Islamabad : The pilot project reached over 100,000 adolescent girls with weekly iron and folic acid supplementation while enhancing their knowledge about nutrition and anaemia.
The Benazir Income Support Program(BISP) and Nutrition International partnered for pilot project ‘Adolescent Nutrition Conditional Cash Transfer’, aimed at addressing anaemia among adolescent girls aged 15-19 and improving nutrition. The 2023-25 pilot project reached more than 100,000 adolescent girls with Weekly Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFAS), procured internationally by Nutrition International. The initiative also included nutrition education for girls and their mothers, as well as quarterly conditional cash transfers (CCT) to mothers. Funding for both the pilot and its evaluation was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The pilot project, implemented by BISP in partnership with the World Food Programme across six districts, achieved high coverage of supplements and demonstrated potential for reducing mild to moderate anaemia. After participating in nutrition education sessions, adolescent girls showed increased knowledge and were more likely to recognized signs and symptoms of anaemia and could name iron-rich foods.
To evaluate the impact of this pilot, Nutrition International partnered with the Aga Khan University, PHC Global, and Allama Iqbal Open University. The effectiveness evaluation was guided by a Technical Working Group, comprising representatives from BISP, WFP, and UNICEF. A dissemination event organized by Nutrition International in collaboration with BISP, local research partners shared the project’s successes, lessons learned, and the feasibility of scaling the project nationally, while also highlighting its contribution to improved adolescent nutrition and anaemia reduction.
Adolescence is a critical stage of the human life cycle, both physically and psychosocially. According to the National Nutrition Survey 2018, more than half (54.7%) of adolescent girls are anaemic – which poses in the form of short-term effects such as illness, fatigue, lethargy, and poor concentration, and long-term impacts including impaired cognitive development and reduced work capacity. These consequences ultimately undermine both academic achievement and human capital development. This project was designed specifically to address the anaemia burden by building on a successful social safety program.
The project was implemented across six districts in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and leveraged BISP’s platform – the Benazir Nashonuma Programme (BNP) through BNP facilitation centers established at government hospitals mainly DHQs and THQs – to reach the most vulnerable segments of adolescent girls. It specifically targeted the daughters of BNP beneficiaries —with a particular focus on out-of-school girls. The model combined Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFAS), nutrition education, including educational videos developed by UNICEF, and conditional cash transfers. Mothers received cash transfers on the condition that their daughters regularly consumed WIFAS and attended nutrition education sessions with them.
Evaluation findings show that adolescent girls and their families reported improved health, greater awareness of nutrition and health, and stronger trust in delivery service. Mothers valued the quarterly cash transfers, which increased from PKR 1,000 to PKR 2,500 during the pilot. The initiative also strengthened linkages with community health workers and highlighted key lessons for scale-up, including the need for stronger community engagement, smoother cash delivery systems, and more reliable supply chain coordination.
The successful completion of this pilot marks an important step toward integrating nutrition into Pakistan’s social protection system. With strong evidence and collaboration, BISP, Nutrition International, and other key partners are committed are committed to scaling up this model to improve the health and nutrition of adolescent girls across the country.
Sohail Majeed is a Special Correspondent at The Diplomatic Insight. He has twelve plus years of experience in journalism & reporting. He covers International Affairs, Diplomacy, UN, Sports, Climate Change, Economy, Technology, and Health.
