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Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:

The Key to Escape from Poverty

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years and this trend can be attributed, in part, to the stipends

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provided to girls to attend

school. The Girls Stipend Programme has three different streams

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(i) the provision of a

monthly stipend to girls enrolled in grades 6 to 10, in two instalments, reaching over 400,000

girls in 2013-2014. (ii) the provision of significantly higher levels of stipends (1,500-2,000

rupees versus 200 rupees of the regular scheme) in two districts for girls enrolled in grades 1 to

10, and 6 to 10 in the second district. Those districts are at a particular geographical

disadvantage with a lack of proper education facilities. (iii) in 2013-2014 a special stipend was

provided as incentive for girls in primary schools in seven districts with a particularly low net

enrolment rate.

National level initiative

Beyond these examples of stipends at the provincial or district level, a major national level social

protection scheme is the

Benazir Income Support Program

.

Box 1

Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)

Goal.

In the short-term, provide a cushion to adverse impacts of food, fuel and the financial crisis

on the poor. In the long term, the programme aims at providing a minimum income support

package to the poorest and to those most vulnerable to future shocks.

Why.

Launched in 2008, it is the country’s flagship national safety net programme. Recognizing

that the existing instruments (Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Zakat) had limited coverage and were

poorly targeted, BISP provides predictable income support through unconditional cash transfers

to more than 5.2 million families

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.

How.

The transfer is delivered quarterly, with the vast majority of beneficiaries receiving cash

through a BISP Debit Card. By providing access to Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC)

and making BISP payments to the female head of beneficiary households, the BISP made explicit

the goal of empowering women, which is complemented by the creation of BISP Beneficiary

Committees (BBC) that provide a forum for beneficiaries.

Direct link to education.

Unconditional income support is likely to support access to school by

children in the beneficiary households by alleviating the financial constraints and decreasing

incentives for child labour or other negative coping mechanisms. However, with a variety of

building blocks of safety nets, BISP has evolved into a national platform for the provisions of a

series of targeted services to the poor. One example of an additional ‘top up’ programme is the

“Co-responsibility Cash Transfer” CCT programme which started in 2012 and

linked transfers to

primary school education

of the beneficiaries’ children

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. More than 1.3 million children have been

enrolled in the programme and nearly 50% are girls.

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https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/helping-girls-get-an-education

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https://www.dawn.com/news/1161230

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http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/05/19/cash-transfers-help-pakistans-poorest

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http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2016/05/19/cash-transfers-help-pakistans-poorest