Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday said that through the Social Protection Delivery System, the Mother and Child Support Program (MCSP) has been launched under which so far Rs163.584 million cash was transferred to pregnant and lactating women. Shah said that the MCSP has been introduced to encourage pregnant women and mothers of under two-year-old children to utilize maternal, newborn, and child healthcare services (MNCH) throughout the continuum of care for 1,000 days/ three years from conception. The program will provide conditional cash transfers to support and strengthen the scale of the Mother and Child Support. This emerged in a meeting presided by the CM to review the progress of ‘the Strengthening Social Protection Delivery System in Sindh (SSPDS)’ here at CM House. The meeting was attended by PSCM Agha Wasif, Secretary of Social Protection Dept Rafiq Mustafa Shaikh, CEO of Social Protection Authority Samiullah Shaikh and others concerned. The MCSP program has a budget of $201.85 million to strengthen and expand the existing Mother and Child Support Program by providing conditional cash transfers to pregnant women and mothers of children under two years old. The Strengthening Social Protection Delivery System in Sindh (SSPDS) has been launched with the International Development Association (IDA). The IDA has funded $200 million and counterpart funding of the Sindh government share is $30 million which shows the project cost is $230 million. The project will be implemented over five years (2023-2027). The Mother and Child Support Program (MCSP) has been initiated for $201.85 million to strengthen and increase the scale of the Mother and Child Support via conditional cash transfer to pregnant women and mothers of under two-year-old children encouraging them to utilize maternal, newborn and child healthcare (MNCH) services throughout the continuum of care for 1,000 days (3 years) from conception. Secretary Social Protection Rafiq Mustafa to the CM that the MCSP which has been piloted in two districts (Umerkot and Tharparkar) in 2021, offer cost-effective instruments for increasing the uptake of these essential services by poor rural households. He said that it was also an effective way to target small cash transfers to poor women at times in the life cycle (when they are pregnant or have young children) for when they most need additional support to look after their health and the nutrition of their children. The MCSP encapsulates some significant advances in this area, including partnership between social protection and health service providers, coordination among stakeholders at the local level, initial development of IMIS, beneficiary registration and verification, and online payment mechanisms. The beneficiaries of the MCSP will avail of WHO-recommended MNCH services throughout the continuum of care for 1,000 days from conception and are considered essential for the well-being of the mother, newborn, and child. CEO Social Protection Authority Samiullah Shaikh said that a total of 16 touchpoints have been identified throughout the 1,000 days. These include antenatal, safe deliveries, postnatal maternal and newborn checkups, and child growth and immunization monitoring.The 15 poorest districts – Umerkot, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Sujawal, Thatta, Badin, Sanghar, Kahsmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Kambar-Shahdadkot – selected based on the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to roll out the program.The CM was told that there would be 1.3 million beneficiaries – pregnant and lactating women in 5 years. To a question, the CM was told that an amount of Rs285. 656 million have been released for cash transfer, of them Rs163.584 million have been transferred and the remaining was being transferred. The Chief Minister instructed the Social Protection Department to issue CNICs to mothers who did not have them so that they could take advantage of the project.