Capacity Assessment Analysis Report, HelpAge Jordan Project Advancing the inclusion of older people in livelihoods and work opportunities Capacity assessment analysis report, 2018 HelpAge Knowledge & Resource Hub Tel: +962 (0) 6 4640241 - E-mail: knowledgeandresourcehub [email protected] 1 Capacity Assessment Analysis Report, HelpAge Jordan Project Foreword HelpAge International (HAI) is a global network of organisations promoting the right of all older people to lead dignified, healthy and secure lives. Our role is to work with older women and men in low and middle-income countries for better services and policies, and for changes in the behaviours and attitudes of individuals and societies towards old age. The world we want is one where every older woman and man, everywhere, can say: "I have the income I need" "I enjoy the best possible health and quality of life" "I am safe and secure, free from discrimination and abuse" "My voice is heard" HAI has been raising awareness among humanitarian actors and government institutions about the vulnerabilities of older men and women as a result of humanitarian crises in the Middle East region since 2009. Building on our previous engagement, in 2017 HAI in Jordan partnered with the German government to establish a new, innovative Knowledge & Resource Hub to provide better support to organizations responding to the humanitarian and livelihoods needs of older people. The project, "Leaving No One Behind”, conducted a short, qualitative capacity assessment exercise in 2018 among local, national, and international organizations, government agencies and private sector organizations to identify needs and knowledge gaps in relation to the inclusion of older Syrian refugees and Jordanians in livelihoods interventions, programmes and work opportunities. This report summarises the key findings and conclusions from that exercise and from a synthesis of relevant literature on refugee and host community livelihoods programming. The project will take forward the eleven recommendations and practical actions identified as a result of the capacity assessment, and we look forward to working together with other agencies to realise our common ambition to include and integrate older people in planning, delivering and evaluating livelihoods programmes. We are grateful to all those who have directly and indirectly supported this project. Our thanks especially go to those agencies who gave their time to participate in the interviews and provided valuable information about the programmes and about the challenging context they work in to deliver aid and support to many vulnerable people. The analysis of findings and the report were produced by an independent consultant, Belinda Duff. Produced with funding from German Humanitarian Assistance, NAK-Karitativ, Aktion Deutschland Hilft, and HelpAge Germany. Stephanie Yousef, Project Manager, HelpAge International Jordan, September, 2018 2 Capacity Assessment Analysis Report, HelpAge Jordan Project 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Introduction This summary sets out the main findings and conclusions and recommended actions from a capacity assessment exercise undertaken by the HelpAge International Jordan project in early 2018 with organizations working on livelihoods and work opportunities for Syrian refugees and Jordanians. The purpose of the assessment was to identify priority actions for supporting other organizations to raise the level of inclusion of older persons in their livelihoods and work opportunities, and to increase the project staff’s knowledge about the main barriers to inclusion and what could be done to address them. The recommendations highlight practical actions which can be taken by the HAI Jordan project to advance inclusion of OPs among refugees and host communities in livelihoods and work opportunities primarily among NGOs/CBOs. The main audience for the report is the HAI Jordan project manager and staff and the German government which has supported the project since its inception. Findings and conclusions are grouped under five headings. The first grouping covers organizational capacity issues that preclude inclusion of older persons in general (1.2); the next, inclusion of older persons in livelihoods programmes in particular (1.3); then, employment of older persons in the wider economy (1.4); the next, advocacy goals and shifting social and cultural norms about older persons (1.5); and finally, rethinking the relationships between OPs and economic activity (1.6). Recommended actions are listed at the end of each section. 1.2 Inclusion of older persons: organizational capacity issues There are some basic gaps in organizational capacities that preclude them from including OPs, and which in effect make OPs less ‘visible’ as a group with specific vulnerabilities and abilities and contribute to their marginalisation as beneficiaries, as employees and as potential service users. For NGOs/CBOs, the lack of age-disaggregated data (SADDD)1 means that they cannot identify or report how many OPs receive assistance. 13 out of 15 NGOs/CBOs interviewed do not use age-disaggregated data. On the positive side, five agencies that indicated they don’t know how many OPs are among their beneficiaries and would like to include OPs identified SADDD as an improvement that would enable them to do so. Accurate data is a basic information requirement if any progress is to be made on the inclusion of OPs, and the HAI Jordan project is well placed to support the introduction of age- disaggregated data and help organizations improve the efficiency of their data collection and management. Better quality stratified data helps to improve needs assessments and understand intersectional vulnerabilities, e.g. of older women, and to plan interventions that include possibilities for involving older persons, as well as helping to establish more comprehensive data sets for managing and reporting on programmes. NGOs and CBOs identified staff competence in working with OPs as one of the top three most frequently identified organizational performance gaps and one of the top three most frequently identified priorities for improvement. More in-depth understanding of OPs’ needs and abilities as well as ways of working with OPs is required. The HAI project can supply some inputs that will directly address this gap by offering tried and tested training modules that have already been developed in core areas of knowledge and competences such as communicating and working with OPs. If NGOs and CBOs plan specific improvements to processes and practices for planning and delivering programmes, such as outreach, targeting and vulnerability assessments, in conjunction with 1 The gap identified is the lack of age-disaggregated data, but the accepted term that covers this is ‘sex, age and disability disaggregated data’, hence the abbreviation SADDD is used throughout the report 3 Capacity Assessment Analysis Report, HelpAge Jordan Project benefitting from practical support from HAI then significant and lasting progress can be made to the inclusion of OPs in programmes generally. Organizations perceive general obstacles to including OPs in their programmes but they do not necessarily associate these obstacles with internal capacity issues or highlight them as priorities they want to work on. The HAI Jordan project should be sensitive to this gap and plan how to communicate offers of support and inputs in the light of this information. Funding and physical access are major obstacles but should not be seen as preventing inclusion. Although funding strongly affects which groups are targeted and physical access excludes OPs and often implies costs such as adaptation of premises, improving access is not solely about material costs. Programming modalities and targeting practices can be developed to ensure OPs are included, for example the location of distribution points, or tailoring assessments to reach out and communicate with an often hidden population that remains home-bound and hard to access. The design, planning and execution of programmes can be improved with incremental changes. R1: Support the introduction of age-disaggregated data by seeking out and developing methods and tools related to collecting and managing data on OPs with reference to targeting, monitoring and evaluation procedures and practices. The five agencies that have indicated a firm interest in improving SADDD could form an immediate entry point for HAI to work with on data collection and management with refugee and host community populations. R2: Continue to offer the set of training modules already developed to NGOs and CBOs. Develop new modules in line with emerging training needs, if required. Training should incorporate practice elements and be linked to specific improvements organizations are making to their procedures and ways of working, (e.g. in outreach, targeting and vulnerability assessments, or delivery modalities). Training should be monitored and evaluated for its effectiveness in terms of the difference made to both procedures and practices in the short to medium term, and in the longer term to progress with OPs inclusion among the organizations receiving training. R3: Communicate offers of support from a practical standpoint and find out what motivates NGOs/CBOs to address inclusion first, and then work with the particular interests that each organization has in it. Ensure that HAI Jordan staff are aware of the many factors that influence how organizations decide what their priorities are and work with these