Climate change and other threats faced by the human race need a concerted effort by all the political governments of the world for their timely solutions. The statement was made by the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Faisal Karim Kundi while addressing the 38^th COMCEC Conference at Ministerial Level in Türkiye.

He said that like other economies in the world, Pakistan was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with hundreds of thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars of losses in industry shutdowns, according to a handout issued by the Press Information Department. He continued by saying that government had to mobilize funds worth USD 1.23 billion for 16.9 million families affected by the pandemic, adding that USD 75 was spent on each family through the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).

Identification of affected families was carried out by the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) Survey of BISP to make sure that poverty does not increase after the pandemic. This is the reason, he said, why government had achieved poverty reduction targets in time. He added that smart lockdown policy of the government made sure that pandemic did not spread out of control and that people could also find work on daily wages. He continued by discussing the cost of recent floods to the country.

He said that the recent floods affected 33 million people with total losses to the economy at upwards of USD 30 billion.He added that the government had distributed USD 312 million among 2.7 million flood-affected families through the BISP. He highlighted the BISP Nashonuma Programme which provided nutrition programs for 12,000 pregnant and lactating mothers, and their children to increase maternal and child health.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk