World Food Programme to Help Extend Ehsaas Nashonuma Initiative to All Tehsils

Ehsaas and World Food Programme (WFP) have inked a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to extend the Ehsaas Nashonuma programme from the current 15 districts to all tehsils of Pakistan.

David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme, and Dr. Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, witnessed the MoU signing ceremony. Country Director WFP Pakistan, Chris Kaye, and Secretary, Ismat Tahira, formally signed the MoU.

Speaking on the occasion, David Beasley, stated, “I highly commend Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision and commitment to address the issue of stunting in children across Pakistan. Other countries can also learn from it.”

“Ehsaas Nashonuma is undoubtedly playing a transformative role to tackle stunting in children and transforming their lives as according to the estimates 40 out of 100 children in Pakistan are stunted”, he added.

Dr. Sania termed Ehsaas’ partnership with WFP remarkable and thanked the WFP leadership and country team for their assistance in the programme design, roll out, and national scale-up.

In her remarks, Dr. Sania said, “Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first speech to the nation had highlighted the key issue of stunting and committed to addressing it. Therefore, in line with our PM’s vision, Ehsaas rolled out a nutrition conditional cash transfer programme, Ehsaas Nashonuma in partnership with the WFP.”

Chris Kaye, Country Director WFP Pakistan, assured full support for the national scale-up of the programme.

“Across 15 most stunted districts of the country, 50 Ehsaas Nashonuma Centres have already been opened at the district and Tehsil level health facilities in the first phase of the programme and these will absolutely play an important role in building human capital”, he said.

Launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan in August 2020, the Ehsaas Nashonuma programme delivers conditional cash transfers to vulnerable pregnant women, mothers, and children up to two years of age and provides them with cash stipends, specialized nutritious food, immunizations, antenatal and postnatal checkups, and health-awareness sessions.

Every quarter, a girl child gets a higher stipend amount compared to a boy child. Principally, Ehsaas Nashonuma is pegged on improving nutrition and health in the first thousand days of life, which is the most critical period in early childhood development, starting at conception and finishing at age of two.