ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The South Asia Regional Vice President (SARVP) Hartwig Schafer along with a delegation visited Ehsaas Offices in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar together with the Ehsaas team welcomed the World Bank’s South Asia Regional Vice President and his delegation.
Dr. Sania Nishtar briefed them on the deep-rooted reforms embedded in the design and rollout of Ehsaas programmes, policies, reforms and initiatives.
Hartwig Schafer congratulated Ehsaas for leading an incredible role not just amid the COVID-19 pandemic but also in building back better post-COVID.
Had a productive meeting with @SaniaNishtar on the importance of @Ehsaas_Pk program and its critical role during Pakistan’s pandemic response. Discussed ways to make #Ehsaas and BISP even stronger. pic.twitter.com/Uyr8smcBGC
— Hartwig Schafer (@HartwigSchafer) August 4, 2021
The meeting aimed to discuss the Bank’s ongoing engagements with the government of Pakistan’s Ehsaas.
“Many lessons can be learnt by developed and developing countries from the social protection and poverty alleviation experience of Ehsaas”, commented Schafer.
Schafer assured full assistance of the World Bank to antipoverty efforts undertaken under Ehsaas. He also praised the Ehsaas 50% plus benefits policy for women and girls which aims to create a conducive sociocultural and economic environment to ensure women and girls can participate in all spheres of public and private life.
Hartwig Schafer was leading a delegation consisting of high-ranking officials from the World Bank- Najy Benhassine, Country Director; Gailius J. Draugelis, Operations Manager; and Amjad Zafar, Senior Social Protection Specialist.
From Ehsaas, Secretary Ismat Tahira and Additional Secretary Captain (Retd) Saeed Ahmed Nawaz also joined the meeting.
While briefing the delegation, Dr. Sania outlined ten major foundation stones laid out under Ehsaas to make the programme transparent, inclusive resilient and results-driven.
Dr. Sania Nishtar highlighted, in particular, the governance and integrity policy; Ehsaas 50% plus benefits policy for women; culture of delivery tied to policies, frameworks and strategies; institutional consolidation of executing entities; Ehsaas National Socio-economic Registry; One Window operations; transparency measures; digitally enabled systems and dashboards; expert committees; and design stamped roll out of multisectoral programmes that enabled Ehsaas to reach out to 40% of the country’s population.
Further, Dr. Sania shared the women-centric policy of Ehsaas that the poorest families are given a higher amount for educating girls and are offered support through higher secondary school levels. Also, girls are given a bonus on the completion of 5th grade based on the understanding that this will enable the continuation of education to the secondary level.
Senator Sania Nishtar also lauded the World Bank’s support to the Ehsaas programme since its launch in 2019.
The South Asia Regional Vice President (SARVP) Hartwig Schafer is on a visit to Pakistan from August 3 to 8, 2021.
During his visit, the delegation is meeting with key counterparts about the upcoming country partnership framework as well as the government of Pakistan’s ambitious reform on human capital, and economic and inclusive growth in Pakistan.
