Final Report

15 January 2014 – 15 January 2016

Islamic Relief Jordan

UK Department for International Development

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 GBP 1,926,138 (Revised Budget)

Type of report Final Report

Reporting time period 15-1-2014 to 15-1-2016

B. PERFORMANCE SUMMARY

Overall performance:

Over the two years of this project, out of school girls and boys (Syrian and Jordanian) living in Irbid governorate

were targeted for enrolment in formal and/or non-formal education; by 15 January 2016, 4,084 children had

received education as a result of this project. The project successfully exceeded both the original target (3,525)

as well as the revised target (3,947) and an additional 137 children were reached with education support. By the

end of the project, IRJ had processed all the payments for beneficiaries and ICCS bringing a total spend rate of

98%.

4,084 school-aged children 1,907 girls (47%) and 2,177 boys (53%) returned to education as a result of this

project and their families were supported with cash assistance. To comply with the Ministry of Planning and

International Cooperation (MOPIC) guidelines, upon securing funding but before implementation could begin,

the project was submitted to MOPIC and Ministry of Education (MoE) for approval. Once this was awarded,

Islamic Relief Jordan (IRJ) signed an agreement with a local implementing partner organization – Islamic Center

Charitable Society (ICCS) – to use four of its existing centers to provide education to Syrian children. Hotspots

for extremely vulnerable Jordanian families were identified. Public schools in those areas were consulted for

referring children to the schools.

The project did not only refer children to formal or non-formal education, it also contributed to raising family

awareness of children’s right to education, protection and respect with an attempt to influence their priorities

to be shifted from needs to rights. A key strength of this project was that it responded to refugee and host

community urgent needs for financial income to protect them from the fear of eviction, while it promoted

children’s rights to receive education regardless of their religion, gender, race or social status. Child protection

was critical and the project focused on poor Syrian and Jordanian families who were adopting negative coping

mechanisms that put their children’s lives at risk by letting them beg in the street, marrying girls at an early age,

allowing children to drop out of school, or sending them to work in the market to bring in money. In this

context, families may unintentionally harm their children by making them marginalized in society and putting a

wall between the child and his/her right to healthy development, enjoyment, learning, exploration, and

fulfilment of his/her aspirations in the world.

Progress against logframe:

Output 1.1 Referral mechanism is built with ICCS, and increased number of children referred to various types of education For the provision of informal education to Syrian children who had missed years of schooling, IRJ developed a

partnership agreement with ICCS to implement the project through their centers in Irbid. ICCS was selected as it

has 62 centers in Jordan, proven working experience with UNICEF in implementing education programmes for

children, and the capacity to recruit teachers and deliver non-formal education. The project experienced some

delay in this activity as the agreement with ICCS could not be finalized until MoE approval was received for the

project implementation. The following roles were defined:

IRJ-Role ICCS-Role

1. Identify school leavers and refer them to ICCS 1. Provide conducive learning environment in the four centers

2. Assess the family situation 2. Provide the remedial classes in Arabic, English, Math, Science and Computer skills

3. Issue payment to the project beneficiaries 3. Follow up on children’s commitment to education and attendance

4. Monitor the project progress 4. Secure the education supplies needed for children

5. Monitor the quality of services provided 5. Share monthly progress report

ICCS recruited 28 teachers (M: 15, F: 13) for the four centres and trained them on interactive teaching skills and

the agreed curriculum. Later ICCS recruited one coordinator to overcome the challenge of coordination

between ICCS and IRJ and to supervise project activities (performance of recruited teachers, compilation of

attendance sheets, payments).

Due to the focus of this project on working with children, measures were taken to ensure staff of IRJ and ICCS

were engaging with children in a supportive and appropriate manner. As part of this work, in May 2014 Islamic

Relief Worldwide (IRW) technical specialists facilitated an intensive five-day Child Protection training. Topics

included psychosocial support, domestic violence, dealing with allegations of abuse, and child protection. Staff

from local and international organizations were also invited to join the training and representatives from IRJ,

ICCS, Save the Children Jordan, Lutheran World Federation, Terre des Hommes, WFP and Madrasati

participated. This contributed to IRJ’s ongoing capacity strengthening of ICCS as well as helping to reinforce the

contribution of IRJ, DFID and this project to the wider Education sector response in Jordan.

Output 1.2 Families are assessed through door to door visits The project initiated by identifying children in four areas in Irbid Governorate including Irbid Camp, Ramtha,

Kourah and Showneh Al Shmalyeh. IRJ was only able to identify a very low number of school leavers within the

area of Showneh Al Shmalyeh. This was due to a strict security and relocation campaign that the Government of

Jordan conducted in the border town to relocate Syrian residents with invalid paperwork and security

identification papers. Accordingly, many identified families had to move out of Showneh Al Shmalyeh to other

cities and it was therefore decided to discontinue the project in that area due to the reduced number of target

beneficiaries. Assessment visits were conducted within Irbid Governorate to identify potential alternative

project locations and a site in Sareeh was selected. The ICCS center Sareeh opened in November 2014 and

education classes for out of school Syrian refugee children living in the surrounding area began.

