BISP held its first
Consultative Workshop on usage of BISP data for policy making and research in
which leading policy makers and researchers from academia, civil society,
federal and provincial government departments were invited.
Chaired
by Minister of State and Chairperson BISP, MNA Marvi Memon, the workshop was
attended by Secretary BISP Mr. Omar Hamid Khan, senior officials of BISP,
representatives from Quaid-e-Azam University, Lahore School of Economics,
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Planning Commission, Education
Department KPK, Punjab Social Sector Authority and Alif Ailan. Development
partners of BISP such as World Bank and DFID also attended the Workshop.
On
the occasion, Chairperson BISP stated that BISP data employ 6 international
standards of a model database which include accuracy, validity, reliability,
timeliness, relevance and completeness. This workshop
would help explore research areas for the formulation of future policies in
various disciplines namely health, education, agriculture and environment.
In the presentation by
BISP, the participants were briefed that BISP is the custodian of different
data sets pertaining to NSER, Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) and
Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT). BISP holds the data of 27 million households
across Pakistan. 7.7 million families have been identified to be eligible for
financial assistance, out of which, 5.6 million are receiving BISP quarterly
stipend. Under CCT, 1.8 million children have been enrolled in primary schools.
They were also apprised of the technological innovations and range of variables
being adopted in BISP resurvey for NSER update. They were further informed that
BISP has a data sharing protocol with other organizations and currently more
than 45 government and private organizations are utilizing BISP data for
various development projects.
Secretary BISP stated
that the aim was to make 2018 (10 years of BISP), a year of excellence for
BISP. BISP encourages policy makers and researchers to use National Socio-Economic
Registry (NSER) data for designing policies especially related to SSN
programmes. BISP, itself, is in the process of designing and implementing fresh
initiatives of ‘BISP Graduation Model’ and ‘Endowment Fund’ which would add to
the existing welfare initiatives of BISP. The organization is also expanding
its CCTs program to include nutrition, health and mother-child care aspects.
During
the brainstorming session, the participants discussed that there is a need of
research collaboration between BISP and other organizations and seminars should
be conducted on BISP in different universities which would create awareness
about the contribution of BISP and its different data sets.
Moreover, summary of
research projects on BISP should be placed on BISP website for students and
researchers.
It was also suggested
that BISP data should be updated every three years. A suggestion on
interventions based on BISP data for different age groups was highly
appreciated. According to the suggestion, programs like childhood nutrition,
literacy and special education program for primary school children, skill
development program for youth and social welfare program for old age
beneficiaries were put forth. It was also suggested that BISP data may be
utilized for providing subsidies to deserving population in electricity,
railway fares and utility stores.
Chairperson BISP lauded
the suggestions presented by the participants and stated that this workshop
would assist BISP in taking concrete steps. She directed her team to coordinate
with specialized organizations through provision of BISP data for designing
development projects. She also directed to work out the proposal of providing
subsidies to the deserving people by coordinating with concerned departments.
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