ISLAMABAD: Coinciding with World Poverty Day falling on Sunday (today), the government has launched the National Data Exchange Platform (NDEP) for the Ehsaas’ National Socioeconomic Registry 2021 to help facilitate data-sharing among different organisations leading to transparency in affairs aimed at alleviating poverty.

The new system will enable different organisations and agencies to share data related to poverty and beneficiaries of Ehsaas programme. NDEP will also facilitate data access services for all executing agencies stewarded by Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (PASSD). Later, this service will be extended to provinces and other government agencies implementing the Ehsaas programmes.

According to the social protection programme, the Ehsaas National Socioeconomic Registry 2021 survey is near completion.

Sania says data-sharing platform will help find those benefiting from multiple agencies

World Poverty Day is observed every year on Oct 17. It can be traced back to Oct 17, 1987, when thousands of people had gathered at Trocadéro, a district in Paris. At the same place, a Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. They proclaimed that poverty is violation of human rights and affirmed the need to come together to ensure that these rights are respected.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Dr Sania Nishtar said the launch of NDEP would be a game changer in transforming social protection and poverty reduction programmes in the country. In the past, there was no way of one government agency knowing what support an individual or a family was getting from some other government agency. Some families with connections and influence were getting multiple benefits while other, more deserving ones were getting none, she said.

“But now with Ehsaas NDEP in place, executing agencies in ecosystem of Ehsaas will be able to see what benefits an individual or a household is getting by simply punching in the computerised national identity number of an individual. More importantly, the benefits which each family and individual is receiving from each organisation will also be visible to all agencies across Ehsaas programmes,” Dr Nishtar said.

The NDEP will also be connected to the databases of other federal agencies enabling real-time beneficiary information validation, such as the National Database and Registration Authority, Utility Stores Corporation and National Bank’s mobile point sale system. Hence, the same data exchange platform will underpin the rollout of the forthcoming Ehsaas targeted commodity subsidies programme in collaboration with USC and National Bank of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2021