BISP providing direct support to empower women: Marvi Memon

ISLAMABAD: Minister for State and Chairperson BISP Marvi Memon has stated that the government of Pakistan has empowered women in the country by providing direct support to the female heads of families through the social safety net program.

She was representing Pakistan at Conference on ‘Social protection and emergency safety net response’ arranged by World Bank at Frankfurt, Germany. Delegates from seventy countries attended the workshop and shared their experiences on social protection.

Ms. Memon added that BISP has also been appreciated by United Kingdom where BISP was awarded Democracy Award. She stated that BISP is managing a social protection program for 5.4 million families living below the poverty line and also provides extended support to the beneficiaries’ families.

She stated that BISP has the capacity to serve the poor with an infrastructure of 450 functional offices and a beneficiary database based on socio-economic registry which includes beneficiary biometrics.

The socio-economic database of Pakistani citizens is being updated to develop the capacity of targeting vulnerable families including the poor, female-headed households and families with disabled members, she added.

Chairperson BISP also highlighted the efforts of Pakistan government in addressing the emergency needs of Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs), and the steps taken for their rehabilitation by providing housing damage compensation to the affected families.

She stated that Pakistan is among the top ten countries adversely impacted due to climate change and also has large number of TDPs due to militancy crises in FATA, and the world’s largest number of refugees.

She further informed the participants that in order to address the catastrophic events, a National Disaster Response Action Plan (NDRAP) was developed by the government of Pakistan which guides the country’s adaptive safety net model on natural and man-made disastrous.

This helps the government to respond quickly to any disaster and address the needs of the affected population. Pakistan has been appreciated in handling refugees. In future both BISP and NADRA will enter into a partnership for effective shock responsiveness.

Vice President World Bank, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Germany, Minister for Social Protection Egypt also addressed the forum.