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Tuesday, September 17, 2019
The Ehsaas strategy by Dr. Sania Nishtar, Published in The News International
The Ehsaas strategy
The Ehsaas Strategy has been released today (pass.gov.pk/) to solicit public input, prior to its finalization. The strategy elaborates on the prime minister’s vision of a welfare state.
This is the first time that a government document has gone to government officials and the public for review at the same time, introducing a culture of openness and transparency.
Ehsaas is unique for three reasons. One, with currently 134 policies and programme elements, Ehsaas is the most ambitious umbrella initiative the Pakistan government has ever undertaken aimed at social protection and poverty alleviation.
Two, it takes a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach, recognizing the importance of the private sector, civil society and multisectoral across-government collaboration.
Three, Ehsaas is embedded in a theory of change, reflected in four pillars: action against elite capture; safety nets; livelihoods and jobs; and human capital formation with a focus on lagging areas.
Safety nets are the short-term priority within Ehsaas in view of the current fiscal austerity measures. To expand safety nets, the social protection budget has been increased and to promote integrity, the Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy has been prioritized. Work on the new national socioeconomic database has been fast-tracked to enable precise targeting.
The soon-to-be-launched ‘One-window Ehsaas’ will address fragmentation. To promote policy coherence and coordination, the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division ‘the Ehsaas Ministry’, was established, and the previously fragmented federal social protection agencies were placed under its administrative control. BISP’s digital payment system is being revamped after a nine-year delay.
Under the new BISP programme, ‘Kifalat’, the 5.7 million BISP beneficiaries, which were previously receiving ‘cash only’ will now have access to bank accounts, mobile phones, financial literacy, digital hubs, labelled cash transfers, and graduation opportunities. The National Poverty Graduation initiative – comprising interest-free loans, asset transfers, and vocational training – and projected to impact 16.28 million individuals over four years has already been launched.
‘Tahafuz’ – Pakistan’s first shock-oriented precision safety net, will be launched by December. Ehsaas also includes welfare policies for the differently-abled, the homeless, orphans, street children, seasonal migrants, transgender, victims of child and bonded labour, daily wage workers, substance abusers, workers abroad, informal labourers, and domestic workers.
Under Ehsaas, undergraduate scholarships are on the anvil in collaboration with the HEC. A new health and nutrition conditional cash transfer programme to address stunting is in the final stages of planning, and education conditional cash transfers are being upscaled for five million children.
Beyond social protection, Ehsaas recognizes that the determinants of poverty and inequality are complex – as are the measures to address it.
Global lessons show that massive poverty reduction is the result of overall robust and sustained economic growth, when combined with economic freedoms and the will of governments to counter organized vested interest and elite capture. In Pakistan, elite capture is the root cause of poverty and is evident in water management, crop choices, land use priorities, labour laws, the taxation system, cartelization trends and nepotism patterns.
The government’s vision is driving change at various levels to address this. In its framework, Ehsaas has included objectives under Pillar I ‘Address Elite Capture’ to assist that overarching mission.
For too long, the levers of our system have been in the hands of a small group of elites. As an attempt to break that system, a constitutional amendment to move Article 38(d) from the ‘Principles of Policy’ section into the ‘Fundamental Rights’ section reflects the philosophical change within Ehsaas, while on a practical basis, Ehsaas stipulates pro-poor goals, and conflict-of-interest norms for every ministry; polices to protect resources for pro-poor initiatives; and guidelines for parliamentarians on use of development expenditure.
Ehsaas Pillar III is predicated on the understanding that human capital development is a significant contributor to the wealth of a nation in this digital age. Therefore, to catalyze action, provincial Ehsaas plans are being developed.
Ehsaas aims to create safety nets for at least ten million families, livelihood opportunities for 3.8 million people, and financial access to healthcare for ten million families. Scholarships/education incentives for five million students (50 percent girls); financial and digital inclusion for seven million individuals (90 percent women) and an enabling environment for poverty reduction by promoting mutli-sectoral partnerships and innovations. These goals will be expanded based on new partnerships. A new policy and framework of commitments will allow the private sector and the civil society to make commitments.
