Publication: Social Protection in Pakistan : Managing Household Risks and Vulnerability
Date
2007-10-18
ISSN
Published
2007-10-18
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The report is the result of an
inter-institutional collaborative effort between the
Government of Pakistan, civil society, and international
donors. This report finds that while Pakistan implements a
wide array of social protection programs, the effectiveness
of these programs could be significantly improved. The
report finds that social protection programs in Pakistan
face important constraints in terms of coverage, targeting,
and implementation, and inability to respond to
vulnerability, which will need to be overcome in order that
they can more effectively protect the poor. The report
suggests a two-pronged approach for social protection
reform: (i) improving the ability of safety net programs to
reach the poor, promote exit from poverty, and respond to
natural disasters; coupled with (ii) a longer term approach
for strengthening social security. Considering social
protection as a system rather than a collection of different
programs would allow the government to curtail
fragmentation, improve the quality of social protection
spending, and have higher impact. Given fiscal constraints,
the report suggests that coverage expansion first exploits
the opportunity for efficiency improvements in current
programs, through better targeting and reduction in
duplication and overlap. However, the decline in real
spending on the two main safety net programs is worrisome.
It is therefore welcome that the government is considering
how best to ensure adequate yet fiscally affordable spending
on safety nets as part of its draft social protection strategy.
Citation
“World Bank. 2007. Social Protection in Pakistan : Managing Household Risks and Vulnerability. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/e39146aa-f90b-5420-94f9-ea93a2a33d1e License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”