Door-to-door assessments took place to identify the out of school school-age children. In the initial project

phase, Syrian refugee volunteers were involved in the assessment to have refined targeting and greater

influence to convince families of the importance of education and children’s rights. Working with people from

within the refugee community proved effective as they were more easily accepted and communicated easily

with the Syrian families, understanding their culture, tradition and concerns.

The door-to-door visits included making a detailed case assessment relating to the family’s economic, social,

educational, and health status to give a holistic view of the family’s conditions and identify the reasons for their

children being out of school. This project specifically targeted: female and male school leavers between 7-16

years; poor female-headed household Syrian refugees; families with elderly people; families with disabled

people.

The respondents cited various reasons for their children being out of school with most commonly cited factors

including the long distance between home and school, challenge to pay for transportation, expensive fees of

some schools, nearest school does not accept new registrations, and children working to support their families.

For girls in particular, the fear of exploitation or harassment was one of the main reasons families were not

sending their daughters to school.

During the project period, a total of 2,490 Syrian families and 675 Jordanian families (3,165 total) were

assessed. More families were assessed than planned as per the logframe (target: 3,060). This is because

sometimes families do not fall under the project selection criteria or do not have necessary documentation. Any

such families were guided properly to update their documentation or were informed of the project selection

criteria. After the assessment, but before finalization, IRJ double checked the data in UNHCR's Refugee

Assistance Information System (RAIS) and with other agencies providing Cash/Education assistance in Irbid to

ensure any duplications were removed. Based on this, the final list of selected families was prepared and the

children were referred to ICCS/public schools.

Output 1.3 3,947 children are referred to formal, informal or non-formal education by ICCS

Over the two year implementation period, 4,084 school-aged children including 1,907 girls (47%) and 2,177

(53%) boys returned to education as a result of this project. This included 2,748 Syrian (67%) and 1,336

Jordanian (33%) children.

At the start of the project, the referral system for both Jordanian and Syrian children was challenging due to a

lack of interest from the families. By the nature of the beneficiary selection criteria, many of the identified

Jordanian and Syrian families were amongst some of the most vulnerable members of the community and the

parents were more inclined to send their children to work to increase the family income rather than attend

school. IRJ identified and adopted a sensitive method of approaching these families in order to convince them

that the support is aimed to help reduce the family’s burden of securing their livelihood expenses (rent) whilst

ensuring their children received an adequate education.

During Q2, ICCS successfully developed a non-formal education curriculum and associated teaching materials

for mathematics, Arabic, English and science. These were approved and certified by the Jordanian MoE giving

strong recognition of the quality of education being offered through this project. This facilitated the process of

referring children from non-formal to formal education. The project teachers had access to these teaching

materials which helped to improve the consistency of the classes and subject content across the ICCS education

centers.

The identified Syrian children were referred to ICCS centers in Irbid, Ramtha, Kourah and Sareeh. Depending

upon the number of enrolled children, and the capacity of ICCS centers, the frequency of classes held in each of

four centers was between three to six per week. Special attention was paid to provide a conducive learning

environment by using interactive teaching methods to ensure that the children remain committed to the

classes. The attendance percentage in four ICCS centers in two years was high.

The table reflects average attendance percentage.

In addition to providing a positive and flexible learning environment,

recreational extra-curricular activities were also conducted. Open day

celebrations were made during Q3 in collaboration with Kourah Centre. The

open day provided an enjoyable and informative way in which the children were given the opportunity to meet

others from the different ICCS centers, played games and made new friends. All the children who attended

received hats, textbooks, and pens with DFID, IRW and ICCS logos. Information advertising the open day and the

project in general was aired on local radio stations (Sa'a Surriyya - Yarmouk FM and Hayat FM) which provided

details on the project including beneficiary selection criteria and areas of implementation. A similar open day

was celebrated during Q5 in Sareeh center.

Based on the performance of the children in ICCS centers in Year 1 of the project, students who showed greater

improvement in their learning outcomes were referred for registration in public schools. This was to ensure that

the students are mainstreamed in the education system and can earn a certificate that will help them to

continue their education or find employment in future.

In coordination with Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) and Directorate of Education Irbid, hotspots for

vulnerable out of school Jordanian children were identified and nearby public schools were nominated for to

receive referrals. The school management was taken on board for implementation of project. The identified

Jordanian children were referred for registration in public schools. A total of 803 students were referred in 19

public schools for girls and boys. It was planned to refer more students to public schools, but in August 2015

MoE announced that the Jordanian public schools have reached their maximum absorption capacity and cannot

support further referred Syrian students.

Initially it was planned that IRJ would sign an agreement with Save the Children to provide this referral

mechanism and to access data on students’ attendance in the public schools. Save the Children was also

proposed to support in implementation of psychosocial and child protection activities. However, after

consultation with DFID, it was agreed not to implement these additional activities as UNICEF was already

delivering similar sessions. Thereby the agreement with Save the Children was not signed and hence it was

Centre Average attendance %

Sareeh 90%

Irbid 86%

Ramtha 88%

Kourah 89%

difficult to access the attendance sheets of the referred students (both Syrian and Jordanian) in public schools.

