jordan pulse -

The World Bank has transferred an additional $48 million for emergency cash transfer programs for families and workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic in Jordan, which are being implemented by the National Aid Fund in cooperation with the Bank.

In data I have seen, with the transfer of the new amount this March, the total disbursement amounted to more than $558 million, or 55% of the total project valued at nearly one billion dollars.

More than 378,000 families benefited from the programs, as the results of the project showed, as of last December, that approximately 378,510 families had received cash support out of the 400,000 families targeted under the main component of the project; The project covers 1.79 million individuals (50% of them are females and 13% of the families are headed by women).

The number of workers benefiting from wage subsidies reached 109,327 workers, male and female, out of 110,000 targeted workers working in the formal economy in companies most affected by the pandemic, 47% of whom are females.

The data indicated that the project is gradually moving towards achieving its development goals. Progress towards the project's development objective and implementation progress were rated "satisfactory", and similarly all project components and fiduciary aspects were rated "satisfactory".

On June 25, 2020, the World Bank approved the first phase of the $374 million project to provide cash assistance to approximately 270,000 poor families in Jordan.

In June 2021, the bank agreed to provide additional financing for the cash transfer project at a value of $290 million, aimed at helping families and workers affected by the Corona pandemic, thus raising the total value of the project to $664 million, as these payments are being disbursed to those affected through the National Aid Fund. .

In March 2022, the World Bank approved a second additional financing of $350 million for the project to continue cash support for the poorest and most vulnerable families and workers in companies most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Cash transfers provide funds to poor and needy families to help them meet their basic needs so that they can direct what they have towards health and education to develop human capital.

In December 2021, the government began implementing a plan to restructure remittance programs by opening registration for all current and non-beneficiaries, including those who have not registered before.

In 2022, the government stopped emergency cash transfer programs due to the Corona pandemic, and announced the "unified cash transfer program" as the only program for these transfers, and began to re-accredit beneficiaries under the old cash transfer program, in preparation for their transfer to the new program.

With the support of the Bank, NAF improved the targeting formula by using household income and expenditure survey data to allocate weights to indicators that are used to calculate imputed income, and also simplified the benefit calculation formula to enable beneficiaries to better understand and issue payments on a monthly basis.

The government also decided to increase the budget for the new program from 100 million Jordanian dinars (equivalent to 140 million dollars) to 140 million Jordanian dinars (equivalent to 200 million dollars), while the number of applicants for the new program reached 412,056 families, of whom 120,000 were selected.

The evaluation report indicated that the proposed restructuring (at the request of the government on June 7, 2022) requires amending the second additional financing loan agreement for the project, amounting to $350 million, including what includes the numbers of beneficiaries in the (Takaful 1) program and the value of the amounts received. every family.

The project also supports reforms to the social protection system in Jordan, which were strengthened during the pandemic and became a role model, regionally and globally, in digital transformation, information management systems, and social registry. It also opens the door to accessing economic opportunities and achieving economic empowerment.

al - mamlaka