Stanford, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, has published a paper about Pakistan’s Ehsaas program and how the world can learn from Imran Khan’s concept of welfare state which is inspired by “Medina”, the first ever Muslim state in the history.
“Pakistan’s Ehsaas Program has set itself apart as a world-leading anti-poverty effort to uplift the country’s most vulnerable,” says the introduction of the paper titled “Frameworks for a Developmental Welfare State: Lessons From Pakistan’s Ehsaas Program”.
The Stanford paper is written by Sir Michael Barber and Muqueet Shahzad.
“This paper is a review of the Ehsaas Program, implemented by the Government of Pakistan from 2018 onwards,” wrote Sir Michael Barber and Muqueet Shahzad in the introduction, “Ehsaas, in its goal of becoming a holistic and integrated response to poverty, provides a diverse set of services for vulnerable Pakistanis, including unconditional cash transfers, targeted subsidies, and increased health and nutritional coverage. We study the various policy, programmatic, and implementation reforms undertaken during this period and explore the lessons these reforms offer for global policymakers. In particular, we point to the importance of good leadership, building strong institutions, effectively using data and technology, and of using an integrated, inclusive approach to anti-poverty. Our findings indicate that these reforms have enabled Ehsaas to successfully scale impact, increase transparency, and improve the efficiency of its interventions, whilst building trust amongst beneficiaries and program administrators.”
“Pakistan’s Ehsaas Program has set itself apart as a world-leading anti-poverty effort to uplift the country’s most vulnerable”
The paper noted that Pakistan’s poverty challenge is one of the hardest in the global context. Pakistan ranks as the 51st poorest country in the world5, as well as the 5th most populous with population continuing to grow at an alarming rate of 2% 7. While the population growth rate is on a downward trend, countries of similar demographics indicate that the implications in the long run can be damaging for the livelihoods of millions of people. Pakistan’s wealth is incredibly concentrated amongst a few families, leaving 35%8 of Pakistanis below the poverty line. As Pakistan’s wealthiest pay little tax, Pakistan’s poor citizens pay more taxes in their place.
“Pakistan has a long history of anti-poverty interventions,” the authors mentioned, “However, the persistently high levels of poverty in Pakistan demonstrate the inadequacy of these policies, mainly as a result of limited coverage and poor implementation.”
The paper observes Pakistan has always been a poor country. At the time of its independence from British colonial rule in 1947, the economy was predominantly rural and highly unequal. More than half of the population lived in poverty and there were limited provisions for education, healthcare, and formal employment. Since then, poverty has remained a consistent feature of Pakistan’s economy, particularly as a result of low economic growth, poor governance, and vulnerability to external shocks (ranging from environmental degradation and disasters to a declining security environment). This has resulted in Pakistan having one of the lowest Human Development Index scores in Asia, and the world, indicating failure across multiple dimensions of human development.
The Californian university research paper notes that the change in the anti-policy framework came with the launching of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) in 2008, which expanded the coverage of anti-poverty program beyond their previously limited scope. BISP was an unconditional cash transfer program and became the largest social safety net in Pakistan with nearly 5.7 million families benefitting. Although BISP became deeply controversial overtime.
But when Ehsaas was launched, BISP became one of the implementing agencies of Ehsaas. Under Ehsaas’ Governance and Integrity Policy and the Building and Rebuilding Institutions Initiative (BRI) a deep-rooted governance reform of BISP was undertaken. Whereas in the past, there had been little continuity between governments and little effort to integrate previous programs or to learn from their failures, the
Ehsaas program is different. Launched in 2019 as the flagship program for the new government of Imran Khan, it worked to integrate more than 134 of these fragmented and poorly implemented social protection programs under one new program.
In particular, it has organized these efforts around the challenges faced in implementation of social protection operations, forming a comprehensive and increasingly integrated anti-poverty service. Under its strategy, Ehsaas comprised 16 program for 16 disadvantaged groups, 292 initiatives in their support, and 6 quantifiable goals. There were several agencies implementing Ehsaas’ initiatives.
Ehsaas has crucially moved beyond the singular cash transfer model that BISP offered, in line with the global move toward integrated poverty reduction schemes. Instead, in forming a comprehensive approach to anti-poverty, it is increasingly moving toward developing the capacity and human capital of beneficiaries, as well as the Government of Pakistan’s capabilities to deliver on innovative and comprehensive program with limited resources.
Altogether, Ehsaas is a landmark in anti-poverty program in the history of Pakistan. It is the first anti-poverty program which unites efforts across federal and provincial ministries, and takes a holistic approach to poverty alleviation including: social safety net measures, education, human capital formation, livelihoods, and health.
As with past political governments, anti-poverty policy was an important part of the political campaign for the Imran Khan’s government, and probably the most remarkable achievement of his 3.5-year government.