IRJ worked hard to overcome this challenge; IRJ supported ICCS for processing the MOU with MoE to access

monthly attendance sheets of the students in public schools, however the MOU was not endorsed by MoE

during the project life time. As an alternate solution to assess if the targeted children were attending the public

schools, IRJ received a certificate from the school confirming the student is attending. IRJ focal persons in field

remained in touch with the school principal to record and report any major fluctuations in the student’s

monthly attendance rate; no major fluctuations were notified during the project.

Output 1.4 Payment for children from Syrian families and children from Jordanian families is made towards

their house rent for Syrian refugees and other bills (such as electricity/water/food) for Jordanian families

Based on the attendance sheets from ICCS centers (Syrian children) and the attendance confirmation from

public schools (Jordanian children), payment for beneficiary families was prepared. Before issuing any

payment, IRJ collected landlord information, validating key documentation including: the original rent

contract, landlord’s original personal identification, propriety original ownership paper and UNHCR registration

certificate for Syrian families.

A total of 1,889 families received monthly payments (some families had more than one child in the project). A

monthly payment of 30JD was given for each child attending education. For families with more than one child

assisted by the project, 30JD was paid per child (e.g. 60JD for families with two children, 90JD for those with

three children). The maximum number of children that was supported per family is three.

For Syrian families, the payment was made to the Jordanian landlord as contribution to the tenants’ monthly

rental costs. There were challenges in the method of cash transfer which caused delays in payment issuance

(see ‘Challenges’ below). For Jordanian families, approximately 30% live in rented properties and used the cash

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

support to meet other living costs such as utility bills or additional education support for their children.

This project delivered a total number of 47,037 child months (2014: 15,915, 2015: 31,122) to Syrian and

Jordanian children (note: this data has 1% probability of variance as different data collection method was used

in 2014 and 2015). For each of these child months, a grant of 30JD was disbursed.

For smooth project close out and exit, all families (Jordanian and Syrian) targeted under the project were

informed well in advance about the project completion. The information shared included the following:

Project closure and final payment disbursement schedule

Education continuity of the children through MAKANI project (ICCS education centers continuation)

IRJ hotline mechanism to register any complaints and request for assistance

In addition to the planned activities, a number of other activities contributing to the quality of the project were

conducted. They are summarised below:

Stakeholder Workshop:

In January 2015, IRJ conducted a two-day stakeholder workshop for the project. The workshop involved key

stakeholders of the project including IRJ staff, the implementing partner ICCS, teachers (ICCS centers/targeted

Jordanian schools) and most importantly project beneficiaries (Syrian and Jordanian children and parents).

Although the workshop could only target a limited number of respondents within the time constraints, useful

information was received regarding the overall project effectiveness, the impact of the project intervention on

beneficiaries, and lessons learnt/recommendations. The beneficiaries showed a great deal of satisfaction on the

project activities. Summary of key findings include following:

Families are encouraged to send their children to school as they can see visible changes in their

academic performance and behavior

Cash support helped refugee families to cover the rent cost and Jordanian families were able to cover

utility bills and make some contribution to extra remedial classes for children to improve their academic

performances

Transport facilities should be extended to a wide area as sometimes the areas near to ICCS centers were

not provided with this facility

The Ecard payment methodology was highly recommended as it ensure efficiency (time and cost) and

dignity of the beneficiaries

Most of the families fear drop out of the children after end of project as with limited financial resources

and humanitarian assistance; it is difficult to meet the education expenses

Training of the teachers at ICCS centers and public schools was shared as area of priority for future

programme

Children with special needs should be mainstreamed in non-formal education

Gender Impact Study:

The DFID project targeted girls, boys, parents of children (men, women) as well as the male and female

teachers. Thereby looking into the importance of the gender mainstreaming and the intended and unintended

consequences; IRW managed to conduct a thorough gender impact study by utilizing the internal resources. The

study was conducted during Q7. Summary of the key findings from the study are as follows:

Families are encouraged to send their children specially girls to ICCS centers because of transport facility

and also as they have seen positive impact of education on girls and boys. In addition, the cash support

remained an important tool to ensure the education continuity as it contributed to share the financial

burden of the families.

The project supported boys not to enter in the labor market where they used to take part in heavy labor

The IRJ social workers dealing with Jordanian families saw an improvement in the dynamic of the family

Earlier they used to observe (in few families) the incidences of violence and a lack of a male role model.

After the implementation of the project an improvement in the family dynamic was observed.

There is a need for more psychosocial support to help children recover from their trauma, reports of

bed-wetting, hyperactivity and violence from children. ICCS has already hired two teachers a male and

female, Jordanian and Syrian whose main role and responsibility was to provide a safe space for

children to open up and speak about their problems, concerns and aspirations.

In general, female-headed households received support from humanitarian agencies more easily than

male-headed households as the beneficiary selection criteria often prioritise them

The need for extension of psychosocial support services to the parents of the enrolled children and

hygiene education appeared as one of the recommendations

Further recommendations include provision of services for children with special needs and increasing

the capacity of ICCS centers to accommodate more students without compromising the quality

Complete report is attached as Annex A.

