Sania Nishtar launches NSER

Islamabad : The Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr Sania Nishtar, Chairman Ehsaas/Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), programme on Thursday launched the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) at the BISP Auditorium. The launch was attended by the Country Director of World Bank, Najy Benhassine, as well as the UN Resident Coordinator, Julien Harneis.

Dr Sania Nishtar spoke at length to explain the efforts put in over the last three years to eventually accomplish the gigantic task they set for themselves for updating an all-encompassing dataset to provide a full spectrum of household-based status of poverty and wellbeing across the country.

“The task was of such magnitude and the hurdles and hiccups we confronted in the beginning seemed almost impossible to overcome and there was a stage that we started contemplating giving up the whole exercise,” Dr Nishtar said.

“NSER has been evolved over the years as the most reliable dataset used by a variety of stakeholder including, public sector institutions, policy think-tanks and development agencies for designing social protection and poverty alleviation programs and interventions,” Dr Nishtar said.

She said that previously, NSER data was collected in 2010-11 and an update was required to collect accurate socioeconomic data of 100% of households in target districts using the socio-economic (Poverty Score Card) questionnaire, household profiling on the basis of Socio-Economic characteristics for identifying the poor household for potential assistance through various Ehsaas/BISP initiatives.

Later, the Director-General Naveed Akbar gave a detailed briefing to the audience about the whole exercise that enabled to update the NSER data using a series of slides.

He elaborated the methods and technology used to prepare the best possible accurate data that would be available to every department or individual to prepare any policy or programme aimed at improving the life of people all over the country while ascertaining their social status accurately.

DG Naveed Akbar also said that the NSER data will also be of immense help to ascertain damages and the kind of help and support people in any specific area may need in case some natural disaster like an earthquake or floods hit.

He also highlighted that this NSER data will greatly help the policy makers and social planners to prepare accurate uplifting programmes in most important fields like education, health, poverty alleviation and other important social variables.

He said that the data will be updated every four years and people at tehsil level will be able to approach the Ehsaas Centers established there to report any change in their family and household. This NSER data could be accessed in pursuance of laid down protocols.

He further said that National Socio-Economic Registry Survey is used to Update Socio Economic Status/Specification (SES) of Household, Proxy Mean Score (PMT) computation to classify household SES, Beneficiary targeting for Conditional cash transfer and Unconditional cash transfer BISP’s Programme, Data sharing for policy planning development programme.

The last segment of the event was indeed interesting when ‘Performance Excellence’ certificate were presented and the best part was that even services rendered by peons and drivers were also acknowledged!

The ‘Naib Qasid’ Umair Rasheed and the two drivers Muhammad Zafar and Muhammad Rafique, must be the three who cherish these certificates for the rest of their lives!

Others who received these ‘Performance Excellence’ certificate included the NSER Director General Naveed Akber, Director Shahid Ali, deputy directors Fahad Ian Sabir and Khurram Khan, assistant directors Khurram Tufail and Rao Faisal, World Bank NSER Project consultants; Waqar Sherazi NSER Implementation Specialist, Farooq Shah Social Engagement Specialist, Muhammad Noman Ali Operational Design & Programme Specialist, Naeem Ahmad Coordinator, Iqbal Ahmad Khan Operation Coordinator, Zahid Jamal M&E Coordinator, Muhammad Rehan MIS Coordinator, Farhan Ali Abbasi Logistics Coordinator, Muhammad Ashraf, Muhammad Asghar, Zahra Batool and Nuzhat Shamim M&E, coordinators, Waqar Bukhari Training Coordinator, Consultant Field Operations Asiya Parveen Mughal, Ahmed Bilal, Nasir Aziz, Ian Zafar, Owais Muzaffar, Muhammad Irfan Data Entry Assistant, Arif Akbar and Khalida, assistants, Fahad Altaf UDC, and most important MIS technical team members Muhammad Hashim, Muhammad Kaan and Muhammad Irfan Hanif.