Estimating Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) of Workers Welfare Fund

Estimating Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) of Workers Welfare Fund

Partner: Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Duration: September 2012 to February 2013

Locale: Various districts of Pakistan

Introduction: After facing the challenges in implementing the macro-level labour reforms (e.g. the implementation of minimum wage – revised annually), the Government of Pakistan is striving to put in place social safety nets such as Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Within the overall ambit of social protection, the government has retained the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) even after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which requires social sector programmes to be devolved to provinces in order to improve service delivery. The provincial governments have, however, been urging the federal government to hand over the reins of WWF. The study analyzed the intended and unintended consequences of WWF programme on the welfare and well-being of different groups (e.g. gender, location, age) with a special focus on the vulnerable and poor. Well-being includes income and non-income dimensions of poverty.

Objectives:

• To elaborate the employment has well as non-employment factors adding to or detracting from the targeted impact of WWF
• To assess the possible impact of man-made and natural disasters on the delivery of the WWF programme.
• To evaluate if there are any significant differences in scope and effectiveness of the programme in urban and rural context and to suggest reasons for these differences.
• To explore the value of Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) in analyzing policy choices and propose an efficient process for conducting future PSIAs.

Activities:

• Primary data collection
• Draft report and policy recommendations  based on field research findings
• Dissemination of research findings and policy recommendations

Findings: The first important concern highlighted by the beneficiaries was access and certainty of education grant. Two issues hinder timely receipt of such grant such as, heavy documentation required to claim the right, and delays involved in the disbursement of fee. The schools provided grant under WWF also have access problems. Several of them are substantially far from the colonies in which workers' children are residing. Secondly, in the provision of housing, it was noticed that while construction of new schemes has been going on (although at a slower than desired pace), however less attention is being paid to services and their quality in existing housing schemes. Most notably sanitation and sewerage issues in these colonies are now becoming a health and environmental hazard. Furthermore, the maintenance of housing (repair work) is not being done on a regular basis making many of the housing units unliveable. The common places such as parks and grounds for workers' children have been encroached and no dedicated effort was observed by our team in which WWF has taken up this issue of encroachment with the municipal authorities or even the higher officials within WWF and the Ministry. Recommendations: A one-window operation for both emergency cases as well as those accessing health facilities through social security departments is required. The workers retired from WWF cannot access health facility (and any other WWF instrument). International Publication (Poverty and Social Impact Analysis of Workers Welfare Fund)