ISLAMABAD: The government is gearing up to launch a ‘Pakistan Crisis Resilient Social Protection’ programme that will advance the country’s social protection system to make it an adaptive, crisis-resilient system and move towards generation of programmes beyond social assistance by extending to the ‘missing middle’. Moving to a more effective and responsive social protection system is expected to promote Covid-19 recovery and enable timely action in the event of future vulnerable to shocks, according to the project document on the proposed programme submitted to the World Bank for financing. The proposed programme will rely on similar implementation arrangements as the ongoing Bank funded National Social Protection Programme, with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) playing the leading role since it is responsible for the majority of the social protection interventions and delivery systems.