International donors widely applaud Pakistan’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash transfer program amid COVID-19 pandemic

June 1, 2020, Ehsaas hosted a virtual meeting with international donors, UN Agencies & other stakeholders to apprise them with regard to Ehsaas Emergency Cash distribution- update & potential way forward. The meeting discussed the program in terms of its, scale, speed of deployment and results along with transparency measures safeguarded by the government to reach out to the daily wage earners and labourers. The meeting was joined by Patchamuthu Illangovan, Country Director World Bank, Xiaohong Yang, Country Director Asian Development Bank, Julien Harneis, UN Resident Coordinator, Annabel Gerry, Country Director DFID, Board members and other stakeholders. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Sania Nishtar chaired the meeting. Briefing donors, Dr. Nishtar stated, “Within Pakistan, the Ehsaas program has taken the lead in radically expanding social safety nets to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19. The Ehsaas Emergency Cash program which was launched within just 10 days of lockdown, has been the key social protection intervention of the government to support those effected. 12 million households from across the most vulnerable groups were identified through a combination of the existing socioeconomic registry maintained by Ehsaas, and SMS registration with stringent verification processes.” Donors and other stakeholders widely applauded the case of Ehsaas Emergency Cash amid COVID-19 crisis and appreciated that the case of Pakistan provides a good insight to other countries.