ABOUT THE EHSAAS 2047 DOCUMENTARY
Ehsaas completed its third-year anniversary in March 2022. An emotive, informative documentary highlights its seminal journey and progress it made since inception, as well as the on-the-ground impact it has had on people’s lives and the systemic change it ushered in. The documentary has been released to highlight the 3-year achievement at such a large scale. The film takes us through a journey of life-changing impact on Pakistan's citizens and society and highlights Ehsaas’s lasting vision and dedication to leave no one behind.
Ehsaas has become one of Pakistan’s highest-profile government programees, having delivered a range of new or improved poverty alleviation initiatives, including cash transfers, health insurance, undergraduate scholarships, micro-loans , temporary housing, nutrition packages, women empowerment initiatives and measures to promote financial inclusion.
Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar; SI, FRCP, Ph.D, D.Sc
Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar is a member of the Senate (upper house of Parliament) of Pakistan.
From November 2018 - May 22, she served as Special Assistant of the Prime Minister of Pakistan and Federal Minister, where she held the Cabinet portfolio of Poverty Alleviation; in that role she founded and was responsible for implementing Ehsaas, the largest social protection program in the country’s history, which reached out to 15 million households and was widely acclaimed internationally.
She was also the Chairperson of the Benazir Income Support Program during that time.
Dr. Nishtar is former Chair of several multilateral initiatives: WHO’s High-Level Commission on Non-communicable diseases; WEF’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Healthcare; U.S National Academy of Sciences Global Study on the Quality of Healthcare in LMICs; UN International Institute for Global Health’s Advisory Committee; UN Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Women’s and Children’s health and WHO’s Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. In 2017, she was Pakistan’s nominee for Director-General of the World Health Organisation and was in the final shortlist of three.
She is founder of the NGO Heartfile and has received many international awards for her work and is widely published.
Sania Nishtar graduated as the best graduate in 1986. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and took a Ph.D at Kings College London. Her Alma mater, Kings College London honoured her with a Doctorate in Science, Honoris, Causa in 2019; she is listed amongst the notable alumni of Kings College.
In 2020 she was listed amongst BBC’s 100 most influential women, globally.
ABOUT THE EHSAAS PROGRAMME
Launched in March 2019, Ehsaas is Pakistan’s largest and most ambitious social protection programme in history. Ehsaas is an umbrella initiative comprising 16 programs, 292 initiatives in their support and 6 time-bound quantifiable goals. The vision of Ehsaas is to achieve Social Protection for all who need it by 2047, the 100th anniversary of Pakistan’s creation.
The program had completed 3 years and achieved 80% of its targets when the government was changed.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR OF EHSAAS 2047 DOCUMENTARY
Abdul Basit Director; Last Myle Films, produced this film in partnership with Heehaw and Constantine PR. A passionate and a driven film director, producer & an editor Basit has a unique background with a mix of engineering, marketing & filmmaking.
With an award winning documentary for Dawn.com & Deutsche Welle, Abdul Basit has also made a name in the genre of documentary filmmaking.
Over the years, he has travelled to many restricted & remote areas of Pakistan in order to get to the heart of the stories that matter. He has a special skill to open communication channels to the shyest of the protagonists and to find the Achilles heel in their lives that has been mitigated with an intervention.
His drive and commitment to shape stories in their true essence of raw freshness coupled with intense emotive engagement is something that is reflected in this film showcasing the Ehsaas rubric at its finest.