Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and its Impact on Women s Empowerment Abstract Irfan Shehzad, PMP 1 Social protection is defined as the set of policies and programmes designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability. Inadequate and underdeveloped social protection systems have exposed a large population to high levels of poverty and excessive risk. In Pakistan, recent events of earthquake, floods and rains have underscored the need for greater attention towards social protection issues especially for the most vulnerable, including women. This paper is based on a study aimed at assessing Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), as a main social safety net programme and its impact on women s empowerment in Pakistan. The data on household consumption has been collected by the household interviews from a stratified sample. A short questionnaire was used as a tool to collect the information regarding consumption patterns. The results of the study have shown that BISP has a positive impact on reducing poverty of targeted beneficiaries. A large number of women in interior parts of Sindh and Southern Punjab have been benefited from the programme resulting in a rise in their consumption levels. Introduction The national and international assurances to global poverty reduction, especially the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have engrossed attention on the degree and persistence of poverty in developing countries. Efforts are underway to develop broad, rational, and necessary interventions to improve the situation. Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people s wellbeing. Social protection consists of policies and programmes designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people's exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as 1 Deputy Director (Projects) Project Management Office, National Database & Registration Authority, Islamabad, Pakistan. E-mail: irfan.shehzad@nadra.gov.pk 71
SAARC Journal of Human Resource Development 2011 unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability and old age. Following are the most common types of social protection: Labour market interventions are policies and programmes designed to promote employment, the efficient operation of labour markets and the protection of workers. Social Insurance mitigates risks associated with unemployment, ill health, disability, work-related injury and old age, such as health insurance or unemployment insurance. Social Assistance is when resources, either cash or in-kind, are transferred to vulnerable individuals or households with no other means of adequate support, including single mothers, the homeless, or the physically or mentally challenged. Social Protection consists of human-capital oriented public interventions: i. To assist individuals, households, and communities better manage risk ii. To provide support to the incapacitated poor In Pakistan recent events of earthquake, floods and rains have underscored the need for greater attention to social protection issues. There are a number of interventions in Pakistan that transfer benefits directly to the poorest of the poor that includes the disbursement of zakat and other charitable donations. Effective support programmes extend support to vulnerable groups such as destitute, unemployed, sick or old aged citizens who otherwise would not benefit from the economic growth. The extent, to which the poor gain from the targeted programmes as well as the contribution of such interventions towards poverty reduction, has always been in question. Evaluating their impact is critical to development initiatives because it provides answers to questions whether the programme has been properly designed or will the programme reach its intended beneficiaries and is the programme cost-effective? There are a number of factors which affect the transparency of the zakat distribution system in Pakistan, such as leakage, corruption, bribery and nepotism. Poverty reduction in the presence of income inequality requires an exceptionally high rate of GDP growth with a trickle down effect. The highest incidence of vulnerability and chronic poverty occurs in the southern irrigated plains of Sindh and Punjab. Poverty is mainly characterized by landlessness, lack of livestock, and absence of a bread earner in the household, dependency or daily wage employment, inability to afford food, shelter, clothing, medical care, etc. 72
Benazir Income Support Programme The social safety net programmes are the major initiatives to reinforce the Government s efforts to reduce the adverse effects of poverty on the marginalized people. In financial year 2007-08, the sharp rise in oil prices and primary products in the international as well as domestic markets resulted in double digit inflation, which almost halved the purchasing power of the people. Hence, there was an urgent need for direct and timely relief to the underprivileged sections of the society and BISP is the response to the said compulsions. This project was started for poverty alleviation and women s empowerment among the underprivileged segments of the society. BISP was initiated by the Government of Pakistan with initial allocation of Rs.34 billion (US $ 425 million approximately) for the financial year 2008-09, with the aim to cover 3.5 million families. For the current FY (2011-12) allocation is Rs.50 billion to provide cash assistance to 5 million families which constitutes almost 15% of the entire population. BISP is being implemented in all the four provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), as well as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Initially, there was no data available for the identification of the underprivileged people in the country to start the programme. Therefore, the task of identification of the deservings was entrusted to the Parliamentarians. In this context, a simple application form was devised for enrolment of people. The eligibility and ineligibility (inclusion and exclusion) criterion was first adopted, later on, that was replaced by the refined targeting process, in order to minimize the inclusion and exclusion errors, and to give equal opportunity to everyone for applying to the programme. BISP is working to enhance various benefits through health insurance initiatives covering hospitalization, pregnancy, daycare treatment, diagnostic tests and accident compensation for the beneficiary s family to a maximum limit of Rs.25, 000/family/year. The BISP is also devising a comprehensive skill development/vocational training plan for its beneficiaries. Under this programme, one member of each beneficiary family will be provided free of cost vocational/technical training. Moreover, after receiving 48 monthly installments, the beneficiary will be reassessed to know whether she has come out of poverty and marginalization or still suffering from the same situation. As part of its graduation strategy, Waseela-e-Haq, another major initiative of BISP under which beneficiaries, selected through random computerized balloting, are awarded a long term interest free loan of Rs.300, 000. This one time loan is conditional and the beneficiary has to spend it for some income generating purpose, thus, providing assistance in choosing and running a successful business. 73
