Primary and Secondary Contact (Name/Email/Phone Number)

Proposal

Organisation details

1. Organisation and project name

Islamic Relief Worldwide-Jordan office
Conditional Cash Project for Vulnerable Syriansand JordaniansChildren in Irbid, Jordan

1. Primary and secondary contact (name/email/phone number)

Islamic Relief Worldwide
Mayumi Fuchi

Tel: 0121 622 0633
Islamic ReliefJordan
Ruba Jayyousi

Programme Manager
Tel:-00962-798300160

1. What are the goals of your organisation and to what codes of conduct do you adhere?

Islamic Relief is committed to achieve the below goals:-
•Enable communities to mitigate the effect of disasters, prepare for their occurrence and respond by providing relief, protection and recovery.
•Promote integrated development and environmental custodianship with a focus on sustainable livelihoods
•Support the marginalised and vulnerable to voice their needs and address root causes of poverty.
Islamic Relief Jordan is committed to Sphere Standards in Emergency Response and HAP 2010 Standard in Accountability and Quality Management.

1. What are your organisation’s main source(s) of funding?

Islamic Relief Worldwide has been responding to the Syrian humanitarian crisis in Syria as well as its neighbouring countries includingJordan,Lebanonand Iraqsince March 2011. IRW has assisted more than 1 million refugees and IDPs across the region, and its commitment is to target those who are most vulnerable and in most need, with particular focus on women-headed households, pregnant women, elderly, orphans, families with big number of children, families with disabled persons and others.
Islamic Relief Jordan (IRJ) began its operations in 1997 with orphan’s sponsorship, sponsoring hundreds of orphans living in Jordan. IRJ extended its programs to seasonal projects with Ramadan and Qurbani distributions and In-Kind donations. At the onset of Syria humanitarian crisis in late 2011, IRJ provided emergency response to those affected by violence in Syria and has since then scaled up its capacity and operations with number of 110 staff across the country. IRJ is now the lead agency responsible for humanitarian assistance in Irbid and Mafraq, reaching 180,000 refugees providing food, health care, cash for shelter and non-food items such as hygiene kit and winterization items. With an annual fund of 37 million GDP, IRJ plays a critical role in supporting Syrian refugees living in the urban and rural settings.
Funding details

1. What is the total proposal cost? Is advance or in arrears funding required?

2,000,000 GBP is the total cost of the project. There is no advanced payment required.

1. How much and what percentage of funding is: requested from DFID; from other donors; and from your organisation? What is the status of applications to other donors?

IR Jordan has secured funding from the following donors for the programme:

• Disaster Emergency Committee: 299,400GBP, the fund has been secured. Phase one has been completed on September 2013reaching 1060 individuals. Phase 2 has started in October 2013 with duration of 8 months.
• Islamic Relief Private Funding:408,400 GBP, the fund is secured. Implementation will be in coordination with UNICEF and will start as soon as UNCIEF obtains approval from the Planning Ministry.
• Sweket Mubrak: A private donor who donated 65,800GBP. The project has been completed in 15.9.2013 benefiting 765 individual

Fund requested from DFID is 2,000,000 GBP

1. List any DFID funding your organisation has received in the same country over the last three years and currently has in active use.

None
Project details

1. Name of project and region/country/district it is in (annexed map(s) or links to map(s) are useful)

Name of the Project: Conditional Cash Project for Vulnerable Syrian Children in Irbid, Jordan
The project will be implemented in Irbid covering all sub district where refugees reside in

Picture 1: Jordan Map

1. What is the scale of the project: length (including start and end date); number of beneficiaries to be reached; staffing levels required; and what is the exit strategy?

The project will last for two years, starting in January 2014 untilDecember2015.The project will require a programme teamas below:-

• Overall project manager who will be responsible for the overall project implementation
• Shelter programme manager and assistant to coordinate shelter rent component
• Social worker who will identify the needs, conduct door to door visitand promote education awareness;
• Two social worker assistants who will support with data entry and field visits.
• Monitoring and evaluation manager
• Finance officer
• Driver

Exit Strategy
The project is designed for two years – midtermduration to encourage children to go to school and promote education among parents. The project is designed on two phases, with each phase lasting for one year. In the first year, 2,350 children will be targeted and throughout the year there will be close follow up on their academic performance. The project will provide support as necessary and in case of not committing to the programme, IRJ with its partners will analysereasons for not being able to commit and aim to introduce further interventions to engage more families and children into education. By the end of the 1st year, it is expected that 65% of the 2350 children will be receiving education services. In the second year, IRJ will continue working with the same families and beneficiaries who still meet the vulnerability criteria and financially struggle to cover tuition. It is expected that 50% of the targeted beneficiaries and their families will no longer need financial assistance (the number will be revised based on year one review data). Thus, IRJ will provide the opportunities to additional new 1,175 beneficiaries to benefit from the project.