Accountability study: IRW has a monitoring and evaluation framework in line with HAP and Core Humanitarian Standards on quality

and accountability. During the reporting period, IRW conducted an evaluation to have an in depth

understanding of perception and application of accountability to beneficiaries and assessed this project (as well

as one funded by IRUK) in particular. The study used qualitative methods drawing on a range of information

from various stakeholders through FDGs, semi -structured interviews and open discussions, so as to incorporate

a wide range of views. Documents, other media materials and photographs were also used allowing for

triangulation of information. This approach allowed the subjective understanding of the participants’

perceptions, opinions and interpretations to be captured. The study questionnaire was carefully designed to

capture information about standards, transparency, participation, M&E and complaint system.

The research found that overall IR has a robust accountability framework and is delivering accountability well.

The summary of key findings is as follows:

IRW has a comprehensive embodiment and compliance system in place and staff at Country level have

stronger level of awareness than sub-office staff. This can be addressed with further opportunities and

on-going guidance to develop capacity and understanding of principles surrounding accountability.

Regarding transparency, IRJ is effectively promoting visibility through clearly displaying information in

the local context throughout its offices and in the community. Information is also verbally

communicated and staff appear to be aware of relevant policies. There is scope to improve

transparency through increased flow of information.

IRJs complaints system is robust, competent and designed in line with the organization’s policies and

principles, thus demonstrating a high level of accountability towards beneficiaries.

Based on the findings, three recommendations and two areas for further research are identified. These are;

further training opportunities for all staff and on-going guidance in order to ensure all staff have the same level

of awareness regarding IR policies and principles, consistency in the level of accountability across all IR projects

and improved information flow on a beneficiary level. Regarding research, the findings highlight scope for

further comparative studies concerning variation in accountability dependent on the level of project funding

and the type of assistance i.e. emergency or development and length (short and long-term). The relevant

chapters from the study discussing the findings and recommendations were shared with Q7 reports.

Contribution for WASH improvements

In Q4, a need was identified for improvements to the existing WASH facilities in ICCS centres. 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). Sareeh center 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 included fixing of

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

disabilities, fix humidity, fix windows and doors, etc.

Transport for children to and from school

Feedback from parents during the Stakeholders’ Workshop in August 2014 indicated that the cost of

transport to and from school was a prohibitive factor affecting their children’s attendance and engagement in

the project. Following discussions with DFID, it was agreed to introduce free transportation assistance for the

students in the project, an additional activity to be managed by ICCS who was compensated with project

funds. This support began during Q4 for Syrian children in the four centres and continued until the end of the

project. This resulted in positive results in terms of more regular attendance of enrolled students, particularly

girls.

Key challenges:

Delay in approval: The project faced early challenges including delay in receiving official approval from the

MoE. The approval was received in May 2014 (four months after the project start date). This significantly

impacted the overall implementation of activities in the first two quarters of the project resulting in underspend

of the budget. The challenge was overcome by revising the project work plan and budget in Q3. The target

number of children to be reached was increased and new activities were included such as provision of transport

facility, and rehabilitation of WASH facilities.

Identification of project target children: The identification of children and families who will engage in the

project was challenging, but this was not wholly unexpected as the project was dealing with school leavers

many of whom come from low income status and their families were struggling to secure a stable income and

shelter. Further, refugee families kept changing their location and some parents were found to be reluctant in

sending their children to school rather than to work.

The challenge was overcome through strong social mobilization whereby the social workers conducted more

rigorous visits to areas with high concentration of Syrian refugees. Also MoSD and Department of Education

Irbid was consulted to identify the out of school Jordanian children living in high poverty areas.

Transport for the children: Arranging and paying for transport from home to school was a challenge cited by

many beneficiary families. Although the education provided by this project is free, families who live far from the

center have to pay daily transportation costs which can deter parents from sending their children to school. In

the revised activity plan, transport facility provision was included. ICCS centers arranged to provide

transportation for children in certain areas. Collection points were identified for the children.

Issuing payments: The system of making payments to beneficiaries was set up with a series of controls to

prevent fraud or diversion of aid to non-intended beneficiaries. A set of documentation is required including

landlord’s proof of ownership of the property, and identification papers of the landlord and household head of

the Syrian family. Accumulating the required paperwork took considerable time and resulted in a slight delay to

commencing payments for some families.

The project initially used a money transfer facility to disburse the payment but was later changed to an

alternate method of making payments through cheques. The payment method through cheques was more

acceptable to beneficiaries than the money transfer facility but proved inefficient in the amount of staff time

required for processing so many cheques. The challenge in both these methods was the requirement for the

landlord (Jordanian) to accompany the family (Syrian) to the payment office to receive the monthly cash

payment. Families with just one child in the project are entitled to 30 JOD per month, and some landlords

proved reluctant to accompany these families to the payment center to collect this relatively small amount. This

delayed the disbursement of funds to beneficiaries and created distress for families who were unable to collect

the assistance to which they were entitled. In some cases, the Syrian families were issued payments after

verifying original ID of the Jordanian landowner. For future projects alternative payment methodologies should

be considered including making cash payments direct to beneficiaries rather than the landlord.

