The World Bank has recognized Pakistan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash program among the top four social protection plans globally in terms of the number of people covered.
In its report on global social protection response to COVID-19, co-authored by 18 writers, the World Bank presents details of how countries and territories are planning, implementing, or completing social protection measures in the context of the pandemic.
The report mentions an exponential growth in social protection measures between March 20 and May 14 this year, recording 3,333 social protection measures planned or implemented in 222 countries or territories.
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Among these, Pakistan ranks fourth in terms of the number of people covered and third in terms of percentage of the population globally covered amongst those that covered over 100 million people.
The report ranks Ehsaas as the highest amongst the programs that did well in terms of planned versus actual coverage rates. Most countries preferred cash transfer to help the poor masses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 734 such programs have been planned or implemented in 186 countries. The highest level of spending in the lower-middle-income countries category is observed in Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, and Pakistan.
According to the report, globally, there were essentially four ways to find and enroll new beneficiaries. Pakistan’s approach was amongst the most innovative, combining emergency assistance for the known vulnerable people with demand-based support for the new poor.
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The Ehsaas program accepted requests through a dedicated web portal and an SMS service. These requests were then verified with the help of NADRA and wealth proxies (travel, taxes, billing, assets ownership data, and government employment status).
The system was end-to-end data-driven, fully automated, rule-based, transparent, and politically neutral. Payments were biometrically verified.
Ehsaas Emergency Cash delivered stipends of Rs. 12,000 to 15 million households last year, which meant helping over 100 million people or almost half the country’s population.
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