ISLAMABAD: A meeting of key disaster risk management, humanitarian and social protection actors was held on Friday to share views on how effective coordination mechanisms and institutional arrangements can be established to accelerate the move towards shock responsive social protection systems in the country. Chairperson BISP MNA Marvi Memon participated in the high level ‘Consultative Meeting of Shock Responsive Social Protection’ organised by the World Food Program (WFP), a technical advisor and development partner of government of Pakistan. Acting Country Head WFP Katrien Anna M Ghoos, Head of Nutrition Cecilia Garze and Member Operations NDMA Brig Mukhtar Ahmed also attended. In the meeting, the WFP presented the findings of the Oxford Policy Management Institute (OPMI) report which unfolded the nexus between disaster relief and social protection system in Pakistan. The presentation identified several strategies for transforming standalone cash-based emergency responses to a systematic shock responsive platform by leveraging existing safety net programmes, their underlying systems and partnerships. During the discussion, the participants from BISP and NDMA described the roles of their organisations in the emergency situations and deliberated the way forward for aligning the efforts through coordination mechanisms among organisations and institutional arrangements which would enhance the impact of emergency responses in all its phases, without missing any key actor and avoiding duplication of efforts. It was stressed that role of social protection in disaster response needed to be articulated, implying a pivotal role of BISP along with NDMA, PDMAs and other stakeholders. Secretary BISP opined that it was high time to adopt coordinated mechanisms as the risk of covariate shocks in the form of natural hazards was particularly high in Pakistan. He suggested that BISP, NDMA and WFP needed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for developing institutional arrangements for a coordinated disaster response. In the meantime, BISP and NDMA could work out the data sets of the populations which are prone to disasters as BISP was the custodian of the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) of more than 155 million population with GPS reading. The participants appreciated the recommendation and the representative of the NDMA indicated the possibility of the MoU after in-house review of the proposal. BISP chairperson stated that Pakistan had good institutions in place for disaster response but there was a need to learn from international experiences and institutionalise a coordinated set-up with all the necessary components of disaster response. She recommended constituting a technical group comprising all the stakeholders like BISP, NDMA, PDMAs, Ministry of Climate Change and Meteorological Department at federal, provincial and regional levels. The recommended technical group could delineate the details of cooperation mechanism and necessary institutional arrangements. She also stressed upon disaster response on an equitable basis for all regions and communities in the country. Published in Daily Times, December 16th 2017.