The strategy document outlines the government’s vision, or Ehsaas’ bedrock; the principles which drive it; the context which has shaped it; the Theory of Change, which underpins its conceptualization; and the four pillars under which its goals, policies, and programmes are organized. The strategy also outlines the manner in which 21st century approaches can be used to build a welfare state – data and technology for precision safety nets; financial and digital inclusion; human capital formation; women’s economic empowerment; value chain building for agriculture and crafts; Solutions Innovation Challenges to develop solutions for poverty; measures to address malnutrition, and multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approaches for solutions at scale.
Ehsaas’ premise is grounded in the importance of strengthening institutions, transparency and good governance. We realize that the limited capacity of public institutions, and governance challenges often impedes their ability to deliver. Therefore, Ehsaas is also planned with the ambition to fight through all such challenges – in that respect, implementation of the Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy assumes great importance.
To be fully successful, Ehsaas will need to effectively use all government levers to drive change in one direction. I strongly believe it is possible to achieve that with a constructive approach to collaboration.
The writer is the special assistant to the PM on poverty alleviation and social safety.
Twitter: @SaniaNishtar
Monday, September 16, 2019
How to Rehearse for an Important Presentation by Carmine Gallo, Published on Harvard Business Review
How
to Rehearse for an Important Presentation
Carmine
Gallo
Steve
Jobs was the most astonishing business speaker of his time. Bill Gates
once called
him a “wizard” who “cast spells” on his audience. Fortune magazine
proclaimed that his keynotes could set “hardened
hearts aflutter.” Jobs is one of the few CEOs whose presentations have a
dedicated Wikipedia page;
his keynotes alone could spark a
surge in Apple’s stock.
But
if you pull back the curtain, you can understand why his presentations were so
magical: practice, and lots of it. “Most people don’t realize that what looked
spontaneous was rehearsed over and over and over,” John Sculley, the former
Apple CEO, told me. “Steve thought about every word, every step, every demo.”
The
best speakers make presentations look effortless precisely because they put so
much effort into perfecting their delivery.
For
nearly 20 years I’ve worked with leaders at some of the world’s largest brands
— including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Intel, and McKinsey — to transform them from
good speakers into great ones. They’re often surprised when I share this
advice, but rehearsing is the single best use of time before a critical presentation.
More preparation means less panic and more confidence.
Think
of it this way: Astronauts, airline pilots, and Navy SEALS are not born with
the ability to remain calm in a crisis. They train for pressure-packed
situations under conditions similar to those they’ll face in the field. In the
same way, repetitive exposure to public speaking will reduce the anxiety that
often precedes a big event. Far from making you appear robotic or canned,
rehearsing frees you up to enjoy the moment and deliver your message with
passion and energy.
These
five guidelines will help you get the most out of your rehearsal time.
Commit
to 10x Improvement
The “gospel
of 10x” is a popular business philosophy that traces its origin to
Google cofounder Larry Page. Where most leaders are happy with a 10%
improvement, Page expected his team to create products 10 times better than the
competition’s. Anything less, Page reasoned, meant the product or company
looked like all the others. The same strategy applies to public speaking. If
you want to deliver a spellbinding presentation, one that’s significantly
different from your competition’s, be prepared to rehearse far more than you’ve
done in the past, and 10 times harder than your peers.
One
executive I worked with was preparing to kick off an annual sales meeting. He
planned to practice his 20-minute presentation about 15 times beforehand. I
told him that Jill Bolte Taylor rehearsed her 18-minute TED Talk about 200
times before stepping onto the stage — giving her a 10x advantage. Her speech,
“Stroke
of Insight,” has been viewed 25 million times on the TED site alone.
Committing
to 10x rehearsal is not as intimidating as it might seem. Repeating the first
few minutes of your introduction as you drive somewhere or take a walk counts
toward your goal. If there’s an especially complex or technical section of the
presentation, spend more hours practicing those slides out loud.
