PM praises Ehsaas team on global recognition

Programme ranked 4th among world’s top four social protection schemes

ISLAMABAD:

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

In a tweet, the prime minister said: “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.

Read Ehsaas a global model to tackle poverty: UK expert

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.

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 WB said only “selected countries had attained impressive six-digit levels” in this regard. Ehsaas Emergency Cash was one of them.

According to the report, the Ehsaas also ranked high amongst the programmes that did well in terms of planned versus actual coverage rates.

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. AP