ISLAMABAD - Benazir Income Support Programme Chairman Enver Baig said that BISP is looking to extend its strategic partnership with different development partners including World Bank and Department for International Development (DFID). He said that while addressing the final session of Stakeholders Workshop on Pakistan Social Safety Net (PSSN) Project.
PSSN Project is a joint investment from World Bank and DFID aimed towards strengthening the Social Safety Net systems in Pakistan, through BISP. Through PSSN Project the World Bank is providing $150 million to BISP operations as additional financing and $160 million in technical assistance before June, 2016.
Currently, a mid-term review of the project is being conducted and a 2-day stakeholders workshop was arranged to discuss the achievements and problems and to come up with a future course of action.
The workshop was attended by all the stakeholders of BISP, including development and strategic partners, implementation partners of BISP and representatives from Planning Division and Provincial Departments. Different modalities were discussed during the workshop, including the improvement of designs of current interventions of BISP and creating a mechanism for strategic partnership with Provinces.
Talking about the role of provinces, Chairman BISP appreciated their participation in the workshop and said that BISP would engage them increasingly in our strategic planning activities besides seeking their support for various initiatives of BISP.
Enver Baig expressed his gratitude to the participants and acknowledged their valuable contribution for the improvement of BISP. He added that the problems pointed out have already been understood by BISP management and that he is actively involved in overcoming these problems since the day he was given this assignment by Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif.
For better results in future, Chairman BISP apprised the participants that the Programme will be focusing on recertification of beneficiaries, updating the national socio-economic registry, expanding the CCT programme through enhanced collaboration with provinces, re-looking at the graduation model, improving outreach to beneficiaries and new branding of BISP.
Enver Baig reiterated the importance of vital contribution by development partners and said that BISP will be looking for further cooperation from these partners beyond the end of the current PSSN Project. For that, he assured the stakeholders that BISP will be making robust action plans for implementation of suggestions raised in the Mid-term Review Report.