Diplomats briefed on Social Protection Declaration

Dr Sania Nishtar stresses need for filling knowledge gap in global social protection landscape

ISLAMABAD:

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar on Monday briefed the heads of diplomatic missions in Islamabad at the Foreign Office on the ‘Declaration on Establishing a Global Social Protection Knowledge Platform’.

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, the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Dr Nishtar introduced the declaration and apprised the participants of its conceptualisation 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-19pandemic.

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“Countries with robust social protection systems, including Pakistan, are 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, there is a need to fill the knowledge gap in the global social protection landscape,” she said.

Earlier, in his introductory remarks, Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood highlighted the objectives of the briefing, noting that there was a greater realisation 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 meeting was informed that Ehsaas programme, would organise a day-long event at the Dubai Expo on January 16 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,” the statement concluded.