Mansoor Sadiq

Social protection is a very strong agent of social development and its horizon in the country should be expanded to include more marginalized groups. These remarks were made by various speakers at the training titled “Social Protection in Pakistan,” arranged for public officials to help them understand the nuances of the concept and familiarize them with instruments and approaches to its implementation.

The training was organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with GIZ under a BMZ-financed program, Oxford Policy Management (OPM), and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (HBRS), Germany. Speaking on the occasion, Program Director GIZ, Pakistan, Dr Franz von Roenne said that “GIZ is supporting the federal and the provincial governments in their reform programs of social protection under the program named ‘Support to Social Protection - Social Health Protection.’”

Joint Executive Director, SDPI, Dr Vaqar Ahmed was of the view that the importance of social protection increased when the country was facing disasters and natural calamities. “More people are in need of our help than ever before since millions have lost their livelihoods in recent floods,” he added. He continued, “we need an integrated approach to social protection to harness the efforts of all agencies working in this domain. In this way, we will be able to better allocate the limited resources for the protection of the vulnerable segments of the population.”

Chief Executive Officer of the Punjab Social Protection Authority, Tauseef Dilshad Khatana, highlighted the importance of the course in building the capacity of public officials to better identify vulnerable groups and work for their protection. Various officials from various public departments were present at the occasion.

They included Federal Sehat Sahulat Program, Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Ministry of National Health Services’ Regulations and Coordination, Benazir Income Support Programme, Punjab Bait-ul-Maal, P & D Board Punjab, KP-TEVTA, Women Development Department Punjab, Punjab Social Protection Authority, Special Education Department Punjab, Zakat and Usher Department of the Punjab Government, Punjab Health Initiative Management Company, Social Welfare Department of KP, and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, among others.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk