47. Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12 - Consultancy Services in ...

Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12g. Institutional Rehabilitation through NGOs:It provides grant-in-aid to registered nongovernmentalorganization (NGOs) for theirprojects aimed at institutional rehabilitation of thepoor and deserving persons of the society. PBMhas disbursed an amount of Rs. 24.383 million inthis regard up to February 2012.h. Jinnah Burn and Reconstructive SurgeryCentre, Lahore: On 21 st May, 2004, PakistanBait-ul-Mal, Health Department, Government ofPunjab and Jinnah Hospital, Lahore signed amemorandum of understanding for construction ofsingle purpose state-of-the-art burn andreconstructive surgery centre in Lahore. PakistanBait-ul-Mal has so far released Rs. 610 million forconstruction of the centre out of which Rs. 350million have been released up to February 2012.III. Benazir Income Support ProgrammeBenazir Income Support Programme (BISP) wasestablished by the Government of Pakistan in July2008 with the primary objective of providingimmediate relief to the poor enabling them toabsorb the shock of rising prices of food and fuel.BISP has evolved over the past few years into thecountry’s main social safety net. It is committed tothe fulfillment of the dream of making Pakistan awelfare state through poverty alleviation andwomen empowerment. It has made remarkableprogress by providing much needed relief to over 4million recipients including flood and bomb blastvictims all across Pakistan. An amount of over Rs122 billion up to March, 2012 has been disbursedto its recipients. The number of recipients isexpected to increase to 7 million once the on-goingprocessing of data collected during the nation-widepoverty scorecard targeting survey is completed.The BISP has launched the following pro-pooractivities. Box-3 describes the eligibility criteriafor BISP.Box-3Eligibility for BISPEligible households are identified through a targeting process, which consists of household surveys and theapplication of a Proxy Means Test Formula (PMT) that determines welfare status of a family on a scale between 0-100. Based on PMT, Nationwide Poverty Scorecard Survey was undertaken in 2010 with following features:Resulted in the creation of the largest and most reliable data bank of socio-economic conditions of the country(details at family level) for planning social sector policies and strategiesFirst ever census of its kind in South AsiaCovered almost 27 million households in the countryUse of GPS devices to map the data of the entire country for informed decision making (to cope with naturaldisasters and other emergencies)Families meeting the BISP eligibility criteria listed below are selected for monthly cash transfers:Proxy Means Test (pmt) Score of 16.17 or below anywhere in PakistanOne woman beneficiary per familyWoman is CNIC holderSource: Benazir Income Support ProgrammeNation-wide Poverty Scorecard TargetingSurvey: This survey was launched in October2010 in all districts of the country, including AJKand Gilgit-Baltistan, with an initial target to coveralmost 25 million households. The new system oftargeting was aimed at a much higher degree ofobjectivity, using international best practices, tominimize inclusion and exclusion errors. The useof Global Positioning System (GPS) devices wasalso made mandatory in this phase to uphold the228