Report A promise of tomorrow The effects of UNHCR and UNICEF cash assistance on Syrian refugees in Jordan Bassam Abu Hamad, Nicola Jones, Fiona Samuels, Ingrid Gercama, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall and Georgia Plank With Aida Essaid, Said Ebbini, Kifah Bani Odeh, Deya’eddin Bazadough, Hala Abu Taleb, Hadeel Al Amayreh and Jude Sadji November 2017 UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. UNHCR leads international action to protect people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance like shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home where they can build a better future. We also work to ensure that stateless people are granted a nationality. Our dedicated staff work in 130 countries around the world, from major capitals to remote and often dangerous locations. UNICEF and UNHCR are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions that has made this critical financial assistance to the most vulnerable refugee families and their children possible: Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ Tel. +44 (0) 20 7922 0300 Fax. +44 (0) 20 7922 0399 E-mail: [email protected] www.odi.org www.odi.org/facebook www.odi.org/twitter Readers are encouraged to reproduce material from ODI Reports for their own publications, as long as they are not being sold commercially. As copyright holder, ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. For online use, we ask readers to link to the original resource on the ODI website. The views presented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI. © Overseas Development Institute 2017. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). Cover photo: ©UNHCR/Sebastian Rich Acknowledgements The report is a joint effort of Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Jordan Office and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Jordan Office. The team would like to thank the full study team who carried out the field work, led by the Information and Research Center, King Hussein Foundation. We are also grateful to all study respondents in Jordan who provided their valuable time to answer many often highly sensitive questions. The team that prepared the report worked under the overall management and technical supervision of Jawad Aslam (Chief Social Policy, UNICEF), Elizabeth Barnhart (Snr. Cash Based Interventions Coordinator, UNHCR), and Anna Gaunt (Research Coordinator, Cash Based Interventions, UNHCR). We are very grateful for the rich sets of comments provided by the UNICEF and UNHCR reviewers of the report including: UNICEF team – Gabrielle Erba (Programme Specialist – Cash Transfer), Hideyuki Tsuruoka (Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist), Arthur van Diesen (Regional Advisor Social Policy), Claire Mariani (Humanitarian Cash Coordinator), Buthaina Al-Iryani (Social Policy Specialist), Magnus Berg (Research Associate), Hanna Kurani (Research Associate), Alexis Boncenne (Monitoring and Evaluation Officer), and Mais Al Baddawi (Programme Assistant). UNHCR team – Volker Schimmel (Senior Regional Cash-Based Interventions Officer), Pallavi Rai (Senior Regional CBI Officer), Astrid De Valon (Cash-Based Interventions Officer), Nabila Hameed (Senior Evaluation Officer), Cassandra Welch (Associate Research Officer), Rasha Batarseh (Assistant Field Officer), Douglas DiSalvo (Senior Protection Officer), Hassan Mohammed (CS Officer), Laura Buffoni (Senior Livelihoods Officer), Adam Musa Khalifa (Senior Public Health Officer), Irene Omondi (Education Officer), Vincent Dupin (Senior Technical Officer), Omar Balkar (Senior Helpline Assistant), and Harry Brown (VAF RAIS Coordinator). The team wishes to acknowledge the invaluable support provided by the ODI peer review team including Sarah Bailey, Jessica Hagen-Zanker and Rebecca Holmes. The team would also like to thank the communications team Jessica Plummer (Communications Officer, Social Development Programme, ODI), Juliette Stevenson (External Relations Officer, UNHCR), Robert Sibson (Reporting Officer, UNHCR), Miraj Pradhan (Communication Specialist, UNICEF), and Samir Badran (Communication Specialist, UNICEF). A promise of tomorrow: the effects of UNHCR and UNICEF cash assistance on Syrian refugees in Jordan 3 Contents Acronyms 7 Graph key 15 Executive summary 16 1. Introduction and study objectives 23 1.1 Conceptualising social protection 23 1.2 Overview of UN social assistance programming