Pakistan to share Covid-19 experience at high-level global forum

Asad Umar, Dr Sania Nishtar and Dr Reza Baqir to speak at the CGD panel discussion

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan’s Covid-19 response will be featured at a high-level event titled ‘Coping with Covid-19: The Pakistan Experience’ on Tuesday, hosted by the Centre for Global Development (CGD), a think-tank based in Washington DC and London.

“It has been observed that many countries, international development institutions, and global experts have been struck by the exceptional experience of Pakistan during the period of Covid-19,” said an official handout issued here on Monday.

“Pakistan has been able to demonstrate better outcomes than most other emerging markets both in terms of being able to control the spread of the virus and in managing its economic consequence,” it added.

Three government officials including Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar; Special Assistant to the PM on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar; and Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Dr Reza Baqir will speak at this high-level panel discussion.

Dr Nishtar will apprise the participants about the country’s largest social safety programme, “Ehsaas”. She will highlight the challenges and outcomes of the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme which was launched within 10 days of the lockdown.

Furthermore, Dr Nishtar will share the framework and effectiveness of Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme, which successfully disbursed $1.3 billion among those daily wagers and piece rate workers whose livelihoods were badly affected during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The discussion will be joined by Dr Kalipso Chalkidou, leader of the Global Health team at CGD, who has written extensively on the international response to Covid; and Dr Alan Gelb, who has been leading a work stream on the use of digital ID systems in Pakistan and elsewhere to scale up the social safety net in response to the crisis.