Start
as Strong as You End
At
this point, you might start to fear that you sound too rehearsed. This is where
communication becomes more art than science. Your goal is to feel confident
without memorizing every line, and to leave room for spontaneity.
Remember
that the two most important parts of your presentation are the beginning and
the end. The intro sets the stage for the rest of the presentation and gives
your audience a reason to care. Your conclusion determines what parts of your
idea people will walk away with, and how they will feel about the presentation
overall.
A
TED Talk is one of the few cases where it makes sense to memorize each and
every word, because there is a strict time limit of 18 minutes. For a general
business meeting, nail down the first two minutes and the last two minutes of
your presentation, as well as the first and last lines of each slide you share.
If you do, you’ll be far ahead of your peers in practice time.
Practice
Under Mild Stress
Susan
Cain, the author of Quiet,
is a self-described introvert who has battled a lifelong fear of public
speaking. Accepting a TED Talk invitation was far outside of her comfort zone.
On the Friday night before her talk, Wharton professor Adam Grant, a friend of
Cain’s, gathered about 30 of his students and alumni to watch her practice.
Rehearsing under “real-world” conditions gave Cain an opportunity to expose
herself to the thing she feared and to face it in manageable doses. Cain’s talk
on the power of introverts has been viewed over 24 million times since, and
today she enjoys a career as a public speaker.
Researchers
agree that the best way to deliver the presentation of a lifetime is to
practice under stress. For her book Choke, Sian
Beilock examined individuals who perform their best when it counts the
most. “Even practicing under mild levels of stress can prevent you from choking
when high levels of stress come around,” she writes.
Remember,
going over a presentation in your mind is not the same as delivering the
presentation in front of a crowd. The more you practice doing so, the less
chance you will crack under pressure. At first, your body may react the way it
was built to: Your heart rate may increase and your palms may sweat. But as you
grow accustomed to being in front of an audience, even if it’s just one or two
people, your body will stop exhibiting fight-or-flight symptoms. Soon enough,
you’ll think of your speech as an opportunity instead of a threat.
Record
Your Rehearsal
The
most valuable practice tool you have fits right in your pocket: your
smartphone. Set your phone on a tripod or prop it up against a book, press
record, deliver your talk, and then play it back.
By
watching your presentation, you will instantly catch distracting habits such as
fidgeting, averting eye contact, or flipping your hair. Look for areas where
you seem unsure of yourself or fumble your words. Those are the sections you’ll
want to rehearse out loud or on the drive home.
Ask
for Feedback
Before
delivering his first TED Talk, author and podcaster Tim
Ferriss practiced delivering his presentation to a small group of
strangers in a friend’s
house to put himself under pressure. But what he did afterwards was
even more critical. He asked the crowd for feedback and incorporated their
suggestions in his next rehearsal.
John
Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco, has a similar practice. In his book, Connecting
the Dots, he writes that it “stuns people” to find out how much he prepares
for every presentation and media interview. Chambers is a Silicon Valley legend
and was considered an effective
communicator during his 20 years at the company. Humility, he says, is
an attribute that served him well. Everything about his presentations was
meticulously rehearsed — body gestures, delivery, messages, interactions with
other speakers on stage. He would spend hours upon hours practicing, recording
his sessions, watching them back with his team, and asking them for feedback —
and still does so today. “As in sports, practice always pays off, and it
doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a pro,” he writes.
There’s
no magic involved in delivering a great presentation, but if you rehearse
effectively, your audience will be mesmerized. Steve Jobs made presentations
look easy because he put in the time, and his keynotes eventually became his
competitive weapon.
An
effective presentation can be your competitive weapon too. A great presentation
can do so many things: launch careers, inspire employees, attract customers and
investors and partners. Set aside hours of rehearsal time before your next
critical presentation. It will pay off more than you can imagine.
Friday, September 13, 2019
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Links to some of my articles: 1- COVID19 in Gilgit-Baltistan: Who is Hit Hard? http://eexplorer-sba.blogspot.com/2020/07/covid19-in-g...
