ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday congratulated Dr Sania and Ehsaas team for achieving a milestone after the World Bank (WB) had listed Ehsaas Emergency Cash among top four social protection interventions globally in terms of number of people covered.

On his twitter handle, the prime minister posted, “Congratulations to Sania and the Ehsaas team for achieving this milestone and well-deserved int recognition.”

The World Bank released a report on global social protection responses to Covid-19 on Saturday.

The report called a ‘living paper’ and a partnership effort involving 18 co-authors and a large number of contributors; the paper presented a 650-page volume and accompanying database documenting how countries and territories were planning, implementing or completing social protection measures in the context of the pandemic.

The report said there had been an exponential growth in social protection measures between March 20, 2020 and May 14, 2021 and that a total of 3,333 social protection measures had been planned or implemented in 222 countries or territories.

Pakistan ranked fourth globally in terms of the number of people covered and third globally in terms of percentage of population covered amongst those that covered over 100 million people; the World Bank said only “select countries had attained impressive six-digit levels” in this regard. Pakistan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash was one of them.

According to the report, Pakistan’s Ehsaas also ranked high amongst the programmes that did well in terms of planned versus actual coverage rates. Most of social protection measures were provided as social assistance. These represented 55% of global programs and were the predominant form of support in most regions.

Among social assistance measures, cash transfers remained the premier instrument. A total of 734 cash-based measures had been planned or implemented in 186 countries. Highest level of spending in lower middle-income countries category was observed in Mongolia Zimbabwe, Bolivia, and Pakistan.