PM Imran congratulates Sania Nishtar, Ehsaas team after World Bank acknowledgement.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday congratulated his special assistant Dr Sania Nishtar and the Ehsaas team after their efforts were acknowledged in a World Bank report.

"Congratulations to Sania and the Ehsaas team for achieving this milestone and well-deserved international recognition," tweeted the prime minister.

In a recent report on social protection measures taken by several countries during the pandemic, the World Bank has recognised the efforts of the Pakistan government in uplifting the poor by featuring the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme in its list of top four global social protection interventions.

The World Bank released a report on 'global social protection responses to COVID-19'. This report is called the 'living paper' and it presents a 650-page volume and accompanying database documenting how countries and territories are planning, implementing or completing social protection measures in the context of the pandemic.

The report states that there has been 'an exponential growth in social protection measures between March 20, 2020 and May 14, 2021 and that a total of 3,333 social protection measures have been planned or implemented in 222 countries or territories'.

As far as the number of people and the percentage of population covered among countries where more than 100 million people benefited from the social programmes, the World Bank stated that "select countries have attained impressive six-digit levels".

It said Pakistan's Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme ranks fourth globally in terms of the number of people covered and 3rd globally in terms of percentage of population covered amongst those that covered over 100 million people.

The paper has been authored by Ugo Gentilini, who is appointed as the lead of Social Protection at the World Bank. The report is accompanied by an excel sheet as well to make available the larger volume of data.

According to the report, Pakistan's Ehsaas programme also ranked high amongst programmes around the world that did well in terms of planned versus actual coverage rates.

According to the report, most of social protection measures are provided as social assistance. These represent 55% of global programs and are the predominant form of support in...