for Syrian refugees in Jordan 24 1.3 Mixed methods approach 26 1.4 Mixed methods analysis approach 26 1.5 Limitations 28 1.6 Ethical considerations 28 2. Overview of the existing evidence base on Syrian refugees in Jordan 29 2.1 Household expenditure 29 2.2 Employment opportunities and income 29 2.3 Coping mechanisms 30 2.4 Shelter and living conditions 31 2.5 Food consumption and nutrition 32 2.6 Education and learning 32 2.7 Health and health care 33 2.8 Participation and social capital 33 2.9 Quality of life and psychosocial wellbeing 33 3. Household expenditure and the effects of cash assistance 35 3.1 Chapter aims 35 3.2 Effects of cash assistance on income and expenditure vulnerabilities 35 3.3 Variation in income and expenditure between beneficiary groups 36 4 ODI Report 3.4 What do households spend money on? 41 3.5 Beneficiary perceptions about the effects of cash on expenditure 43 3.6 Who decides what to spend money on? 45 3.7 Remaining challenges 46 4. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’ employment opportunities and income 47 4.1 Chapter aims 47 4.2 Vulnerabilities facing Syrian refugee households around income and employment 47 4.3 Positive effects of cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian refugees’ 52 income and employment vulnerabilities 4.4 Remaining challenges for cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian refugees’ 52 income and employment-related vulnerabilities 5. The effects of cash assistance on Syrian refugees’ coping mechanisms 57 5.1 Chapter aims 57 5.2 Syrian refugees’ coping mechanisms 57 5.3 Positive effects of cash assistance on Syrian refugees’ coping mechanisms 60 5.4 Remaining challenges facing cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian 62 refugees’ negative coping mechanisms 6. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’ shelter and living conditions 63 6.1 Chapter aims 63 6.2 Housing-related vulnerabilities 63 6.3 Positive effects of cash assistance on shelter-related vulnerabilities 67 6.4 Remaining challenges facing cash assistance programming in addressing shelter-related 68 vulnerabilities 7. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’ food consumption and 69 nutrition-related vulnerabilities 7.1 Chapter aims 69 7.2 Syrian refugees’ vulnerabilities related to food security 69 7.3 Positive effects of cash assistance in addressing food and nutrition-related vulnerabilities 70 facing Syrian refugees A promise of tomorrow: the effects of UNHCR and UNICEF cash assistance on Syrian refugees in Jordan 5 7.4 Remaining challenge for cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian Refugees’ 75 food and nutrition-related vulnerabilities 8. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’ education vulnerabilities 77 8.1 Chapter aims 77 8.2 Syrian refugees’ vulnerabilities related to education 77 8.3 Positive effects of cash assistance in addressing education-related vulnerabilities facing 81 Syrian refugees 8.4 Remaining challenges for cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian refugees’ 83 education-related vulnerabilities 9. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’ health and health care vulnerabilities 86 9.1 Chapter aims 86 9.2 Syrian refugee households’ vulnerabilities related to health and health care 86 9.3 Positive effects of cash assistance in addressing health-related vulnerabilities facing 88 Syrian refugees 9.4 Remaining challenges facing cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian refugees’ 34 health-related vulnerabilities 10. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’ participation and social 93 capital-related vulnerabilities 10.1 Chapter aims 93 10.2 Syrian refugees’ social capital and participation-related vulnerabilities 93 10.3 Positive effects of cash assistance in addressing social capital and participation-related 96 vulnerabilities facing Syrian refugees 10.4 Remaining challenges for cash assistance in addressing social capital and participation- 99 related vulnerabilities 11. The effects of cash assistance programming on Syrian refugees’quality of life and psychosocial well-being 101 11.1 Chapter aims 101 11.2 Syrian refugees’ psychosocial-related vulnerabilities 101 11.3 Positive effects of cash assistance in addressing refugees’ psychosocial-related vulnerabilities 107 11.4 Remaining challenges for cash assistance programming in addressing Syrian refugees’ 108 psychosocial