AMMAN — The
World Bank on Tuesday approved
$350 million additional financing for Jordan’s COVID-19 response project to
continue cash support to poor and vulnerable households and workers in firms
most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
اضافة اعلان
The bank said in a statement that cash transfers
give poor and vulnerable households money for their basic needs, so they can
channel whatever else they possess into health and education, and develop human
capital.
The second additional financing will also help the
government launch reforms that would help advance an economic empowerment program
that aims to integrate poorer sections of the country’s population into the
labor market. This will provide more sustainable economic opportunities for
project beneficiaries, the bank said in the statement.
According to the World Bank, the project will
continue to strengthen Jordan’s overall social protection system and support
the government efforts to achieve an effective
COVID-19 crisis response and
resilient recovery. The additional financing will also improve the
cost-effectiveness of government social safety net programs, such as the
National Unified Registry, which will function as a single gateway for access
to a range of social services and programs. Use of the platform will reduce the
cost of administering social assistance.
“The additional financing will support the
government’s efforts to bring several cash transfer programs together under the
Unified Cash Transfer program” said
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Naser Shraideh.
“Programs funded by the project will also contribute
to building shock-responsive social protection and will support the
government’s efforts to recover from the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis,” he
added.
According to Mashreq Regional Director World Bank
Group
Saroj Kumar Jha, “the additional financing will support poor and
vulnerable households and workers who are still feeling the impact of the
COVID-19 crisis.” Adding that: “The project is also supporting continued
reforms of Jordan’s social protection system, which has been strengthened
through the crisis and is becoming a model in the region and globally in
digitization, information management, efficiency, and in providing links to
economic opportunities and empowerment.”
The bank’s additional support will also partially
finance the extension of the Istidama program. The Jordanian government
launched Istidama in December 2020 to provide wage subsidies to 110,000 formal
workers in firms most affected by the pandemic, a move that protected workers
from loss of income while keeping firms solvent and operational. As many firms
are still struggling to pay wages, the government has decided to extend
Istidama until June 2022.
Since the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic, the World
Bank Group has used over $157 billion to fight the health, economic and social impacts
of the pandemic, the fastest and largest crisis response in its history. The
financing is helping more than 100 countries strengthen pandemic preparedness,
protect the poor and jobs, and jump start a climate-friendly recovery.
The bank is also supporting over 50 low- and
middle-income countries, more than half of which in Africa, with the purchase
and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. It is making $20 billion in financing
available for this purpose until the end of 2022.
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