Project extended up to December 31, 2016: World Bank report highlights performance of BISP

The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)'s closure date was June 30, 2016 but on a request by the GoP it has been provided a no-cost extension up to December 31, 2016 enabling BISP to complete Phase-I of the NSER Update and take over key functions of the CCT programme.
In addition, a follow up National SP Project (US $100 million) is being prepared to support the government in sustaining the gains and further development and wider application of national SSN systems, said an update report of the World Bank. Supported by IDA's technical assistance since 2009, the WB report added that Pakistan has established the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), a flagship national safety net system, which is one of the largest in South Asia. BISP, currently provides an income support in the form of predictable monthly cash transfers of $15 to almost 5.2 million families (approx. 20 million people) of the poorest households for consumption smoothing as well as investments in human capital development. Up to the present time more than $3.5 billion has been disbursed to BISP beneficiaries out of whom 93 percent of beneficiaries receive the cash transfers through technology based payment mechanisms (Debit Cards, Mobile Phones, Smart Cards). The program plans to reach 5.3 million families in the next financial year.
WB report mentioned that the BISP has successfully established a National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) through the use of an objective targeting system, hosting a database of more than 27 million households (approx. 167 million people) - the first in South Asia. More than 30 federal and provincial social sector programs are currently using the Registry to improve their pro-poor targeting performance. BISP plans to launch update of the NSER within the current FY and complete the exercise by end of CY 2017. BISP has also rolled out the Co-responsibility Cash Transfers (CCT) program, linking cash transfers to primary school education, which is currently being implemented in 32 districts in all provinces and regions. To date over 1.3 million children have been enrolled in the programme out of which over 1.15 million children have taken admission in schools. As BISP delivers the benefit transfers to female members of the beneficiary families, it has significantly contributed to women empowerment and financial inclusion agenda in the country.
According to a recent revision in the poverty measurement methodology and release of poverty numbers, around 29% of Pakistan's population lives below the poverty line and a significant proportion is vulnerable to poverty due to any adverse natural or idiosyncratic shock. Before the start of BISP in 2008, the country's main safety net programs (ie Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal, and the Zakat) had limited coverage and were poorly targeted, as around 25 and 32 percent of resources distributed by these programs respectively, were going to non-poor households. Additionally, administration arrangements were inadequate, and implementation and monitoring and evaluation capacity were very weak. In absence of an updated National Social Protection Framework, the federal-provincial co-ordination on the design and delivery of complementary services to the poor remained weak.
Consequently, the sector faced fragmentation of various initiatives due to absence of a policy, platform and credible systems, which could support sector consolidation. While the federal expenditures have seen a significant increase post launching of BISP, the provinces have yet to pick up their investments in targeted programs due to either lack of appropriate institutional arrangements or well designed and implemented complementary programs targeted to the poor and vulnerable, the WB report added.
In order to address confronting challenges, the WB report stated that the Pakistan government under the auspices of BISP is trying to address a variety of challenges to the sector. In addition, partnership with the provinces is being strengthened through joint implementation of primary education CCTs which will allow the provinces to realise their role in delivering additional services to the poor financed by the provincial budgets, co-ordinated by suitable institutional and monitoring arrangements.
This shift in approach from poorly designed and administered programs to building blocks of a national safety net system with a focus on creating institutions and initiatives capable of delivering tangible results should help the country in effectively achieving the goal of poverty alleviation, WB reported.
The World Bank supported the BISP, initially through Social Safety Net Technical Assistance Project (US $60 million) approved in May 2009. Based on the successful implementation of the project, a Restructuring with Additional Financing (US $150 million) was approved in March 2012, which introduced Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) to incentivize performance on results. The SSN project was complemented through a Bank executed Trust Fund TA being financed by the DFID to help the government in further development of SP systems and their wider application at the federal and provincial level. The existing TF was established in 2013 with an allocation £9 million till 2021. The current project's closure date was June 30, 2016 but on a request by the GOP it has been provided a no-cost extension up to December 31, 2016 enabling BISP to complete Phase-I of the NSER Update and take over key functions of the CCT program. In addition, a follow up National SP Project (US $100 million) is being prepared to support the government in sustaining the gains and further development and wider application of national SSN systems, WB report added.
According to report, World Bank continues to play a lead role in donor co-ordination for SP and leveraged more than US $1.4 billion of other donors' investment in BISP. In 2009, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) approved a World Bank-managed trust fund to support the test phase of the Poverty Score Card and to set up the initial organisational and operational arrangements for implementing the BISP. Following support from the World Bank, other donors such as the Asian Development Bank and the US Agency for International Development also provided US $150 million each to finance cash transfers to beneficiaries identified through the Poverty Score Card targeting system. The partnership between World Bank and DFID further continued with approval of £300 million of DFID's 8 years (2012-20) support to Pakistan's National Cash Transfer program by using a common framework with the WB. In 2013, ADB has also approved US $430 million with major proportion of financing going to expansion of the coverage of basic cash transfers to eligible families.
Commenting over Moving Forward, WB report stated that the Bank stays committed to support the Government of Pakistan in advancing the social protection agenda as part of its on-going economic and subsidy reforms, which insulate the poor from any adverse impacts by providing income support as well as access to human development. The federal engagement will continue to focus on SSN system development agenda through, among others, update of the National Socio-economic Registry, scaling-up of the CCTs encouraging federal-provincial partnership and linking BISP beneficiaries to social and productive complementary services. These areas will be supported by the proposed National SP Project currently being prepared for Board presentation later this year. The provincial engagement will support the reforms in existing pro-poor initiatives by capitalising on the federal SSN systems for effective service delivery to the poor and aligning investments in the complementary areas to allow the poor to graduate out of poverty.