KP Government geared up to support social protection in the province

KP Government geared up to support social protection in the province

Al-Bab Report

June 23, 2016: ISLAMABAD:  In a seminar held today in ILO Pakistan Office Islamabad, Secretary P&DD KP, Mr. Syed Zafar Ali Shah said that the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will extend its full support and cooperation to all donor agencies, development partners, international technical cooperation and implementing agencies in realizing the goal of social protection, economic empowerment and social justice in the province.

Secretary Benazir Income Support Program Mr. Salim Ahmad Ranjah and UN Resident Coordinator Pakistan Mr. Neil Buhne were attending the seminar on “Coordinated Social Protection Experience Sharing & the Way Forward”; which was jointly organized by Government of Pakistan (GOP) and ILO.

SECRETARY P&DD KP shared that the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is no exception with regard to the issues being faced by the safety net programmes throughout the country.

He said, KP is amongst the poorest provinces with poverty incidence ratio of 41.3% against 26% at the national level. However, the KP Government is cognizant of its responsibility, and is fully committed to assist the poorest of the poor.

The Secretary P&DD KP informed the participants that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has made great strides towards a coordinated social service delivery system by adopting an updated and comprehensive planning document of the province i.e. the INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (2014-2018)  with the objective to deliver the fundamental rights and privileges to its citizens; constituting priority areas of  social services, education, health, livelihood, safe drinking water & sanitation, good governance, poverty reduction, employment, and skilled work force.  

He appreciated joint efforts of ILO and KP Government in devising the draft “Social Protection Policy” and welcomed partners to any development investment, particularly, in the prioritized sector of social protection.     

On the occasion, UN Resident Coordinator Pakistan Mr. Neil Buhne said that Pakistan is a One UN country and improving social protection is a priority area of the One UN Programme II (2013-17).

He said Pakistan Vision 2025 is also very much in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; that highlights need for social protection in Goal 1 and particularly in Target 1.3.

He emphasized the need for efforts to “leave no one behind” to ensure that social protection schemes are available and accessible to all people in the country and underlined the importance of continuous improvement of the existing social protection system.

The Country Director ILO Pakistan Ms. Ingrid Christensen, during hes speech, informed the participants that the existing donor funded ‘Social Protection Floor Initiative-KP (SPFI-KP) project’ is coming to an end on June 30th, 2016. She however assured the Government of KP of the ILO’s continued support to implement Coordinated Social Protection System in the Province. And for this purpose ILO will secure resources to continue activities until December 2017 and beyond.

The seminar also organized a panel discussion with the following panelists: Chief Poverty & SDG Unit, Planning Commission, Govt. of Pakistan, Mr. Zafar ul Hassan; DG Complimentary Initiatives-BISP, Mr. Dost Ali Shah; Social Security Specialist, ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team for South Asia, New Delhi, Mr. Markus Ruck; other government officials and dignitaries of partner organizations. 

The Seminar was organized to share achievements, best practices and lessons learned under the project SPFI-KP and to identify ways and means, priority areas, and the institutional relationships that is required to collaborate at national and provincial level on the future course of actions related to social protection, including the implementation of draft “Social Protection Policy” along with a “Two Years Social Protection Strategy “in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

SPFI-KP project was funded by the ‘Japan Fund for Building Social Safety Nets in Asia and the Pacific’ from 2013 till June, 2016 with the objectives of institutional capacity development of key social security institutions; awareness raising on social protection floors; policy development and policy debate on Social Protection (SP); mapping of social protection programmes in the KP province; piloting district model under the draft policy in two selected districts of KP (Peshawar and Nowshera), and developing a video documentary for donors to generate synergies in continuing and sustaining support to the government of the province while scaling-up the social protection programs and projects.

As a “Way-Forward” a two years social protection strategy has been designed under the project which is intended to contribute not only to the integration of social protection schemes and projects but also to improve coordination among national and provincial level social protection systems in Pakistan.