SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar inaugurated the Ehsaas Delivery Unit (EDU) in Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (PASSD) today that has been established to track the cadence of delivery across several components of Ehsaas programme. The unit was formally opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Secretary of the Division, Muhammad Ali Shahzada together with EDU team was also present at the ceremony to kick off the newly opened unit. “The EDU will also track implementation of the goals and targets established under the “Performance Agreement” recently signed with the Prime Minister”, said Dr. Sania.
Within Ehsaas, multi-sectoral collaboration and coordination is critical for the success of programme. EDU is a dedicated unit to lead delivery of Ehsaas strategy. The unit’s overall mandate is folded into four key functions including programme’s strategic roll out, monitoring and evaluation, data analytics, advisory support, and communications and stakeholder engagement, among others. Following Government of Pakistan’s policies and procedures, relevant team has been hired in the unit to coordinate cross ministerial, interprovincial and intersectoral implementation of Ehsaas.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of EDU, Dr. Sania said, “The distinctive role and objective of EDU is to oversee implementation and assess progress of the Ehsaas programme; coordinate, strategize and support delivery of over 140 Ehsaas initiatives. The charge for end-to-end delivery of programmes, policies and initiatives ultimately rests with the respective ministries, divisions and agencies and, EDU has been mandated to coordinate and track the performance and progress.”
Overall, implementation of Ehsaas is the responsibility of several federal ministries, divisions, and agencies. Under the Ehsaas framework, implementation actions are underway and progress towards these is being made with an integrated, multi-sectoral and whole-of-the-government approach. The EDU will also monitor, track, evaluate and analyse results and will institutionalize the culture of learning for course correction. An important task of EDU will be to ensure compliance with the Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy that is binding on PASSD and its ancillary organizations. “Most importantly, the Ehsaas Governance Observatory has been housed in EDU to ensure that all PASSD agencies tasked with implementation of Ehsaas programme abide by Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy”, commented Dr. Sania.
Secretary PASSD, Muhammad Ali Shahzada said, “Ehsaas is unique because of its scale, multisectoral character, breadth and depth, process of formulation, institutional arrangements and funding. Since Ehsaas is a multisectoral programme, EDU has been drawn up as an elaborate mechanism to coordinate implementation and use monitoring and evaluation across several sectors which will drive towards Ehsaas’ goals.”
The delivery unit consists of 18 positions across the 4 functions, split into 3 hierarchical layers. It is envisioned that EDU will assist in delivering the Ehsaas’ mandate and manage operations in a timely and effective manner, following a multi-sectoral approach.
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