Q6 Interim Report

15 April – 15 July 2015

A. PROJECT DETAILS

Organization Islamic Relief Jordan

Project name Conditional Cash Project for Vulnerable Syrian and

Jordanian Children in Irbid, Jordan

Location Jordan, Irbid

DFID reference 204007

Start and end date of grant 15-1-2014 / 15-1-2016

Budget 2,000,000 GBP

Type of report Year 2 – Quarter 6

Reporting time period 15-4-2015 / 15-7-2015

B. PERFORMANCE SUMMARY

Overall performance

The project “Conditional Cash Project for Vulnerable Syrian and Jordanian Children in Irbid, Jordan” is funded

by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and implemented by Islamic Relief Jordan (IRJ).

The project supports vulnerable Syrian refugee and Jordanian families through interventions in the education

and shelter sectors. Children of these families are encouraged to attend/return to school (or informal

education) for which conditional cash assistance is given to the families for their monthly rental bills.

Over the two years of this project, 3,947 out of school girls and boys living in Irbid governorate will be targeted

for enrolment in formal and/or informal education. To date, 3,665 children are receiving education as a result of

this project bringing financial assistance for 1,831 families.

The project is in line with UNHCR’s Regional Response Plan 6, addressing Education sector Objective 1 and 2:

Children and youth have sustained access to appropriate education opportunities

Children and youth benefit from learning environments that promote quality education, protection and

their well-being

Cash-for-rent assistance is recommended by the Jordan Shelter Sector Working Group as an effective form of

support for Syrian refugees living in urban areas such as Irbid; however making the assistance conditional on the

children attending education is unusual and a key feature of this project.

During Q6, an additional 463 children (Syrian: 205, Jordanian: 258) were reached through the project bringing

the cumulative total to 3,665.

In Q6 1,828 Syrian refugee children are attending informal education sessions (facilitated by the partner, ICCS),

and 803 Jordanian children are back in formal education (in Jordanian public schools). These figures are less

than the cumulative total due to the number of students who have completed their course and graduated from

their involvement in this project.

IRJ’s focus this reporting period was to ensure the quality of teaching provided to children to encourage school

attendance, and focus on the lessons provided, classroom and extracurricular activities and contended

workshops for teachers and worker with students to improve the quality of the outputs of the project.

During follow-up sessions in Kourah center Children during extracurricular activities in Ramtha center

Key successes

To date, 3,665 school-aged children (1,722 girls (47%), 1,943 boys (53%)) have returned to education as a result

of this project. The planning figure for the end of Second Year is 3,947 however the milestone figure indicated in

the logframe indicates this target would be reached by July 2015 which is only just at the start of Q7.

An agreement was developed and signed in March 2014 stating that ICCS would implement the project in four

centers in Irbid; at the end of 2014 IRJ and ICCS reviewed the agreement and signed for the second year. Since

UNICEF is providing psychosocial support (PSS) and child protection activities in ICCS centers thereby during a

DFID field visit it was agreed to redirect the budgeted resources for this activity. One option under discussion is

to continue cash support to the children after referral to public schools. However this is still under discussion

with DFID and will be reported on in Q7. Currently, IRJ staff and ICCS staff monitor the (Jordanian) children’s

attendance with Ministry of Education (MOE). ICCS have developed an agreement with the Ministry of

Education (including referring and accessing attendance sheets) for both Syrian and Jordanian children referred

to public schools.

Door-to-door visits were conducted from the beginning of the project to identify children who are not attending

school. The project has 6 dedicated social workers who conduct assessments in the target areas with visits

planned weekly to ensure coverage for all the targeted areas and sub areas. During Q6 reporting period, a

further 403 families were visited giving a total of 2,303 Syrian families and 648 Jordanian families (2,951 total).

Table 1: Number of Syrian children (disaggregated by sex) who have been visited, identified and are now benefitting from the project in the four localities of Kourah, Irbid, Ramtha and Sarih).

Center Visited Families

Number of school age

children

Boys Girls Benefited Families

Benefited Children in ICCS

Girls Boys Children transferred to schools

Total

Kourah 728 1,569 728 841 226 472 269 203 300 772

Irbid 855 1,748 875 873 479 767 449 523 205 972

Ramtha 433 773 455 318 243 482 222 260 71 553

Sarih 195 459 240 219 91 107 48 59 55 162

Total 2,211 4,549 2,298 2,251 1,039 1,828 988 1,045 631 2,459

Table 2: Number of Jordanian children (disaggregated by sex) who are benefitting from the project

Center Visited Families

Benefited Children

Girls Boys Children finish the course Total

Bni kenanh 79 152 81 71 0 152

Irbid 415 452 201 251 327 779

Ramtha 154 199 87 112 131 330

Total 648 803 369 434 458 1,261

IRJ worked on referring children to ICCS in four geographical areas: Kourah, Irbid, Ramtha and Sarih

