The Zakat and Ushr Department of Punjab organized a capacity-building training regarding the department’s first-ever Zakat Monitoring and Evaluation Dashboard (ZMED). The training was held in collaboration with UNICEF to enhance the skills of the Field Formations and familiarize them with the newly introduced system developed by PITB.
PITB JD Muhammad Mahmood Hanif briefed the participants on the objectives and key features of the ZMED. As part of the initiative, a Monitoring and Evaluation App has also been developed for the District Zakat Officers, enabling them to geo-tag and time-stamp their spot visits. PITB team members Program Manager Humayun Tahir and Program Officer Irum Ramazan provided a detailed demo of the app to the officers.
ZMED aims to automate the verification, approval and disbursement processes of Zakat in order to improve transparency and efficiency. It also captures information related to education stipends and financial support for patients in government hospitals. At the same time, the system is being integrated with other social databases to check duplication.
During the recent zakat disbursement, District Zakat Officers updated the data of over 150,000 beneficiaries through ZMED. Additionally, it has digitized the data of field formations, including 24,324 Local Zakat Committees, 36 District Zakat Committees and 1,654 Field Zakat Clerks.