Marvi highlights effectiveness of BISP in Peru meeting

Islamabad :The Minister of State and Chairperson BISP, Marvi Memon, said that the Benazir Income Support Programme’s (BISP’s) operational capacity has improved significantly since it was launched and it has developed into a ‘National Socio-Economic Registry’ (NSER) that has information of more than  80 per cent of population and location by GPS.

Ms Memon made the assertions in a ‘Regional Seminar on Shock Responsive Social Protection’ organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS) of the Republic of Peru and the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Food Programme WFP) in Peru.

A press release issued by the BISP in Islamabad said that the purpose of the seminar was to share experiences, practices and vision on shock-responsive social protection from different parts of the world and different contexts, reflect on commonalities, opportunities and challenges faced in middle-income countries and to contribute to the global commitments and the humanitarian-development continuum.

Pakistan was the only country invited from Asia to present its social safety programme for experience sharing with other countries. Representatives from Peru, Ecuador, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala, Chile, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Namibia and West Africa attended the Seminar.

Ms Memon presented the achievements of BISP and efforts made for supporting 5.4 million families across Pakistan. She said that the national policy framework for social protection pays significant attention to shock responsiveness. The countrywide presence of BISP makes it a leader in shock responsiveness in Pakistan as it has the potential to coordinate at central and provincial levels.

She said that BISP is in the process of updating its NSER. “An updated NSER could be utilized for rapid identification of caseload, through inclusion of household GPS coordinates and indicators of climatic and livelihood vulnerability,” Ms Memon said.

While discussing international experiences in preparing and using national social protection system for emergency response, Ms. Marvi highlighted the pivotal role of BISP in collaboration with NADRA as a key implementing partner.

She added that BISP linkages with other organizations could be leveraged to support a shock response and a well established BISP payment system could be utilized in a disaster to swiftly reach disaster affected population.

The participants appreciated the efforts made by BISP for improving the lives of millions of people in Pakistan and were of the opinion that this knowledge sharing from BISP would help in replication of its experiences in shock responsive social safety.

Ms Memon and the Minister of Social Development and Inclusion of the Government of Peru, Ms Fiorella Molinelli, also discussed the efforts being made and to be furthered in war against malnutrition and stunting.