1,828 Syrian children are attending informal education session offered by ICCS centres

631 Syrian children are attending formal education after referral from ICCS centres

803 Jordanian children are enrolled in formal education (10 schools in Irbid, 6 schools in Ramtha and 3

schools in Bni kenanh)

200 Jordanian children attend public schools after the end of cash aassistance in this project (after the

end of the course of this project) during Q5 and 258 during Q6

Table 3: Number of Jordanian children (disaggregated by sex) now in formal education in public schools benefit from IRJ

School Location Girls Boys Total

Samakh Elementary School (girls) Irbid 29 0 29

Thaora Al Arbea School (boys) Irbid 0 51 51

Yarmouk Elementary school (mix) Irbid 26 12 38

Adon Elementary School (boys) Irbid 0 22 22

Adon Secondary School (girls) Irbid 9 0 9

Hakma School (boys) Irbid 0 36 36

Rabea Aladoea Secondary (girls) Irbid 20 0 20

UNRWA / Irbid Camp School and Shahid Azmi Mufti Camp

School Irbid 105 123 228

Nusseibeh Al mazinah Elementary School (girls) Irbid 6 0 6

Safiah Secondary School (girls) Irbid 13 0 13

Nahawand Elementary School (mix) Ramtha 22 10 32

Eamrawh Secondary School (girls) Ramtha 54 0 54

Mohealden Elementary School (boys) Ramtha 0 19 19

Emrawh Secondary School (boys) Ramtha 0 58 58

Emrawh Elementary School (mix) Ramtha 9 13 22

Thaora Secondary School (boys) Ramtha 0 14 14

Kafrsoom Elementary & Secondary School (boys) Bni kenanh 0 54 54

Kafrsoom Elementary & Secondary School (girls) Bni kenanh 50 0 50

Alhamh alordneh Elementary Schools (boys) Bni kenanh 0 14 14

Total 371 432 803

Boys during computer class in Irbid center Girls during Arabic class in Ramtha center

1,173 Syrian families have received payments (from beginning the project until now). Some families

have more than one child in the project; a monthly payment of 30JD is given for each child attending

education.

658 Jordanian families have received payment (from beginning the project until now). As for Syrian

children, some families have more than one child in the project and the same amount of 30JD per child

per month is paid.

As noted previously, for Syrian families, the payment is made to the Jordanian landlord as contribution to the

tenants’ monthly rental costs. For Jordanian families, approximately 30% live in rented properties and use the

cash assistance to go towards their rental payments, while the remaining 70% live in properties they own so use

the support to meet other living costs such as utility bills.

Contribution for WASH improvements

A need was identified in Q4 for improvements to the existing WASH facilities in ICCS centers. During Q6 the

minor repair and rehabilitation work was completed bringing the total number of ICCS centres with improved

facilities owing to contributions from this project to 3 (Kourah, Irbid and Ramtha). Sarih centre is newly built and

did not require any WASH maintenance/improvement. The WASH maintenance aimed at providing children

with decent facilities to overcome the issue of increased use of these centres. This includes fixing of water

pipes, maintenance of sanitary fittings, mending leaks, adapting bathroom facility for people with disabilities, fix

humidity, fix windows and doors, etc. The ongoing maintenance of these facilities is now fully the responsibility

of ICCS centers.

DFID Field Monitoring Visit

In June 2015, DFID Jordan team conducted a field monitoring visit to the project sites. The visit included

interviews with IRJ staff, ICCS staff, teachers and children enrolled in centers. A focus group discussion for

parents of the children involved in the project was also conducted. DFID team discussed about operational

challenges and feasible solutions. The visiting team was briefed on the services provided, future plans, including

increasing the number of students, how to improve the mechanism of education, and putting more focus on

continuing cash assistance for Syrian children after referral to public schools. During this visit DFID showed

satisfaction on the use of UNICEF provided curriculum for informal education which qualifies the criteria of

quality education. From the conversation with ICCS staff it was clear that all centers are provided with PSS by

UNICEF. Thereby DFID’s point of view is that there is no further need for IRJ to develop partnership with Save

the Children for provision of PSS. IRJ media team presented a documentary case study of the project beneficiary

during field visit.

Key challenges

Issuing payments: The payment methodology continues to be a significant challenge of this project. IRJ

completed all the bank requirements for issuance of E cards and all modalities with the bank have been

finalized. IRJ team is now working on the completion of required documents as per agreement with the bank for

project beneficiaries. The current delay was due to reviewing the names of the bank and the adoption of user’s

names for the beneficiaries. During Q7 payments will be done through E cards.

