Consolidating social protection

Pakistan has taken steps to deliver social protection services, including unanimously passing the Benazir income support programme act in 2010, and setting up systems for targeted cash transfers to the poor. Such measures are critical in a country with endemic poverty, significant food insecurity, low education, and poor health outcomes. But more efforts are needed, including bringing the federal and provincial governments together as partners in social protection service delivery, especially in the new decentralized context since the 18th amendment to the constitution was approved in 2010. A national social protection framework is to be established, and its overarching objective should be a technically sound and financially viable system that provides appropriate, adequate, and predictable benefits to the target population. To meet this objective, policy makers can ensure that the framework is coherent between federal and provincial authorities, harmonize systems for design and delivery of social protection within that framework, ensure financing for social protection based on affordability and efficiency principles, and enable effective post disaster early recovery cash transfers as part of the future disaster- response action plan.