Martyrs and Disabled Pension Programme, MDPP
Basic Information
Country
Geographic area
Institutions and agencies involved
Programme type
Population group
Persons with disabilities
Programme Details
Programme objectives
To provide social assistance to families of martyrs and people living with disabilities.
Programme components
• One-off cash benefits to people with acquired disabilities based on the beneficiary’s last salary, but no translated source further elaborates on when a person is eligible to this
• Monthly cash benefits to people born with disabilities, people who acquired a disability due to the conflict, and families of deceased beneficiaries and martyrs. In practice, according to contacts in Afghanistan, people with a disability acquired due to conflict are prioritised and make up most beneficiaries
• Education fee waivers, health care and housing benefits for people with disabilities, prioritizing those who are in formal employment
Conditionalities (if any)
None
Coverage
Programme expenditure
Revised budget 2018: AFN 15,434,781,196
Expenditure 2016: AFN 14,639,909,105
Targeting and eligiblity
Targeting methods
Categorical Targeting
Targeted areas
Nationwide
Target groups
People living with disabilities (PwD), Families of martyrs, Former Freedom Fighters
Eligibility criteria
1) Be classified by a Disability Establishment Commission as “generally disabled” OR be unable to work due to a disability
2) Be a former freedom fighter, civil servant, formal worker in the private sector (based on translation, double check), military employee, or person born with a disability. In practice, people with an acquired disability due to conflict seem to be prioritised
3) Families of martyrs and MDPP beneficiaries who pass away are also eligible to MDPP benefits. Sources are lacking, but the heirs that are eligible seem to be those who are assumed to be uncapable of providing for themselves, such as widows, unmarried daughters or sons who have not yet completed their education.
Eligibility reassessment (if any)
1) After the acquisition of a disability and medical treatment, the person with a disability must be assessed by the Disability Establishment Commission. The severity of their disability is determined (see above: one must be classified as “generally disabled” to be eligible).
2) People with acquired disabilities must go through different government authorities to get a certification confirming that they are disabled. Military personell, civil servants and formal workers from the private complex, and people with no regular salary or no paid employment have different authorities they must go through to get this certification. It also depends on where in Afghanistan they are situated.
3) Former freedom beneficiaries and children bron with a disability go through a different eligibility assessment process, but no translatable source
4) No source could be found regarding what exactly the heirs of deceased beneficaries and martyrs must do, but the biometric identification system mnight be related to it.
Obs.: It is not clear from the sources and translations available whether eligibility is reassessed and, if yes, how often this is done or what procedure a beneficiary must go through.
Coverage and other information
Type of benefits
Amount of benefits
From AFN400 (equivalent to USD8) to AFN500 (USD10) per month per family.
Payment/delivery frequency
Monthly susbsistence allowance and one-off benefit [9]. It is unclear when the one-off benefit is paid.
Benefit delivery mechanism
Supposedly through bank transfers, but if a beneficiary has no access to the biometric system I suspect that they have to go to government agencies in person
Benefit recipients
Individual beneficiaries or representative of a family who has to distribute the family’s benefit among al eligible heirs equally [red: source is an e-mail from a contact in Afghanistan]
Minimum and maximum duration of benefits (if any)
Minimum: one-off (but no translated source explains when that is the case)
Maximum: Until beneficiary’s death, unless they leave the country, renounce citizenship, refuse a job offer or are the non-disabled heir of a former martyr or deceased beneficiary and complete their education
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and frequency
M&E of World Bank targets for MDPP used data drawn from established MIS (Obs.: only M&E of aspects of MDPP that were related to the World Bank’s project objectives)
The MoMD seems to be responsible for M&E, but intelligible sources for how it does it are lacking
Legal Framework
Constitution: Articles 22, 53 and 84 [1]
The Disability Rights and Benefits Act [2] (قانون حقوق و امتيازات معلولين)
MIS
A biometric identification system has been created that was supposed to have been rolled out by July 2019. Sources are lacking that confirmed whether it has been successfully rolled out nationwide.
Supposedly 80% of beneficiaries were enrolled in this system by 2018/
