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.