SAARC Journal of Human Resource Development 2011 Programme Objectives The programme s objectives are given below: A measure to compensate low income families for reduction of purchasing power A cash grant of Rs. 1000/ every month Only one receiver of benefit per family Empowering women: Female head of family or adult female member of the family can become a recipient Stakeholders and Their Roles The five main stakeholders include: 1. BISP Operations Wing 2. Ministry of Finance 3. Data Entry Organization 4. Payment Agency 5. BISP Beneficiaries The BISP selects its beneficiaries from poor households that have poverty scores under a pre-defined poverty score. Within these households, BISP selects families which are defined according to the following criteria: 1. Husband, wife and unmarried children 2. Husband and wife without any children 3. A divorced woman with or without her unmarried children, living alone or with her parents/relatives 4. A widow with or without her unmarried children, living alone or with her parents/relatives. The person entitled to receive the cash in each family is the wife in case of a family where the husband is present or divorced/widowed/separated women in families where the husband is absent. Programme Modules BISP project cycle comprises of the four stages: 1. Targeting aims at collecting data on the welfare of households by means of house to house survey using the poverty scorecard 2. Data validation, verification, beneficiary selection 3. Payments 74
4. Case Management After collecting the field data through survey by the organizations commissioned by BISP, the Data Entry Organization compiled a list of all the targeting forms in the Programme Management Information System (PMIS) of BISP. This process has three phases: i. validation of data to calculate poverty score, ii). identification of the eligible households/families, and iii. identification of entitled women to receive benefits within the each family. Poverty Scorecard (Proxy Means Test) The World Bank has approved an instrument named Poverty Scorecard based on Proxy Means Testing (PMT), which has been adopted for carrying out a nationwide Poverty Survey to identify the poor families. PMT formula is applied after uploading the targeting forms in the system where each question is designated a certain weightage. The questionnaire contains various sections which capture the information about potential beneficiaries, household roster, living conditions, status of house, ages of members and possession of any agricultural land or livestock. Based on this mechanism, the household is eligible if the score is equal or less than the cut-off score i.e. 16.17 assigned within the system. So far more than 23 million targeting forms have been filled and digitalised by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), out of these 23 million, about 6 million have been declared as eligible beneficiaries of BISP. Payments to Beneficiaries In BISP, the delivery of funds directly to the recipients is considered to be the most appropriate payment method. Initially, BISP contracted Pakistan Post as the agency responsible for disbursement of funds to the beneficiaries via money orders. As a measure of transparency and social accountability of the programme, the payment details and status of delivery of each beneficiary has been displayed at the BISP website. In order to further improve the payment mechanism, technology based solutions are being explored by BISP. Such new mechanisms are enabling the programme to execute the payments in a shorter span of time. Payment through the Smart Cards has been initiated in few districts. These cards are issued by NADRA and payments are arranged by a bank, through a network of franchises and a core banking application. Research Methodology and Approach The data on household consumption (food, medicine, school fee, utilities, etc.), expenditure and income is used to estimate the prevalence of poverty and impact 75
SAARC Journal of Human Resource Development 2011 of cash assistance. This information was collected via household interviews (consisting of retrospective questions regarding consumption). Research Objectives Following were the objectives of the study: To assess the effectiveness of the programme by taking into account the empowerment of receiver women To analyze the purchasing patterns of BISP beneficiaries / receivers Sample Frame Stratified samples of 1,095 beneficiaries of BISP were interviewed; the beneficiaries were belonging to following districts: 1. Multan (n=289) 2. Mianwali (n=117) 3. Sanghar (n=488) 4. Mirpurkhas (n=201) Survey Tools and Techniques A short questionnaire was used as a survey tool to collect the information regarding the consumption patterns which was pre-tested. The beneficiaries were asked the following three questions for which options to answer were given: Qs 1. Did you find the cash assistance of BISP helpful in meeting your daily expenses? (Yes/ No) Qs 2. How did you spend this cash assistance? (Food, Utilities or others) Qs 3. Do you feel a considerable improvement in the consumption level after getting benefit from BISP? (Yes/ No) Main Findings After collecting the information from the programme beneficiaries, the data was processed and analyzed for interpretation of the results. Details are presented in table 1: 76
Table 1: District Wise Responses of the BISP Beneficiaries District Cash Assistance of BISP Helpful How the Cash Assistance was Spent Improvement in Consumption Level after BISP Assistance Yes No Food Utilities Others Yes No Multan 200 89 259 25 5 250 39 Mianwali 100 17 97 10 10 100 17 Sanghar 350 138 400 48 40 448 40 Mirpur Khas 151 50 151 30 20 181 20 Figure 1: Cash Assistance of BISP Helpful in Meeting the Daily Expenditure The results indicate that a significant number of beneficiaries had found the cash assistance quite helpful in meeting their daily expenditure which included food items, utility bills, health, education of children and travelling expenses. The data also indicate that a number of beneficiaries were not satisfied with the cash assistance in meeting their daily expenditure; however, the number was much lesser as compared to those who had shown their satisfaction as given in Figure 1: 77