The issue was resolved after the introduction of the Ecard money transfer system. The method was more

appropriate because:

Enabled more efficient payment methodology for IRJ Finance unit, less paperwork but still with high

level of control

Easier for beneficiaries, as the distribution was once only and future monthly payments will be

automatically uploaded to the cards

Decrease the transportation cost for beneficiaries or landlords to come to collect the payments

Payment through Ecards: The Ecard payment methodology was discussed and agreed in Q5. However, the

process of agreement with the service provider Ahli Bank took longer than expected and at the same time, a

notification was issued from Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) whereby all banks were instructed to temporarily

suspend issuance and payments through Ecards. This was equally applicable to all the INGOs and UN agencies

working in Jordan. IRJ took immediate action to deal with the situation and arranged meeting with the senior

management of Ahli Bank. Upon rigorous follow up, the payment through Ecards was resumed. Ahli Bank

shared that the suspension was a precautionary decision to ensure compliance with CBJ rules and regulations

for prepaid cards for the security of both parties. During the delay period, IRJ continued to make the payments

through cheques.

While IRJ was able to manage the issuance of Ecards for Jordanian families targeted under the project, there

were significant delays from Ahli Bank for processing Ecards for Syrian families due to additional compliance

and anti-money laundering concerns. Thereby IRJ continued to make payments to Syrian families through

cheques.

The beneficiaries sometime faced difficulties with using the Ecards because of lost Personal Identification

Number (PIN), blocked card, or changed phone number (because of which they were not being informed of the

transfer made to their cards) and less familiarity with the use of Ecard technology. The IRJ team conducted a

introductory session for the use of this new payment mode at the time of Ecard distribution. If an enquiry was

made later via the hotline or in person, IRJ team facilitated the beneficiaries to resolve those issues. In case of

lost card or PIN, IRJ liaised with Ahli Bank to replace the card or generate a new PIN. If the problem persisted, as

a last resort, payment to a few families was made through cheques.

Refugees change their residency or rent contract expiry: In some cases, refugees either changed their

residency or the rent contract expired. IRJ was able to overcome the issue because of having close relations

with the refugees. This enabled IRJ to have timely information of the updated status of refugees and also to

understand their needs/situation. Further consultation was provided where required. Hence IRJ received the

updated rent contract from the targeted refugees.

Expiry of Refugee’s UNHCR ID: Another related challenge was that UNHCR identification (ID) for some refugees

was expired. IRJ was able to overcome the issue because of close follow up with the beneficiaries. Any such

cases were guided to UNHCR refugee services for renewal of their IDs. Meanwhile in order to avoid delay in

payments the specific cases were processed separately by filling in an explanation form and attaching the

receipt for the request of renewal of UNHCR ID. The team continued to have close follow up and updated the

beneficiary file with the renewed registration IDs when received.

C. REQUESTED CHANGES TO THE PROGRAMME

Approved during Project life:

Educational centers WASH improvements IRJ and ICCS worked together to rehabilitate the existing WASH facilities at ICCS centers. With this project

already bringing thousands of additional children to use the ICCS centers, the extra demand on the existing

WASH facilities created the need for some rehabilitation work. This did not represent a specific WASH outcome

to the project, but served to ensure that the project beneficiaries had access to adequate and appropriate

WASH facilities while attending school.

Transport facility As noted above, the absence of a transport facility hindered the access of children to the education center

which in turn limited the attendance of some students. To overcome these challenge children were provided

with pick up and drop off facility.

Final Stakeholder Workshop In Q8, IRJ conducted a final stakeholder workshop involving key project stakeholders: ICCS, public school

teachers, children and their parents (Syrian and Jordanian) and IRJ project staff. The objective of the workshop

was to get an indication of the overall project performance, socio-economic impact of intervention on

beneficiaries, and to document key lessons learned and the way forward for future programming. A DFID Jordan

team member participated in the workshop. Since the workshop was conducted mainly through the use of

internal resources thereby no major expense was incurred.

Not approved during Project life:

Project impact study / Final project evaluation

IRJ requested DFID to increase the budget for M&E (4,398 GBP) to 10,000 GBP in order to conduct a study to

gauge the overall impact of the project. This planned to hold consultations with all relevant project stakeholders

including Syrian and Jordanian children and their parents, teachers, landlords and ICCS to consider the

effectiveness of the interventions. This was initially approved by DFID and submitted through IRW as part of the

budget revision process. However, when the TORs for the project final evaluation were shared with DFID Jordan

team this included a proposed time frame that reached beyond the project end date. Thereby DFID advised not

to hold the evaluation as expenses beyond the project ends date do not fall under the eligible cost.

Continue cash assistance for Syrian children after referral to public schools

Since the transition from ICCS to Jordanian school is potentially challenging for the Syrian children as the

families will lose the financial assistance they had been receiving previously, IRJ was concerned that this may

reduce the commitment and attendance rate of the successful students after referral. Since the PSS activities

were no longer implemented (as this service is provided by UNICEF), thereby the savings were proposed to be

diverted to support referred children to public schools. The proposed activity was not approved by DFID. The

main reason for non-approval was the concern from DFID about the time remaining for the project closure as

compared to the budget burn rate. Based on this, a revised budget reflecting the reduction in total allocated

budget as well as corresponding revised forecast was submitted.