1. What problem will this project address? How will the project do this and how have the needs been identified? What is the counterfactual? Do these needs relate to the priorities outlined by DFID?

Overall Problem Statements
Over the last year, the crisis in Syria has gradually evolved into a complex humanitarian situation characterised by increased internal displacements, destruction of infrastructure, economic decline, a slow-onset crisis in food insecurity, and use of chemical weapons. Humanitarian needs have risen from 4.25 million people needing aid in December 2012 to 6.8 million people, with almost half of this increase occurring in the first four months of this year alone. The scarcity of livelihoods, income, and access to basic services in their home towns and villages, coupled with lack of security, has resulted in significant increase in internal displacements and IDPs. Thus, there is a paramount need to strengthen the resilience of affected populations.
In Jordan, there are 552,048 refugees as of 29 October 2013, with an estimate of 75% living outside the camps andof 120,000 refugees in camp settings. It is estimated that those families living outside the camps are considered more vulnerable due to extra financial burden to pay basic needs including shelters and food. Thus, the need of financial assistance remains asthe main challenge for these families.

Chart 1: ; number of registered refugees dispersed in Jordan outside
Most Syrian refugees in urban and rural areas live in poor host communities that are themselves in need of support. Approximately 80% of the Syrian refugees are women and children under 18; and 1 in every 5 refugees household is female headed. This leaves most of the families poor and dependent on assistance due to absence of bread winners. With the influx of refugees, the capacity of local municipalities to provide essential services is stretched to maximum - schools are extremely overstretched and unable to absorb to the growing number of students from Syrian families. Opportunities for paid work are scarce, as the government has prevented Syrians to work. In urban and rural settings where the cost of living is high, registered refugees are provided with food assistance by WFP only, hence, with no stable income, they need assistance to pay rent (in order to maintain access to housing), pay down debts to landlords, and to remove the threat of eviction.
Through IR Jordan’s Rent for Cash Programme, the project team conducted home visits on more than 800 families for a detailed needs assessment and mapped refugees living in Irbid governorates. The needs assessment identified various needs of refugees–scarcity of income to cover basic needs and difficulty to access education are the two main challengesobserved across many refugees.The families reported anaverage income ofJOD168 (155 GBP) per month, with an average rental fees of JOD160 (140GBP), indicating that the majority of refugees are in continuous debts.
Furthermore, IR Jordan recently conducted focus groups with refugees to understand their ever-changing needs more in depth. In view of the continually growing humanitarian needs and approaching winter, the focus groups revealed that shelter security is one of the most urgent needs. They also noted that Islamic Relief responded quickly to their needs where rent coverage was arranged in a short period of time after home visitsconducted by IRJ social workers. The participants also sharedthat the majorityof Jordanian landlords are cooperative and understanding if payments were not made in a timely manner. Moreover, they disclosed their struggles to send their children to school, which will be explored further in the next section.
Needs in Education Sector
Having fled the crisis in their war-ravaged homeland with very little possessions and savings, hundreds of Syrian families are struggling to cope with extreme poverty and the harsh living conditions in neighbouring countries including Jordan. Many have had to put their children into inappropriate child labour due to scarcity of household income, resulting in no time for them to attend schools. Even those children who were fortunate to be enrolled in school are often turned away from overcrowded schools. The Ministry of Labour has identified 33,000 school leavers(Syrians children) working illegally in the labour market, and Islamic Relief has also identified 1417 children who do not go to school in Ramtha, Mafraq and Irbid.
The below chart explains why those children are not enrolled in schools:

