Abstract:
Pakistan has launched two 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 handout
recipients, 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.
