In March 2020, the Emergency Cash programme was a response to the COVID-19 crisis, which in addition to its dire health consequences, decimated livelihoods at an unprecedented scale. In response, the Government of Pakistan delivered Rs. 179 billion as one-time emergency cash assistance to over 15 million families at risk of extreme poverty. Given family size, this represents nearly half the country’s population, representing the largest and most extensive social protection intervention ever in the history of the country. Each family was meant to receive Rs. 12,000 for immediate subsistence. The World Bank ranked Emergency Cash programme third in terms of percentage of population globally and fourth worldwide in terms of the number of people covered.