AMMAN — The
World Bank
transferred $108 million as new cash payment for the Emergency Cash Transfer
Project for families and workers affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan, according
to Al-Mamlaka.
اضافة اعلان
The total amount the bank is
giving to finance the project is some $308 million; it has been transferred in
installments since the project was approved in June 2020.
The latest transfer took place
in two installments last December, one of $38 million, the other of $70 million.
On June 25, 2020, the World
Bank approved the first phase of a $374 million project to provide cash aid to
270,000 poor families in Jordan.
In June 2021, the bank agreed
to provide additional financing for the cash transfer project, worth $290
million, aimed at helping families and workers affected by the COVID-19
pandemic, bringing the total value of the project to $664 million.
The World Bank is considering
providing additional financing, amounting to $322 million, for the same project,
bringing the total funding for the project to $986 million. If the new funding
is approved, it would include the "
Estidama” program of the
Social Security Corporation.
The project aims to provide
cash support to poor and vulnerable families, and workers affected by the
pandemic in Jordan, as part of the government’s “Takaful 3” and “Estidama”
programs, which target about 160,000 families within the framework of the
“Takaful” program, and more than 100,000 workers within the framework of the Estidama
program.
The proposed project will
work first to increase the allocations for Takaful 1 by about $293 million, to
expand the number of its beneficiaries, starting in 2022, and to increase
allocations to support workers in companies affected by the pandemic by about
$28 million.
The
additional funding modified
the project period, extending the original loan due date by 12 months (from
December 31, 2023, to December 31, 2024).
World Bank Group President
David Malpass visited the National Aid Fund in October 2021 to follow up on the
cash transfer program in Jordan, and wrote on Twitter: "I welcomed the
expansion and improvement in targeting Takaful program, which is financed by
the bank and provides support to the poorest and most vulnerable families.”
World Bank estimates indicate
that the emergency cash transfer programs reduced by 4.5 percent the increase
in poverty rates resulting from the pandemic.
The bank said that
"poverty in Jordan was relatively high, and it increased significantly
during the pandemic".
The World Bank
report stated that early estimates made last year indicated that the potential
short-term increase in the national poverty rate may rise by 11 percent due to
the loss of employment and income for families.
The report also noted that many families that
were not poor were getting closer to the poverty line and were at risk of
falling into poverty, as families who depend on informal work have been
particularly affected by the pandemic.
The absolute poverty rate among Jordanians
reached 15.7 percent, representing 1.069 million Jordanians, while the extreme
hunger and poverty rates in Jordan was 0.12 percent, equivalent to 7,993
Jordanian individuals, according to the latest survey on family income and
expenditures carried out by the Department of Statistics (2017–2018).
Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nasser Al-Shraideh, estimated the poverty rate in
Jordan at 24 percent, an increase of about 6 percent, attributing it to the
repercussions of the corona pandemic.
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