Psychosocial Support and Child Protection activities

As discussed under Output 3, discussions between IRJ and DFID took place regarding working with Save the

Children to introduce psychosocial support and child protection activities into the project. Save the Children

would have worked with IRJ to make a detailed child protection assessment related to the beneficiaries of the

project, and develop an appropriate programme of child protection training and support for ICCS and IRJ staff,

awareness sessions for children and their parents/caregivers, and general child protection support for those

involved with the project. The intervention proposed to define a minimum package of basic PSS activities and

provide indicators for monitoring and evaluating PSS. This component was not approved as UNICEF supported

ICCS centers with psychosocial support and child protection activities that were deemed to be sufficient.

D. SECURITY AND OPERATIONAL ISSUES

Throughout the project life time IRJ kept an up to date security plan which was revised on regular basis. This

was to ensure that an immediate response was made to any urgent security issues should they arise. The staff

were regularly updated about the security and relevant advisories were issued as required. Based on the

security advisories the project implementation plans were updated if necessary. This was to ensure staff and

beneficiary’s safety and security as well as to mitigate negative implications of unforeseen events. No significant

security issue arose during the project life. However, during the winter months some payment distributions

were rescheduled due to the bad weather and road conditions. In these cases, the beneficiaries were informed

in time to avoid any hassle.

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

meetings and contributed to the Regional Response Plan. Islamic Relief project updates were 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 MOPIC and JHCO

(responsible to coordinate assistance for Syrians) to facilitate IRJ work and operate with the government wide

strategy and priorities.

As per the project’s implementation methodology, for Syrian targeted family’s payments were made to the

house owners. However, for the families who have only one or two children, many house owners were

unwilling to come to collect the small amount of money. Therefore, the cheque was made out in the Jordanian

landlord’s name but could be collected on their behalf by the Syrian family if the landlord was still reluctant to

come to receive it. This practice is discouraged but in rare cases was necessary to ensure that the payments

were made without delays; the cheques can be collected on behalf of Jordanian house owner. In such cases IRJ

team witnesses the original ID of the landowner and also make a copy of it for proper documentation.

During December 2015, UNHCR Jordan’s Refugee Assistance Information System (RAIS) was upgraded by a new

version. Because of this, the RAIS system was temporarily suspended for a few days. However, Islamic Relief

Jordan (due to its regular representation at all the coordination forums) was able to have this information on

time. Hence the cross check of the beneficiary data on RAIS was completed before the system was suspended.

E. FINANCE NARRATIVE

As the project completed its timeframe, the overall spent rate was over 98% of the total allowed revised budget

of two years (1,890,878 GBP out of 1,926,137 GBP, revised from original todal of 2,000,000 GBP). Strong effort

was exerted to process payments to beneficiaries through various methods as discussed above. Additional

human resources were assigned to the project to speed up the process of payments. All due payments to the

beneficiaries had been completed by the end of the last quarter. There was only 1% underspend on this budget

line which resulted when some of the families either moved out of the area or became inaccessible and hence

the payment for them was not disbursed.

Funds owed to the implementing partner, ICCS, were paid in full as per the received invoice from them. The

budget line is 5% underspent as ICCS invoice amounts were less than budgeted. As ICCS facilities were used

both by IRJ and UNICEF, some operational costs by ICCS were split between both organisations.

The monitoring and evaluation line is 10% spent as the major cost was for the final project evaluation that was

not conducted as advised by DFID.

During this project, IRJ experienced significant delays between submitting requests for funds and receiving the

transfer from DFID. This required IRW to pre-finance heavily from internal funds. The late receipt of these funds

(without prior advisory of delay) was hugely challenging for the project and restricted IRJ’s ability to continue

making payments to beneficiaries on time.

F. VALUE FOR MONEY

In this project, economy was achieved through making use of existing facilities of ICCS to provide a safe learning

environment and quality education thereby minimizing operational costs. The Ecard system IRJ entered into

with Ahli Bank was for multiple projects (not just DFID project), therefore the bank charges for using this facility

were very nominal. This significantly contributed to reduce direct costs and hence the major portion of funding

was used directly to serve the children and their families.

In terms of efficiency, beneficiary feedback confirmed that this intervention identified a key problem and

selected appropriate target locations. Towards the end of first year of project, it was identified that the parents

found it difficult to provide transport services for the children to and from the ICCS centers; mainly because of

the affordability and protection concerns. Provision of transportation required additional inputs, but resulted in

higher attendance meaning more efficient use of the funds being spent on providing the education classes and

therefore had a positive impact on the children.

