Ehsaas Nashonuma programme is a health and nutrition conditional cash transfer programme which aims to address stunting in children under 23 months of age. Pakistan’s high rates of 40.2% stunting, 28.9% underweight and 17.7% wasting are indicative of an on-going crisis among children.

Prime Minister in his first speech to the nation highlighted the key issue of stunting and committed to addressing it. The programme has been designed in line with his vision to address stunting.

The target population includes pregnant and lactating women and children under 23 months of age.

Cash transfers are linked to the consumption of specialized nutritious food, immunization, checkups, and participation in health awareness training sessions. The quarterly stipend amount is Rs.1,500 for mother and boychild, and Rs. 2,000 for girlchild. The overall budget for three years is Rs. 32 billion that will cover over 1.5 million mothers and children. Currently, 50 Ehsaas Nashonuma Centers are operational in 15 most stunted districts of the country.

Ehsaas Nashonuma is being upscaled nationwide. Families declared eligible under Ehsaas’ Socio-economic Registry Survey can benefit from the programme. A fully digital system has been built for Ehsaas Nashonuma to enroll and track the eligible beneficiaries. World Food Programme is the lead implementing partner for Ehsaas Nashonuma.

In October 2021, results of an independent evaluation recommended national scale up of the programme. The research aimed to understand how Ehsaas Nashonuma had influenced the health and wellbeing of beneficiaries along with the enabling and impeding factors related to the uptake of Ehsaas Nashonuma, the process, outcomes, and the flow of operations.

 Results were highly encouraging; the findings are supportive of the program focus on marginalized women, their financial empowerment and improved dietary knowledge. Evaluation specifies considerable buy in by beneficiaries and a smooth and transparent process of Ehsaas Nashonuma implementation. Report highlighted how the program facilitated access to healthcare utilization and improved diets for beneficiary women and their children and how the rule-based procedures were followed for identification of beneficiaries and dispatching of diet and conditional cash transfer. 99.37% of beneficiary women reported satisfaction from Nashonuma services provided to them during their pregnancy as well as those extended to their children for their growth and wellbeing.