Jordan Emergency Cash Transfer COVID-19 Response Project

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The objective of the Emergency Cash Transfer COVID-19 Response Project for Jordan is to provide cash support to poor and vulnerable households affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan. The Project has three components. 1. Cash support to poor and vulnerable households affected by COVID-19 component will focus on providing CTs to about 270,000 poor and vulnerable households affected by COVID-19 outbreak and will include three subcomponents. 1.1. Temporary CTs to vulnerable households subcomponent will finance temporary CTs to approximately 190,000 vulnerable households currently not benefiting from National Aid Fund (NAF). Only households that meet the following criteria will qualify for temporary CTs: (i) household head not working in the formal sector and not receiving pensions, formal income per capita (from other household members) is below JOD (Jordanian Dinar) 100 per person per month, and no household member’s formal income is larger than JOD 493 per month; and (ii) the monetary value or number of assets owned by the household is below set thresholds. Selected households will be notified via short message service (SMS) and the Takaful portal. Beneficiaries will be paid through e-wallets. 1.2. Takaful CT Program subcomponent will finance regular Takaful CTs for at least 55,000 beneficiaries in 2020 and 25,000 out of 85,000 beneficiaries in 2021. Disbursements under this subcomponent will be linked to Performance-Based Conditions (PBCs) related to: (i) the enrollment and payment of Takaful beneficiaries in 2020 and 2021; (ii) improvements in Takaful: targeting methodology and recertification of beneficiaries; and (iii) migration of beneficiaries of NAF monthly cash transfer programs into Takaful: digitization of payments and recertification of beneficiaries using Takaful’s targeting methodology. 1.3. Temporary benefit top-up for Takaful beneficiaries subcomponent will finance a temporary (six month) benefit top-up for households receiving Takaful in 2020. Most of the households who will receive benefits under Component 1 already bear the brunt of adverse climate impacts. 2. Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation component will support NAF with the management, monitoring and evaluation (M and E) of project activities. It will finance a fully staffed and equipped Project Management Unit (PMU) which will be housed in NAF. The PMU will be responsible for all fiduciary aspects of the project, the daily management of project activities, M and E of project interventions against results indicators, as well as internal coordination within NAF. This component will finance the costs of: (a) staffing; (b) data collection and verification, aggregation and periodic reporting on the Project’s implementation progress; (c) software and hardware requirements for NAF and relevant institutions necessary for the expansion of the data exchange platform of the National Unified Registry (NUR); (d) monitoring of the Project’s key performance indicators and periodical evaluation; (e) communication and outreach; (f) digitization of payments; (g) recertification of Beneficiaries of the monthly and Takaful cash transfer programs; (h) costs associated with maintenance of the Grievance and Redress Mechanism (GRM); and (i) overall Project Operating Costs, audit costs, including independent verification of the Cash Transfers, monitoring and compliance with Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP). 3. Contingent Emergency Response Component will provide an immediate response to an Eligible Crisis or Health Emergency and will draw from uncommitted funds under the project from other components to cover the emergency response. To facilitate a rapid response, in case the CERC is activated, the restructuring of the project is deferred to within three months after the CERC is activated.