Pakistan

Drawing on the background paper on interlinkages between social protection, services and infrastructure (Chopra 2018), this paper provides insights into the interlinkages that might be found, or sought, in contexts that are in the midst of or recovering from violent conflict or that have fragile governance systems that undermine capacity to deliver social protection, services and infrastructure effectively, particularly in support of gender equality, equity and empowerment.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday assured Pakistan of its support to the country’s social protection program aimed to help people fight poverty amid inflationary pressure and help it strengthen institutional measures.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday approved a $200 million loan to the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), according to a press release issued by the Maila-based lending agency.

OPINION: We should all be looking with particular interest at the work underway in Pakistan to build a sustainable welfare state. Called Ehsaas, which in Urdu literally means ‘empathy’, the new initiative is one of the most comprehensive welfare programmes ever undertaken by a national government, with an underlying ambition to create a social safety net for Pakistan that could transform the lives of millions. It is enormously wide-ranging and ambitious.

BLOG: The Ehsaas Strategy has been released to solicit public input, prior to its finalization. The strategy elaborates on the prime minister’s vision of a welfare state. Ehsaas’ premise is grounded in the importance of strengthening institutions, transparency and good governance. We realize that the limited capacity of public institutions, and governance challenges often impedes their ability to deliver. To be fully successful, Ehsaas will need to effectively use all government levers to drive change in one direction.

INTERVIEW: Qazi Azmat Isa is the chief executive of the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund since 2011 and has been in the development sector now for 30 years. His organisation supports the government's social protection programme and contributes to achieving Vision 2025. It uses the poverty scorecard data to assist ultra-poor households to access opportunities that can lift them out of poverty.

Sindh province in Pakistan is taking an important step toward ending abuse and discrimination against women agricultural workers. The proposed law recognizes the right of women workers to have a written contract, minimum wage, social security, and welfare benefits including for child health, maternity leave, and access to government subsidies and credit. It requires gender parity in wages. It is also the first time that Pakistan will recognize the right of women agricultural workers to unionize.

It shows progress in expenditure, primarily driven by social insurance and coverage between 2009 and 2015. Spending on women has improved in several countries, yet others continued to favor the nonpoor over the poor, and men over women. The Social Protection Index—now the Social Protection Indicator—was developed by the Asian Development Bank and its partners as the first comprehensive and quantitative measure of social protection systems in Asia and the Pacific.

For the very first time, female workers in the agriculture sector will be formally recognised and be able to demand the stipulated minimum wage, besides healthcare and other benefits. The draft law, which will be tabled in the next meeting of the Sindh cabinet, is being made to ensure the provision of legal, social and financial protection for women by the departments of fisheries, livestock and agriculture.