For Syrian families, distribution of payment cheques used to be at the IRJ office in Irbid which created time and

logistics cost for the beneficiaries. Also, for those not living away in Irbid, they found it difficult to arrive at the

scheduled date and time which delayed the payment disbursement cycle. To make the process more time and

cost efficient, ICCS centers in the four project target locations were used as cheque distribution sites. The

selection of Ecards led to a better value for money solution for the payments to project beneficiaries than had

been experienced during payment through cheques or payment centres. Payment through the money transfer

centres and through cheques required heavy compliance processes (requiring repetition each time) and was

very labor intensive activity to do every month. Despite the challenges, once the system was operational,

payment through Ecards presented an efficient and effective method for timely disbursement of money.

The project targeted vulnerable families to provide rent support and at the same time ensured that the children

have accessibility to quality education. The project methodology provided an effective package of services

whereby shelter and education needs of the targeted families and children were fulfilled. Additionally, the

project provided added value of refugee protection and child protection services.

Beneficiaries from Syrian refugee and Jordanian host communities were reached through this project, with

equitable access for girls and boys. The project prioritized the most vulnerable beneficiaries in its selection

criteria.

G. M&E AND FEEDBACK FROM BENEFICARIES

Monitoring of the project started right from the beginning. Starting with ICCS partnership, IRJ set the basis

for the monitoring framework to ensure proper implementation. The Monitoring and Evaluation Manager

developed monthly and quarterly report templates for this purpose. At the programme level, a weekly

meeting was conducted to follow with up the team, discuss progress, challenges and the way forward. IRJ

maintains a dashboard to keep track of project indicators. Field visits were conducted by the Programme

Manager to the ICCS centers for follow up and support. IRJ invested time and money to strengthen the

capacity of the ICCS team through one-to-one orientations. The output of the field visits was discussed with

ICCS and next steps were agreed upon to support project implementation.

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 during visits

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

appropriately. During the project period, no serious complaint was received.

Through the complaint and feedback mechanism, a few complaints were received about payment delays. After

checking with the project team the beneficiaries were also informed about the reason for any delays and the

planned date of their cheque distribution. Some complaints received were about issues with the Ecards, for

example lost PIN and lost or blocked card. Any such complaints were immediately responded by sharing the

same with the bank and rigorous follow up until resolved. It was ensured that the beneficiaries were updated

about the steps taken and possible time to resolve the issue. Once resolved the beneficiaries were informed

accordingly. There were few inquiries about the payment distribution schedule and uploading of Ecards by the

bank. After consulting the bank and IRJ program/finance team; the IRJ hotline team members settled all such

enquires by sharing relevant information.

As is common for the IRJ hotline, most calls received were to do with new requests for assistance, particularly

in the early period of the project. These enquires were shared with the project team who followed up the

requests. If the requesting family fell within the project criteria (see Section H) they were considered to be

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

The table below gives number of complaints and feedback received via hotline number in two years.

Description Action taken # of calls

(2014)

# of calls

(2015)

Request for assistance and

information about the

payment disbursement

The request for assistance was shared with

program team to follow up

Beneficiary informed of the payment schedule

455 38

Loss of cheque, Ecard and/or

PIN code

Re issuance of cheque, Ecard and PIN code 1 21

Block Ecard Issuance of new Ecard 0 5

Total 456 64

Additionally, DFID Jordan and DFID UK teams also conducted several field monitoring visits and quarterly

project review meetings. These provided excellent opportunities to discuss project progress, changes and way

forward.

In 2014, the Ministry of Interior issued a formal notification (Prime Minister letter no. 3/11/1/10813) about the

role of Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) to coordinate and supervise all kinds of distribution for

the Syrian refugees. Following this notification, IRJ coordinated with JHCO for DFID project rental cash

distribution through regular sharing of the updates and meetings. There is no formal agreement (in case of

DFID) rather it was a compliance measure for the Government’s rules and regulations which provided greater

beneficiary accountability and process monitoring. In Q8 of the project, JHCO was involved in the process

monitoring by visiting the distribution sites. IRJ shared its payment distribution plan with JHCO to inform the

respective Governorate office. After getting necessary permission from Governorate office, beneficiaries were

informed about the schedule of distribution. JHCO representatives also made random visits to some of the

distribution sites to monitor the activities and their feedback remained positive.

After the project closure, IRJ monitoring and evaluation unit conducted a small scale project evaluation using its

own resources. The main objective was to reflect on efficiency and effectiveness of the project to meet its

objectives. For this purpose, a random sample of 22 families was selected including 11 male- and 11 female-

headed households (6 Jordanian and 16 Syrian). Families shared that before the DFID project support, their

children were out of school mainly because these families live below the poverty line and cannot afford the

auxiliary education costs including stationary, transport fee, uniform etc. Mostly families shared that out of

school children were not involved in labor, rather they were staying at home.

DFID project provided immediate support to fill the immense gaps in shelter and education sector. The

interviewed families showed a sense of satisfaction about the project activities as it supported their children to

return to education while the families were provided with cash assistance. The cash assistance was used by

them to cover the rental fee and other utility expenses. The project fully meets its intended objectives.

After the project closure, some of the children supported under DFID project continued their education at ICCS

center under UNICEF’s MAKANI project. However due to overcrowding of public schools and ICCS center, some

children are staying at home and waiting for the next semester to get enrolled.

The protracted nature of crisis has exhausted local resources and coping capacities of the host and refugee

population. Thereby more sustainable project interventions are required in future to enhance the coping

capacity of targeted population.

