral and whole-of-the-government approach.
The Ehsaas Delivery Unit will also monitor, track, evaluate and analyse results and will institutionalize the culture of learning for course correction.
An important task of the Unit will be to ensure compliance with the Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy that is binding on PASSD and its ancillary organizations.
“Most importantly, the Ehsaas Governance Observatory has been housed in the EDU to ensure that all PASSD agencies tasked with the implementation of Ehsaas programme abide by Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy”, Dr. Sania Nishtar commented.
The Secretary PASSD Muhammad Ali Shahzada said, “Ehsaas is unique because of its scale, multisectoral character, breadth and depth, the process of formulation, institutional arrangements and funding. Since Ehsaas is a multisectoral programme, the EDU has been drawn up as an elaborate mechanism to coordinate implementation and use monitoring and evaluation across several sectors which will drive towards Ehsaas’ goals.”
The Ehsaas Delivery Unit consists of 18 positions across the 4 functions, split into 3 hierarchical layers.
It is envisioned that the EDU will assist in delivering the Ehsaas’ mandate and manage operations in a timely and effective manner following a multi-sectoral approach.