C. REQUESTED CHANGES TO THE PROGRAMME

Approved during reporting period

Annual review and impact study

IRJ plans to conduct a review to consider the impact of the project. Further consultations will be held with

stakeholders (Syrian and Jordanian children and their parents, teachers, landlords, ICCS, etc) to consider the

effectiveness of the interventions. Based on the existing budget for this activity (£4,398) it will not be possible

to conduct an in-depth study and IRJ has requested DFID/Jordan to increase the budget. This has been

approved by DFID Jordan and will be submitted through IRW as part of a wider budget revision process.

Requested Continue cash assistance for Syrian children after referral to public schools Syrian refugee children who are performing well in informal education classes provided through this project will

be supported to return to formal education. Under the original design of the project, there was no provision to

continue cash assistance for the families of these children. As the transition into Jordanian school is potentially

challenging for these children, and the families will lose the financial assistance they had been receiving

previously, IRJ is concerned that this will reduce the commitment and rate of attendance of these successful

students and providing education for additional numbers of children. Since the PSS activities are no longer

proposed (as this service is provided by UNICEF), thereby the savings can be diverted to support referred

children to public schools. The proposal is under review by DFID Jordan team.

[N.B. The Ministry of Education (MOE) on 2 August 2015 announced that the existing public schools have

reached their maximum absorption capacity and cannot support further referred students. IRJ is in discussion

with ICCS and UNICEF to reach some positive solution; since this announcement was made during Q6 report

preparation stage, thereby further progress will be shared in next quarterly report.]

D. SECURITY AND OPERATIONAL ISSUES

IRJ has its security plan in place which is updated on a regular basis in order to respond and react

promptly to any urgent security issues as they arise; during the reporting period no significant security

issue occurred

Prior to home visits, social workers should request from families copies from the ID and rent contract

Social workers plan their day and target families who are in the same neighborhood for the safety

In order to ensure proper coordination, Islamic Relief participates in UNHCR/UNICEF sector working

group meetings and has contributed to the Regional Response Pplan. Islamic Relief project updates are

shared with the sector leads to avoid duplication and assist to direct fund to uncovered areas to the

unmet needs with local and international organizations. Also IRJ management has established strong

relations with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation and Jordan Hashemite Charitable

Organization (responsible to coordinate assistance for Syrians) to facilitate IRJ work and operate with

the government wide strategy and priorities.

E. FINANCE NARRATIVE

Expenditure during Q6 (£325,240) was very close to the forecast for this period (£339,168). This brings the total

spend to date to £1,177,335. A transfer of funds from DFID UK (£606,281) was received at the start of Q6 most

of which was used to repay funds that had been pre-financed by IR for the project. This amount has now been

fully utilized and therefore a further request for funds is submitted with this report.

As noted in Q5, there have been delays in receiving the payment request from ICCS for their services. A transfer

to them was made in Q6 but still for a lower than forecast amount.

During Q6, IRJ discussed potential budget revisions with DFID Jordan team to consider how to make effective

use of the funds remaining. Once these negotiations have been finalized, this will inform the budget forecast for

the final two quarter periods of the project.

F. VALUE FOR MONEY

The project is targeting vulnerable families to provide rent support and at the same time ensuring that the

children have accessibility to quality education. The project is providing a complete package of services whereby

shelter and education needs of the targeted families and children are fulfilled. Additionally the project is

providing added value of refugee protection and child protection services.

Since the project is using existing facilities of ICCS to provide safe learning environment and quality education

thereby indirect cost (operational cost) has been minimized. Also towards the end of first year of project; it was

identified that the parents find it difficult to provide transport services for the children to and from the ICCS

centers; mainly because of the affordability and protection concerns. IRJ agreed to provide £766 (850 JOD) per

center to ICCS, whereby ICCS arranged the transportation for enrolled children. This has impacted the

attendance of children positively.

The project initially used cheques as mode of payment for disbursement of cash. However the process was less

efficient and effective as it usually took longer than expected time to prepare for cheques and was also very

labor intensive activity to do every month. To overcome this issue, IRJ has finalized the process with the bank

for payments via E cards. DFID targeted beneficiaries will be paid via E cards in the month of August. Hence this

will lead to a more economic, efficient and effective solution for the payments to project beneficiaries.

G. M&E AND FEEDBACK FROM BENEFICARIES

During this reporting period new requests for assistance were received. These were shared with the project

team who followed up these requests. If the requesting family falls under the project criteria (see Section H)

they were added to the project, or else they were referred to other relevant agencies for assistance.

Few complaints about payment delays were received. After checking with the project team the beneficiaries

were also informed about the reason of delays and potential date of their cheque distribution. With the new

mode of payments via E cards this issue will also be resolved.

