PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has approved the proposed strategy for implementing the Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) project, and directed the planning and development department to enter into an agreement with the German agency GIZ, the development partner, for the purpose.

He gave approval to this while chairing a meeting at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here on Tuesday.

Additional chief secretary home and principal secretary to the chief minister, Mohammad Abid Majeed, additional chief secretary P&D Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, senior minister board of revenue Ikramullah Khan, administrative secretaries of the departments concerned and other officials attended the meeting.

Mr Gandapur emphasised the need to have complete and accurate data regarding deserving individuals/households from across the province to be included in the social welfare initiative.

“The provincial government has launched multiple welfare initiatives, whose benefits must reach the deserving people,” he said, adding that the ASP project would prove to be a milestone in that regard.

The chief minister directed the quarters concerned to immediately hold mass wedding ceremonies at the divisional headquarters for the poor girls. He said the government would provide a grant of Rs200,000 per girl for the purpose.

The ASP project aims to strengthen the social protection system with a special focus on improving linkages among relevant sectors as well as institutionalising the use of social protection in disaster management.

Under this project, an integrated social protection information system (data centre) would be established, ensuring an all-time availability of complete and accurate information about the initiatives, programmes and activities carried out in social welfare sectors.

Similarly, developing a legal framework, governance and coordination mechanisms and a monitoring and evaluation framework are also among the important features of the project.

Apart from this, research would be conducted on studying poverty dynamics and vulnerability assessments for evidence-based planning and implementation, in addition to developing a disaster risk reduction policy for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a multi-hazard & vulnerability risk assessment in the high-risk districts of the province.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2024