See also Gender study

H. BENEFICARY SELECTION

Islamic Relief engaged in rigorous consultation with national and local Government authorities and the Shelter

and Education working groups to identify priority areas in Irbid Governorate and to avoid any duplication.

Through field visits and in consultation with working group members, hotspots were identified and detailed

household needs assessments were conducted for beneficiary identification and selection.

Door-to-door visits were conducted from the beginning of the project to identify children not in school. The

project had dedicated social workers who conducted assessments in the target areas with visits planned weekly

to ensure coverage for all the targeted areas and sub areas. 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 disabilities

After the Syrian refugee families were selected, but before finalization, Islamic Relief double checked the data in

UNHCR's Refugee Assistance Information System (RAIS) and with other agencies providing Cash/Education

assistance in Irbid to ensure any duplications were removed.

As per MOPIC requirements, IRJ interventions for Syrian refugees in Jordan include 30% of host community

Jordanian beneficiaries and this was ensured in this project. IRJ remained in close coordination with MOSD for

the Jordanian families cross check (not only for DFID project but other cash for rent projects also). The

information received about Jordanian families was usually not updated and there were some delays in getting

an appropriate response. Hence despite considerable efforts by IRJ there was no established mechanism to be

used for cross-checking the Jordanian families. However, through INGO coordination platform (i.e. Shelter

Working Group) the information was shared on the areas of intervention to avoid duplication among the

organizations providing cash assistance.

The project targeted both Syrian and Jordanian beneficiaries. The out-of-school girls and boys of the selected

families were then referred to ICCS centers or public schools.

I. WOMEN AND GIRLS

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

households, considered to be extremely vulnerable individuals, were included and given higher score in the

prioritisation.

During the distribution of payment cheques, women were 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, special attention was given to ensure that girls were

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

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

important factor to convince parents to allow/encourage their children to attend the classes impacted

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

Out of 4,084 school-aged children reached under the project 1,907 girls (47%) and 2,177 boys (53%). The

proportion of Jordanian girls (45%) assisted through the project was slightly lower than the proportion of Syrian

girls (48%). Of the 28 teachers recruited in the project, 13 were women (46%).

J. RESILIENCE

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

to enhance the coping mechanism of the targeted children by a) promoting education and b) supporting

families with rent assistance. Although the resilience building component was challenging due to the protracted

nature of crisis (resulting in overcrowding of resources) and Government regulations (emphasis on temporary

nature of activities like cash for rent), within the timeframe of the project, special focus was made for building

resilience among the targeted beneficiaries. The education support provided (NFE) to children who were out of

school for a long period or with low academic performance enabled them to be referred and enrolled into

public schools. For the Jordanian children, the Cash support was used by the families to provide extra remedial

evening classes leading to improvement in the academic scores. The inclusion of refugee youth in education is a

step towards longer term resilience. In the long-term refugee communities need sustainable livelihoods to

secure self-reliance, safety and well-being. In light of this reality, targeted refugee youth initiatives have

emerged that help out of school young people to learn new skills and better prepare for employment.

The refugee tenants and landlords were supported to become more aware of the legal tenancy documents as it

was required to verify the tenancy and process payments to the beneficiaries. This awareness raising was a

direct and successful contribution to strengthened community resilience. Participants improved their individual

knowledge about rights and obligations, and the inter-community dialogue brought Syrians and Jordanians

together in a positive environment.

During Q6, the World Food Program (WFP) announced that it no longer had sufficient funding to continue

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

reduced and in many cases withdrawn. The minimum expenditure basket revised calculation in July 2015

identified 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)

Following the reduction of WFP food assistance support 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 conducted extensive

community mobilization. The targeted community was 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 were informed of the reason. Further, to avoid any unforeseen conflict, the distribution of

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

The payment for the Syrians were made directly to the Jordanian landlords. In some cases the Syrian families

found it difficult to bring the Jordanian house owner at specified date and time of the payment distribution. As

an unintended consequence; this could cause tension and stress among them. IRJ remained in close

coordination with the beneficiaries to be aware of any such cases. These were resolved on case to case basis by

utilizing number of options including but not limited to rescheduling of payment distributions; distribution at

ICCS centers and in some cases payment to Syrian by verifying the ID card of Jordanian land owner.

L. BRANDING

Media related activities for this project include case studies, documentary videos, and photographs. IRJ

followed DFID branding guidelines to ensure proper visibility through the display of banners (having DFID logo),

pictures and case studies. Before taking a picture or conducting an interview, IRJ media team ensured to take

verbal consent from the beneficiaries. In case of children, consent was taken from their parents/teachers.

Plaques were placed at ICCS centers that acknowledge DFID’s contribution and funding of this project.

Information about the project was shared on local radio in connection with the open days for beneficiary

children. In addition, IRW featured information about the project on its website and in various publications.

Media materials are available on IRJ’s social media sites and hard copies will be shared with DFID Jordan.

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

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

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.937451119642202.1073741970.408212529232733&type=3 http://www.irdigital.org/?c=2847&k=b84e1bb15c