IRJ has a well-established beneficiary complaint and feedback mechanism. The helpline number is displayed in

all IRJ field offices. Also social workers inform people about the complaint and feedback mechanism while

having visits to the targeted communities. All the complaints and feedbacks received are tracked and

responded appropriately.

H. BENEFICARY SELECTION

The beneficiary selection process remained the same as outlined in the proposal and as noted in earlier reports.

Beneficiaries are identified based on IRJ’s detailed case assessments and vulnerability criteria. IRJ social workers

conduct home visits to detail out the needs and assess eligibility of beneficiaries. A set of vulnerability criteria

was developed by IRJ and consists of several categories: family income, family size, gender of household head,

number of elderly/sick/children in each household, household disability, receiving food voucher, social worker

team recommendation. IRJ followed strict measures to ensure the most vulnerable children and families are

reached based on these beneficiary selection criteria.

The project targeted the following :

1. Female and male school leavers between the age of 7-16

2. Poor female headed household Syrian refugees

3. Elderly people

4. People with disablities

Also the project targets both Syrian and Jordanian beneficiaries.

I. WOMEN AND GIRLS

Women and girls remain a priority group for the project. As part of the selection criteria, female headed

households, considered to be part of extremely vulnerable individuals, are included. Also for the distribution of

payment cheque, women are served separately than men. On a particular distribution day, females are usually

the ones who receive their payment cheques first and arrangements are done to avoid unnecessary delays.

Since the project targets male and female school leavers thereby special attention is given to ensure that girls

are motivated and encouraged to continue their education. The facility of transportation is an added advantage

to ensure that the girls feel comfortable and protected while traveling to and from to ICCS centers. This has

impacted positively on the student’s attendance in general and in particular for girl’s attendance. Out of the

total 3,665 children reached 1,722 (47%) are girls whereby 1,943 (53%) are boys. As noted in Q5 report, the

attendance rate of girls is somewhat higher than that of boys as some boys still go to work in the market for

some days in the month. This issue will be explored further in the review/impact study.

J. RESILIENCE

The project has a special focus on building resilience among the targeted beneficiaries. The project niche was to

enhance the coping mechanism of the targeted children by promoting education and supporting families with

rent assistance. However, given the protracted nature of the crisis and existing Government regulations, the

resilience building component has been very challenging. The emphasis of the Government policies so far is on

the temporary nature of assistance to Syrian refugees. Particularly for provision of shelter/settlement support,

the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC) does not support any permanent settlement

options. Most recently the Ministry of Education announced that public schools cannot absorb any more Syrian

children; humanitarian organizations have serious concerns about this and the implications for education of

these children at the start of the new academic year. IRJ along with ICCS and UNICEF is working for positive

solutions to deal with this challenge as well as looking for possible alternative education options for Syrian

children.

As the current project will end by January 2016, IRJ is strategically thinking to and analyzing the possible ways to

further contribute to the coping mechanisms of the targeted community. This will be done through initiating

dialogues with parents via focus group discussions and PTA meetings during which IRJ team will help parents to

understand about mapping of their existing resources and alternate options of continuing their children’s

education after closure of this project.

During the reporting period, the World Food Program (WFP) announced that it does not have sufficient funding

to continue providing food assistance to Syrian refugees living outside camps in Jordan and hence the assistance

was withdrawn. The minimum expenditure basket (MEB) revised calculation in July 2015 identifies that a family

size of 6 with minimum 3 children will require 90 JD (cost per capita) for education support including school

fees, transportation, uniforms, etc. And the same family will require 122 JD for food

(http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/documents.php?page=1&view=list&Language%5B%5D=1&Country%5B%

5D=107&WG%5B%5D=14) Since WFP food assistance support has been withdrawn for Syrian refugees living in host communities, it is

expected that with limited resources, families will not be able to support children’s education as resources will

be diverted to meet basic food needs and there will be increased pressure on children to contribute to family

incomes. This is predicted to have a serious, negative impact on Syrian children’s education making projects

such as this even more critical.

K. CONFLICT SENSITIVITY AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

In order to mitigate tensions between Syrian and host population, the project team has done extensive

community mobilization. The targeted community is informed of the project selection criteria as well as the

eligibility of both the Syrians and Jordanians for the project. In case if anyone is not selected as a project

beneficiary, they are informed of the reason. Further, to avoid any unforeseen conflict, the distribution of

payment cheques is done separately for the Syrian and Jordanian beneficiaries.

L. BRANDING

Media related activities for this project include case studies, documentary video, and pictures. These are

available on IRJ’s social media sites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kt5AbGQLyI

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.894730440580937.1073741941.408212529232733&type=3

IRJ is following DFID’s branding guidelines. The approved DFID logo is being used for visibility including on

banners at project sites and within any other visibility material including for the case studies and documentary.