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Risks of Pakistan’s CRISP Program are Moderate: World Bank

The social risks of the proposed Pakistan Crisis Resilient Social Protection (CRISP) program are assessed as moderate, says the World Bank in its report “Pakistan Crisis Resilient Social Protection Program (CRISP) Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA).”

The proposed CRISP program seeks to advance Pakistan’s social protection system to make it an adaptive, crisis-resilient system and move toward the next generation of programs beyond social assistance by extending coverage to the ‘missing middle’ (uncovered by existing safety nets or formal social insurance).

Moving to a more effective and responsive social protection system is expected to promote post-COVID-19 recovery and enable timely action in the event of a future crisis and to protect and help build resilience among a broader segment of the population that is vulnerable to shocks.

The World Bank said that the primary risks are related to the complexity of institutional arrangements and intra-provincial coordination. The report said that there is a risk of social exclusion if proper community outreach and social mobilization activities (specially targeted to women) are not implemented. Furthermore, the report outlined that there is also the risk that technology upgrades envisaged are not effective because of a lack of commensurate investment in the human capabilities needed to implement technological change.


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There are also concerns related to data privacy and security. The environmental risk of the project is rated as low since its potential adverse risks and impacts on human populations and the environment are likely to be insignificant.

There are no civil works of any kind included in the project. The procurement of ICT equipment will generate e-waste, which can pose low environmental risks if these wastes are not handled in an environmentally sound way. The e-waste impacts would be low due to the small quantity and long and variable life of the equipment.

Major findings indicate that the current regulations at both provincial and federal levels lack specific provisions pertinent to e-waste management. Hazardous substances, mentioned under Hazardous Substance Rules, 2003, to be controlled, do not mention e-waste, rather different hazardous chemicals, and heavy metals are mentioned, which can be the part of the e-waste or released during dismantling, burning, chemical processing, or disposing on the land. Furthermore, enforcement of these provisions is weak in the country due to the lack of enforcement infrastructure and resources.

It is assessed that being the implementation department of the program, Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) needs to develop and implement Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) for the sale and procurement of ICT equipment.

The social risks are manageable by including mitigation strategies in the project design. This program should also build upon and leverage the knowledge emerging from both the pilot phase experiences and implementation experience from the Punjab Human Capital Investment Project and the FATA Temporarily Displaced People Project. This knowledge will help devise collaborative province-specific financial and operational models.


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The proposed Program Development Objective (PDO) is to support positive disruptions and advances in the social protection system to make it more adaptive and to build crisis-resilience among vulnerable households.

Specifically, it would build-in greater innovation and technology within the SP system to strengthen the social registry, optimize the use of big data, and advance the delivery system components, including the payment systems, the social registry, and related information systems.

It will also support the next generation of social protection interventions targeting the ‘missing middle’ by developing innovative hybrid social protection mechanisms.  Finally, the third targeted result would come from promoting medium to long term mitigation of COVID impacts by prioritizing the human capital accumulation among the youngest.

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