Pakistan - Towards an Integrated National Safety Net System : Assisting Poor and Vulnerable Households, An Analysis of Pakistan's Main Cash Transfer Program

Abstract

The vision of Pakistan's social
 protection strategy to reach the poor and vulnerable (2007)
 is 'to develop an integrated and comprehensive social
 protection system, covering all the population, but
 especially the poorest and the most vulnerable'.
 Consistent with this vision, the goals of the strategy are
 identified as: 1) to support chronically poor households and
 protect them against destitution, food insecurity,
 exploitation and social exclusion; 2) to protect poor and
 vulnerable households from the impacts of adverse shocks to
 their consumption and well-being that, if not mitigated,
 would push non poor households into poverty, and poor
 households into deeper poverty; and 3) to promote investment
 in human and physical assets, including health, nutrition,
 and education, by poor households capable of ensuring their
 resilience in the medium run and of interrupting the
 intergenerational cycle of poverty. This vision is fully
 consistent with the World Bank's social protection and
 labor strategy for 2012-2022, which recognizes that
 effective social protection and labor policies and programs
 help create the resilience, equity and access to jobs and
 opportunities essential to save lives, reduce poverty and
 promote sustainable growth. The focus of this report is
 Pakistan's main safety net program: the Benazir Income
 Support Program (BISP), which is only one part of the
 broader poverty reduction and social protection
 interventions. In particular, social protection includes
 labor policy, contributory social insurance, and social care
 services as well as safety nets. Pakistan's social
 protection system comprises safety nets, social security and
 employment promotion and protection.