ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Monday urged the Islamabad-based heads of foreign missions to apprise their respective governments to support the “Declaration on Establishing a Global Social Protection Knowledge Platform”.

Foreign Office said in a statement that Senator Dr Sania Nishtar, special assistant to the prime minister on poverty alleviation and social protection, briefed the heads of Diplomatic Missions in Islamabad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the “Declaration”.

The Declaration is being steered by Pakistan in New York, in collaboration with a “Group of Friends on Social Protection” including Costa Rica, Nigeria, and Turkey, supported by the World Bank.

Dr Nishtar introduced the Declaration and apprised participants of its conceptualization as well as the operationalisation of the Global Social Protection Knowledge Platform.

She underscored that the importance of social protection had been vividly pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She added that countries with robust social protection systems including Pakistan were able to contain the fallout of the pandemic better than other nations.

In order to benefit from each other’s experiences and share best practices, she added there is a need to fill the knowledge gap in the global social protection landscape.

Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood highlighted the objectives of the briefing, noting that there was a greater realization, today, of the need to increase investments in social protection systems to safeguard people against the shockwaves of the pandemic and future crises.

He called on the Heads of Missions to apprise their respective governments to support this global knowledge-sharing initiative.

The participants were also informed that Ehsaas, Pakistan’s social protection programme, has organised a day-long event at the Dubai Expo Pakistan Pavilion on 16 January 2022 to promote the Declaration.

It is envisaged that the Global Social Protection Knowledge Platform will provide a unique opportunity for government-to-government learning and collaboration that will contribute towards progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022