This report was produced for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) by Samuel Hall.
Executive Summary
This report presents the results of the 2019 annual Post-Distribution Monitoring (PDM) exercise of UNHCR’s cash assistance programme in Jordan. Through an ATM banking network equipped with iris scan technology, the agency disburses over 5.5 million USD per month to close to 32,500 vulnerable refugee families living across the country. The majority of the beneficiary population is Syrian. Assistance is designed to allow beneficiaries to meet their basic needs and reduce their susceptibility to exploitation and other protection risks. The amount disbursed is determined through an annual costing survey in coordination with humanitarian partners.
The results of this monitoring exercise suggest that, as intended, almost all respondents use the cash to meet their running essential household needs. These mostly revolve around rent, food, utilities and health – categories which appear unchanged over time. Different governorates exhibit distinct cash expenditure patterns. Generally, Amman appears to be a considerably pricier environment, with spending on rent and food substantially higher than elsewhere. Non-Syrian cash beneficiaries have higher reported spending in most categories, but Syrians are more likely to use cash assistance to reduce their debt.
Negative coping strategies remain common, with non-Syrians in particular scoring poorly on the reduced Coping Strategies Index developed by the World Food Programme. Amman-based and male-headed (larger) households are more likely to employ negative food-related coping strategies than their counterparts further afield, or smaller families. Over time, cash assistance appears to lower vulnerability in this regard – those having received assistance for over two years score better than those having benefited from it for shorter periods of time, with a particular period of food-related vulnerability apparent for those having received cash assistance between six months and one year.
Other prominent negative coping strategies include skipping rent or debt repayments, borrowing and reducing essential expenditures. Syrian beneficiaries have higher frequencies than non-Syrians for utilizing all emergency-level coping strategies. Debt is common, with close to 90% of respondents reporting having borrowed from landlords, neighbours, friends and / or stores. Syrians are more likely to hold debt than non-Syrians, but the percentage of respondents holding debt has increased for both groups over the past year to 88% overall. The average amount of debt among debt holders is higher for non-Syrians than Syrian beneficiaries by 56 JOD. `
The positive psychosocial effects of cash assistance are clear, with the many respondents noting that cash assistance had reduced their feelings of stress, the financial burden on their households and allowed them to improve their living conditions. Very few (five out of 265) Syrian cash beneficiary households sampled for this round of PDM stated that a member of their family had returned to Syria. This share may increase, as returns increase.
The feedback on service delivery is generally positive, with 94% of respondents receiving their cash assistance on time. One respondent in four experienced problems withdrawing cash, most commonly related to multiple attempts to scan the iris. This is an improvement from 2018, where 40% of beneficiaries reported problems in iris scanning, likely due to the Bank’s purchase of new ATM machines and new iris cameras to improve speed. Overcrowding near the withdrawal points was also cited as a concern, with implications both on time spent and feelings of security during and after the withdrawal process. The majority of respondents needed less than half an hour to withdraw their cash assistance. UNHCR’s helpline phone number is both well-known and universally appreciated by the respondents.
