A meeting between Senior Management of BISP, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) team and Karandaz team was held at Islamabad on September 26, 2018. The meeting was part of the strategy being devised by BISP to fulfill the manifesto of newly established Government regarding social sector development. The meeting was chaired by Secretary BISP Omar Hamid Khan. Mr. Michael Galway- Sr. Program officer Pakistan represented BMFG. CEO Karandaaz Ali Sarfaraz Karandaz along with his team participated as the key implementation delivery partner for BMGF in Pakistan. At the outset, Secretary briefed the participants about the current Programmes and new initiatives being undertaken by BISP. He said, BISP has been consistently engaged in Graduation and Nutrition related programs, and recently been approved by the Prime Minister to implement and expand the program to the national level, in next five years. He further added, partnering BMGF through the platform of Karaandaz is welcoming and would definitely add value to the organizational assessment and defining diversified solution model for the BISP beneficiaries. While emphasizing the importance BISP database, Secretary apprised the delegation that the databases has been developed on 25 major indicators and more than 80 organizations are benefitted from this database. Terming the database “Pride of BISP”, he said could be a key support towards infrastructure support. BMGF team informed that BMGF launched its Gender Equality Strategy in November, 2017. Pakistan has been selected as one of the focus countries for D3 Assessment entirely on the basis of BISP performance. D3 Assessment aims to identify what makes the most difference to the economic empowerment of poor women participating in major social safety net program. It is intended to inform assessments of existing and proposed social protection programs by flagging areas that would be expected to enhance the results for women’s economic empowerment, and those that may be barriers to change unless effectively addressed. D3 Assessment criteria hypothesize that ‘the economic empowerment effects of social protection programs could be expand/up scaled when they are designed through a gender intentional lens, and the transfers are delivered digitally and directly into an account by a woman’. A well-designed program can increase a woman’s control over personal financial decisions and enhance her prospects for economic empowerment. Both the parties shared the resolve to enter into long term partnership to bring change in the lives of BISP beneficiaries through women empowerment.
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