ISLAMABAD: (Parliament Times) A delegation of IMF, now in Pakistan to assess its economic and financial challenges, visited Benazir Income Support Programme Headquarter here on Friday.
The delegation was led by Herald Finger advisor and team leader. Ms. Taline Koranchilian deputy director Middle East and Central Asia, Chairperson BISP Dr. Sania Nishtar, Secretary BISP Omer Hameed Khan were also present on the occasion.
Mr. Finger speaking to the BISP representatives, in his brief remarks, not only appreciated the BISP performance and contribution towards the national social protection and helping the vulnerable to fight poverty while addressing the issue of malnutrition and stunted growth. He pointed out the overall economic challenges faced by the country and said that social protection is one of the key areas to be focused. He added that BISP has impressive engagement working model to address the wider canvas of social protection.
Secretary BISP Omar Hameed Khan briefed the delegation on various initiatives, programmes and activities of his organization as well as its national and international partnerships. BISP is contributing towards women empowerment by supporting 5.7 million marginalized women of Pakistan and AJK, through cash transfer programme (both conditional and unconditional transfers). BISP strongly believes in imparting international excellence, utilization of modern technology and implementation of sustainable development goal (ISD), he added. He apprised the delegation that BISP has state of the art social research’s team from Harvard, MIT and LSE to develop social protection models. The delegation was also apprised of the public private partnership of the organization which have contributed towards innovative approaches of tackling poverty and providing opportunities to vulnerable women to seek socio economic empowerment.
BISP Chairperson Dr. Sania Nishtar in her remarks said that her role is to address the issues of governance and policy matters related to the board meetings. She said the organization has zero tolerance for corruption and her job is to make the organization efficient and transparent. She foresees the growth of Data Engine of BISP through National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) in the years to come as the sole source of information sharing to facilitate the national social protection work in the country on a massive scale. She said that on average in Pakistan one out of every three children is suffering from stunted growth. The case in Sindh and Southern Punjab is even worse. There are 2.5 million women affected due to this, every year. The rate is all time staggering high and alarming and demands immediate measures to respond. BISP she said has formulated the strategy to address the looming issue of stunted growth
