The chairman and Minister of Pakistan’s largest social safety net had a bilateral meeting with the chief of the country’s Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to present her country’s model for helping the poor.
Minister Marvi Memon presented to the Philippines her country’s social safety net for the poorest of the poor, which was given an allocation of $1.7 billion by Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance.
“My government, prime minister and finance minister are both very keen that this program should flourish because it’s for the poor. We take care of 5.3 million of our poorest families [by] giving them a quarterly stipend,” Memon told the BusinessMirror during an interview at the Pakistani Embassy in Makati last Friday. Memon came to Manila to participate in an ongoing Asian Development Bank (ADB) conference and spoke about Pakistan’s social safety nets.
“In the process, I also met your social minister, and I’m happy to meet her, she is a dynamic woman,” she said.
Memon and Social Welfare Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo discussed the achievements and challenges of Pakistan and the Philippines in social protection and safety nets, including targeting, payment mechanisms, poverty-alleviation programs, disaster-risk management, women empowerment, food subsidies, health and educational conditional cash transfers, and communication strategies.
She said they decided to work together on developing the League of Social Safety Nets for Asia to contribute to the “Asian century.”
They also agreed to work on women empowerment by promoting the “sisters in success” concept, which will highlight women role models and help women get out of poverty.
Memon said she and Taguiwalo have agreed on encouraging corporate multinationals headquartered in Asia, such as Coca Cola, IMB and other large multinationals, to tailor their corporate social-responsibility programs to the needs of the poor.
The Pakistani official also visited the Philippine General Hospital’s Medical Foundation, a private organization for the poor. She met the Chairman of the Board Dr. Gregorio Alvior and had meetings with philanthropists and women entrepreneurs, such as former Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor and Nicky Tang.
Memon said the region has entered the Asian century “so the Asian poor must get out of poverty fast. It is very important, this needs to be Asia’s century and the poverty needs to finished faster at the rate it needs to be and the poverty needs alleviation, whatever you want to call it.”
According to Memon, the ADB has yet formalize ways of allowing the social ministers to work together, “so my idea was to create a League of Social Safety Nets for all [government officials] to come together to share their knowledge.”
Since every country has its own peculiarities and Asia has certain cultures, traditions and values, Memon suggested that “we must go into our roots, we must capitalize on our capabilities and must mobilize our resources together.”
“If we win, we win as Asia, so we cannot afford to lose on this war against poverty. As a Pakistani politician, it’s my dream to see this come true for Asians,” she said.
Memon conveyed the best wishes of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Sen. Ishaq Dar to President Duterte and her Filipino counterpart.
Memon was accompanied by the Pakistani Ambassador to Philippines Safdar Hayat.