Ninth Annual Conference on Management of the Pakistan Economy Human Capital Development for Sustained Economic Growth/ Social Protection and Human Development: Two Programs in Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan has launched a far reaching social protection programs. The federal government’s Benazir Income Support Program has, at its core, an unconditional cash grant for the poorest households. Responding to the concern that this runs the risk of creating a large pool of permanent government handouts, the federal government has also launched an ambitious skills development program. At the provincial level, the government of Punjab is implementing skills development as social welfare in the four poorest Southern Punjab districts. The paper discusses the structure of the two programs, their success at reaching the poor and the monitoring challenges to assess their overall effectiveness.