In 2007 RSPN, together with its partner RSPs adapted the CGAP-Grameen Foundation USA Poverty Score Card (PSC) for Pakistan to identify the poorest households in the country to whom social protection and other pro-poor programmes could be targeted. Over the next two years i.e, 2007-09, the RSPs administered a PSC survey of over 1.7 million households across the country and began advocacy efforts to promote the use of a PSC to improve poverty targeting in Pakistan. RSPN held meetings with the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission and the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the use of the PSC in to ensure pro-poor programming.
Highlights:
RSPN was the largest partner of the BISP in conducting countrywide poverty scorecard survey of over 14 million households out of total about 25 million households in Pakistan.
68 Districts 345 Tehsils/Talukas 3,115 Union Councils 14 Million Households 90 Million Population 21,000 Staff trained 20,000 persons employed
High profile inauguration: by President of Pakistan in Sindh Province, by Prime Minister in KPK, by Governor and Chairperson BISP in Punjab, by Senior Government Officials in AJK and GB.
As a result of these meetings, the Planning Commission asked RSPN to prepare a PSC for rural and urban areas of the country. The Government resultantly adopted a Targeting Process that is objective and conforms to international best practices. The survey instrument used for this census was the World Bank/Government of Pakistan’s Poverty Score Card and BISP Cover Sheet. Through this instrument, the extremely poor households were identified in a given locality and the Government provided them with grants to help them meet financial challenges.
Geographic Scope of the Project and Partners:
A RSPN led consortium partnered with BISP and successfully carried out the Poverty Score Card (PSC) Household survey during the roll out test phase in five districts, covering a total of 490,000 households falling under both rural and urban areas. RSPN partnered with National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) to carry out the PSC census in Mianwali (Punjab) and Mirpurkhas (Sindh), the Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) for Killa Saifullah (Balochistan), the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) for Karak (NWFP) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) for Ghanche (Northern Areas). While RSPN did not conduct any analysis of the data collected, the completed PSC forms were submitted to the National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA).
Salient Features of the Project:
Based on the successful completion of the test phase in 2009, the BISP launched the “Nationwide Poverty Targeting Survey (NPTS)” in 2010 by grouping the remaining 122 districts of the country into seven clusters namely Cluster-A (Upper Punjab & AJK); Cluster-B (South Punjab), Cluster-C (Sindh province), Cluster-D (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan), Cluster-E (Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Cluster-F (Balochistan Province allocated to PCO), and Cluster-G (12 Districts allocated to PPAF) while PSC in five Clusters A-E was conducted through competitive bidding process. In August 2010 RSPN was contracted by the BISP as a Partner Organisation to undertake the Poverty Targeting Survey of about 12.4 million households (88 million population) in 64 districts grouped in three Clusters namely Cluster-A Cluster-C and Cluster-D through its five member RSPs: AKRSP, NRSP, SRSO, SRSP, and TRDP. Following are the highlights of BISP nationwide poverty survey in three clusters assigned to RSPN and RSPs.
Achievements
RSPN was the largest partner of the BISP in conducting countrywide poverty scorecard survey of about 13.85 million households out of total about 25 million households in Pakistan, i.e. over 79 million people. All filled survey forms were submitted to NADRA for NADRA data entry. Concentrated efforts were made in close consultation and collaboration with the BISP staff especially the Divisional Directors and District Supervisors for coverage of missed households.