SAARC Journal of Human Resource Development 2011 Figure 2: BISP Cash Assistance Spending The results show that most of the beneficiaries had spent the cash assistance of BISP on purchase of the food items, some spent on utilities while fewer spent on miscellaneous. It was also revealed that people were severely affected by the food inflation as the intake of calories per day was low as presented in Figure 2: Figure 3: Improvement in Consumption Level after BISP Assistance The results indicate that most of the beneficiaries were benefited from the BISP cash assistance which had improved their food consumption levels considerably. As only women were the receivers of the cash, therefore, the decision to spend the money was also at their discretion. Women were mainly concerned with the health and food intake of their children so as to reduce the threats of illness. 78
Figure 4: Cumulative Analysis of Responses of BISP Beneficiaries The cumulative analysis show that cash assistance of BISP had economically empowered the women to improve spending on food items and most of the beneficiaries were utilizing this assistance to improve their food consumption at the household level. Though a number of beneficiaries were not satisfied with the cash assistance to meet their basic needs and daily expenditure; however, overall impact of the cash assistance on the household had resulted in increased food consumption levels. Issues and Recommendations Apart from the discussion whether a social safety net programme like BISP should provide livelihood opportunities to the underprivileged segments of society or emphasize on the conditional cash transfer to them, there are number of issues which need immediate resolution. Some of these observations along with recommendations are given below: i. Since the inception of programme, case management system has not been made operational at grassroots level addressing the needs and concerns of excluded vulnerable e.g. poor old women. ii. There is limited presence of BISP management at the grassroots level which is hindering the flow of information as well as the resolution of the grievances of illiterate women. iii. There is a need to synergize BISP with different other programmes aimed to provide social assistance to women. Interventions targeted on poor women by different stakeholders and development partners may also be taken into account while devising policy framework and other design parameters of the programme. 79
SAARC Journal of Human Resource Development 2011 80 iv. An efficient monitoring and evaluation mechanism needs to be adopted for bringing further improvements in the design and rollout of the programme to minimize the exclusion of the poorest women. v. Technology driven payment solutions have been introduced in few districts whereby branchless banking has been taken as a tool to deliver the monthly cash assistance to the beneficiaries; the same may be extended to all the districts in order to bring homogeneity across all districts. vi. The information dissemination may be ensured at all requisite levels, especially to the intended target groups/segments of the programme i.e. vulnerable and poor women. vii. The statistics/database of BISP may be utilized in the planning of different public sector reforms projects for provision of better living facilities and livelihood opportunities for women in order to gain maximum output from the investment carried out in the collection of data through survey. viii. Besides making the cash transfers conditional by associating it with vocational and technical education, there is a need of developing further opportunities for young women by setting up more vocational institutes in Pakistan. This will result in making these efforts more coherent and comprehensive. ix. A mechanism should be devised to reassess the poverty level of BISP beneficiaries and exclude them if they have moved out of extreme poverty after encouraging them to sustain/improve their condition. Conclusion The programme has a positive impact on reducing poverty and empowering the women beneficiaries by increasing their food consumption levels. A large number of women have been benefited and protected against falling into more ameliorating condition. Moreover, the family members associated with these women beneficiaries especially their children have been benefiting from the cash assistance as this assistance have been spent on increasing their food consumption levels, education and health. The programme has provided women a tool to safeguard their basic needs and strengthen their economic condition. In addition to the economic well-being, BISP has provided women more stake to exercise their right in making decisions while spending on the betterment of their families. The programme has not only empowered the women but has also developed awareness about the active role; women can play in contributing to the bread earning of their family. BISP has uplifted the income generation activities by assisting poor women in providing and establishing livelihood opportunities. The programme can bring sustainable development if cash
transfers are made conditional on children s attendance at school. This will increase the effectiveness by ensuring an increase in the literacy level. Acknowledgments The valuable guidance and support provided by Mr. Faysal Jamshaid, Director Projects, NADRA and Mr. Shah Haroon, M&E Specialist, NADRA is highly acknowledged. References Asian Development Bank. (2001). Social protection in Asia & the Pacific. Manila: Asian Development Bank Asian Development Bank. (2006). Working Paper on Targeting efficiency of Poverty Reduction Programme in Pakistan. Benazir Income Support Programme. Retrieved on July 25, 2011 from http://www.bisp.gov.pk Federal Board of Statistics, Government of Pakistan. (2001). Poverty in the 1990s. Islamabad: The Author Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan. (2003). Accelerating economic growth & reducing poverty: The road ahead (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper). Islamabad: The Author Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan. (2005). Medium Term Development Framework 2005-10. Islamabad: The Author World Food Programme. (2011). WFP s Role in social protection and safety nets: A strategic evaluation. Retrieved from http://home.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/reports/wfp235864.p df United Nations World Food Programmes. Retrieved in August 2011 from http://www.wfp.org.pk 81