Charter of the Economy The Government of Sindh has put in place a People’s Support Program of Rs 20 billion for cash transfers. In addition, there is a Sindh Minorities Program for medical treatment and construction of places of worship. Overall, there has been an increase at the national level in the outlay and diversity of social protection programs. Recommendations are given below for further development of initiatives to tackle poverty, which had risen by over 21 million after COVID-19. 30.3. Strategy for Poverty Reduction Various criteria need to be applied in the design and execution of programs of social protection as follows: • Targeting efficiency • Extent of program coverage • Degree of ease of access of potential beneficiaries • Percentage of program expenditure devoted to benefits and not to overhead costs • Adequacy of support • Income equivalence of transfer • Absence of negative incentive effects like‘moral hazard`. • Sustainable and adequate financing Based on the above criteria, a number of recommendations are made. Increase in Coverage of the BISP/EHSAAS Program: At its peak in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, cash transfers were made to almost 15 million beneficiaries. Apparently, the coverage will now be reduced to 7 million. The target should be raised to 12 million as poverty continues to be high. The coverage has not been in line with the incidence in different parts of the country. The coverage has been relatively high in Sind and low in Balochistan. There is need for better penetration in the latter Province given the low population density. Move to Conditional Cash Transfers: A part of the cash transfers could be made conditional to immunization of the child, adoption of family planning, sending the girl child to school or avoiding child labor. Rationalizing the Pensions: The spread of basic pay among Government employees is large. A BPS-22 employee gets more than seven times the basic pay of a BPS-1 employee. As such in future pensions increases a proportionately larger increase may be given to employees who retired from BPS-I to BPS-II. 318