The Evolution of Benazir Income Support Programme's Delivery Systems : Leveraging Digital Technology for Adaptive Social Protection in Pakistan

This report documents the progress that Pakistan has made so far in improving its systems for delivering social protection to its people. The government has increasingly relied on data and technology to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the program. BISP UCT (Kafaalat),the country's largest social assistance program in terms of both budget allocation and number of beneficiaries has been responsible for the most innovative developments in the delivery of benefits. Its delivery systems have evolved significantly overtime expanding in scope from simply delivering the UCT to becoming a system that other programs can leverage to identify beneficiaries and deliver benefits. It has flexibility to be scaled up, both horizontally and vertically, in times of shock. This did not happen overnight: the government has consistently invested time and resources over the past decade and a half to improve how it functions. By documenting that journey, using the Social Protection Delivery Chain Framework developed by the World Bank in the "Sourcebook on the Foundations of Social Protection Delivery Systems," (Lindert and others 2020), this report can be a resource for domestic and international stakeholders