Poverty Scorecard Rollout - Benazir Income Support Program

Background of the project:

The Government of Pakistan launched the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in February 2009, as the main social safety net programme to cushion the negative effects of the food crisis and inflation on the poor.

The Government is introducing a Targeting Process that is objective and conforms to international best practices. The survey instrument to be used for this census is the World Bank/Government of Pakistan’s Poverty Score Card and BISP Cover Sheet. Through this instrument the extremely poor households would be identified in a given locality and the Government would provide them with grants in order to help them meet financial challenges.

A RSPN led consortium partnered with BISP and successfully carried out the Poverty Score Card (PSC) Household survey during the roll out test phase in five districts, covering a total of 490,000 households falling under both rural and urban areas.

Geographic scope of the project and partners:

The PSC was carried out with the help of partner RSP’s using their outreach, geographical coverage and experience in poverty targeting. RSPN partnered with National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) for carrying out the PSC census in Mianwali (Punjab) and Mirpurkhas (Sindh), the Balochistan Rural Support Programme (BRSP) for Killa Saifullah (Balochistan), the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) for Karak (NWFP) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) for Ghanche (Northern Areas).

Salient features of the project:

The RSPN team made a number of arrangements to ensure proper implementation and maintain quality at each step of the project.

A senior staff member was recruited as Operations Coordinator whose main tasks include interfacing both with the BISP and with the Partner RSPs for ensuring timely and quality data collection, conducting and coordinating the trainings of Area Managers, enumerators and supervisors and overseeing the planning, management and quality control of data collection for census.

In each district, the concerned Partner RSP deputed one staff member as Area Coordinator planning and management in that district.

Data collection was carried out by teams of Enumerators and Supervisors. Each data collection team was led by a Supervisor, and comprised of ten Enumerators and a Forward Campaigner. The Forward Campaigner’s with the assistance of local activists visited a village/locality one to two days ahead of the scheduled data collection date, and raised awareness regarding the data collection process. The purpose being  to ensure that the communities a) understand the importance of the PSC data collection process, b) are willing to participate in the survey, c) are motivated to provide accurate and reliable information, and d) keep the required information in access on the data collection date.

Staff training took place in two stages. First, a training workshop was conducted in Islamabad by BISP, where the Area Coordinators from each RSP and other concerned staff received an orientation on data collection methodology and were trained as Trainers of Trainers. Once trained, the Area Coordinators returned to their districts and imparted training to the Supervisors and Enumerators. Besides technical training on completing the scorecard, the enumerators and supervisors received special sessions on effective communication skills, social mobilisation and time management techniques. Partner RSP’s hired “Monitors” to cross verify 8-10% of the households for whom PSC were completed.

Achievements of the project:

The Census was successfully completed in the above stated five districts and covered 490,000 households falling in both the urban and rural areas. Given the quantum of data collection, the major achievement of the project was the high level of quality and control that was maintained throughout the data collection process. Efficient monitoring system’s were put in place to ensure the reliability of the data collected.