DFID ranks BISP performance in ‘A’ category

ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (APP): Department for International Development (DFID), the development partner of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), in its annual review report 2015-16 has commended the performance of the BISP by ranking its overall performance in ‘A’ category.
“The report highlights that BISP met all of the Disbursement Linked
Indicators (DLIs) on time and made substantial progress on institutional reforms, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) and other initiatives,” a BISP press release issued here on Monday said.
The DFID is providing up to 279 million pounds in non-budget support
financial aid and 21 million pounds in technical assistance to the BISP, whereas 87 percent of the BISP funding is provided by the government of Pakistan.
The report appreciated the commitment of the incumbent government towards poorest of the poor in terms of consistently increased financial resource allocation for the BISP.
The government’s expenditure on the BISP was equivalent to 0.35 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), three percent of the federal tax revenues and 19 percent of the entire Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in 2015-16.
The report highlighted that active engagement of the chairperson BISP Board and the senior management had resulted in continuous expansion of the programme.
During the review year, the BISP beneficiaries increased from 5.2 million to 5.4 million.
There had been commendable improvement in regularity of the payments to beneficiaries since last annual review.
In 2015-16, 99.7 percent beneficiaries received all four quarterly payments in first week of the third month of each quarter.
The programme improved economy, efficiency and effectiveness across its operations with National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) update and Biometric Verification System (BVS) being the most important system level reforms.
The performance of CCT initiative exceeded expectation and had been
rated as A+. The number of children enrolled increased from 0.7 million to over 1.3 million in 32 districts during 2015-16.
All the DLIs were met as 633,155 girls and 683,572 boys were supported through Waseela-e-Taleem for their primary education during the year.
While, 98 percent of the complaints were resolved using technology based system. Moreover, 49,000 the BISP Beneficiary Committees (BBCs) were formed for social mobilization.
Referring to the Impact Evaluation Reports of the BISP, the annual review report stated that the BISP had shown a positive impact on poverty reduction, increased expenditure on food, health, education and women empowerment.
As per the evaluation, the poverty gap reduced by three percent in the BISP families and female beneficiaries played a more active role in decision making in their households.
The programme also contributed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of no poverty, zero hunger, quality education, gender equality and reduced inequalities.