Chart 3;Why Children are not enrolled in school(Islamic Relief Data)
According to Syria Refugees in Host Communities published by UNHCR Reach Assessment October 2013, approximately89% of the refugees live in an apartment; 77% in rented accommodation; 15% shared with others, 3% in temporary accommodation and 2% are hosted by Jordanian families. 64% ofSyrian children go to primary school while 34% go to secondary school. 74% of students are not going to school mostly due to far distance of the school.
Those children working are particularly vulnerable to wage exploitation, since they accept much lower wages than adults, and their parents are desperate for income. Due to intensified pressures from parents to work, the majority of boys and girls discontinued their education early in their secondary school. IRJ assessment also indicates that girls are more likely to work in rural settings alongside their mothers.A lack of access to education will result in future implication of uneducated generation who may be lost and trapped in poverty.
Through this project, Islamic Relief Jordanaims to fill the gap in the shelter and education sectors.Its expected impact is to contribute to poverty reduction, livelihood improvement, and increased access to education for Syrian refugees in Jordan. 3,525school leavers living in Irbid will be targeted to be enrolled in schools, formal and/or informal education whichever appropriate to circumstances of the children. To reduce financial burdens of families to send their children to school/other formal or informal education services, Islamic Relief will provide each family with JOD30 per each child referred, on a monthly basis. Families with two or three children will receive JOD60 and 90 respectively to ensure benefits are received fairly across IRJ’s beneficiaries. In the long run, this intervention will serve as a safeguard mechanism for families and their children against the poverty trap.
Project Methodology
The project team will carefully identify families who need assistance through validating their information through home visits and cross checking with other NGOs. In order to comply with the national standards of the Jordanian Ministry of Planning and to ease tensions between refugees and Jordanian hosting communities, 30% of the project’s beneficiaries will be vulnerable Jordanians living in Irbid.
Through this intervention, IRJ will also provide integrated coordinated services for Syrian refugees addressing their short-term and long-term needs. Working with UNICEF who are the lead of education cluster and its partners Islamic Centre Charity Society (ICCS) and Save the Children Jordan, IR will provide referral services to formal, informal and non-formal education.An agreement will be signed with ICCS who will be responsible for providing formal, informal or non-formal education to Syrians and Jordanians. IRJ will be responsible of paying each student’s family JOD30 (27.2 GBP) which will contribute to their rent. In return,ICCS and Save the Children Jordan will provide children with catch up classes to prepare them to go back to formal education, provide literacy courses for those who have never been to school,and refer those who are eligible to go back to school to public schools.
For the second year, the same level of outputs and outcomes will be achieved. In the ever-changing context of Syrian humanitarian crisis, IR Jordan will review and analyze the needs on the ground at the end of the first year to ensure that the project responds to appropriate needs. A review meeting will take place to reflect achievements of the first year and revise the activities for the second year as needs then might be different from the current needs of Syrian families.IR intends to support the same beneficiaries throughout the two years, however, new beneficiaries will be selected under circumstances below:
-Return to Syria
-Change their residence location.
-Provide inaccurate information.
-Student not committed to school attendance
-Family and students are no longer in need for financial assistance
-Families are committed to send their children to school.
Alignment with the priorities of DFID and other institutional donors
The project is aligned with DFID’s current priorities with focus on education and shelter sectors. This integrated project will not only support Syrian families who are struggling to pay rent but also will create opportunities for their children to go to schools otherwise. It is also expected that the proposed project will complement projects funded by themulti-donor trust fund that has been used to channel financial support to the Jordan government through World Bank. With an aim to help Jordan deal with its growing Syrian refugee population, this multi-donor trust fund has been contributing to address the additional burdens the country faces as a result of the ballooning refugee crisis.
The proposed project is also aligned with DFID's recent Lost Generation Initiative with particular emphasis on education to bring sense of normality back into children’s lives. Syrian children face numerous obstacles to continue their education, and their problems range from the practical (such as lacking textbooks and other educational materials) - to the intractable (such as choosing between paying rent or tuition). This project will offer conditional cash to such Syrian families who struggle to cover their basic domestic bills including rent, in order to save sufficient income for tuition and promote education for their children who are in danger of becoming a lost generation.
Lastly, the project lies complementary to Syrian Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (SHARP) and the Syrian Regional Response Plan (RRP) 5 which recognise the critical importance of addressing education and financial assistance to Syrian refugees while supporting hosting communities. Aiming to ensure longer term improvements in livelihoods, IRJ proposes to encourage Syrian parents to put their children to school by reducing financial burden on their rental fee and further provide both Syrian and Jordanian children with educational opportunities - i.e. literacy courses. IRJ strongly emphasizes the critical importance in complementing and filling gaps in humanitarian and development efforts among the humanitarian actors.

1. How have beneficiaries been identified? Why is assistance needed for this group at this time?

The project will target refugees living in Irbid - the second most populated area by Syrians in Jordan with significant numbers of children leaving/not attending school[1]. Irbid is one of the most affected cities facing overcrowdings of affordable dwellings, causingfurthertensions between host communities and refugees.
Beneficiaries have been identified based on IRJ’s detailed case assessments and vulnerability criteria. IRJ social workers conducted home visits to detail out the needs and assess eligibility of beneficiaries. A vulnerability criteria was developed by the IRJ project team, and it consists of several categories (family income, family size; gender of head household; number of elderly/sick/children in each household; household disability; receiving food voucher; social worker team recommendation).IRJ will follow strict measures to ensure most vulnerable are reached based on this beneficiary selection criteria.
The project will target;-

1. Female and male school leavers between the age of 7-16
2. Poor female household headed Syrian Refugees
3. Elderly People
4. Disabled people
5. School leavers between the age 7-16

Table 1: Beneficiaries to be received
First Year
Syrians / 1645
Jordanians / 705
Total / 2350
Second Year
Syrians-* / 823beneficiaries from Year 1 +823 new beneficiaries
Jordanians- / 352beneficiaries from Year 1 +352 new beneficiaries
Total / 2350
Total of beneficiariesyear 1+2 / 3525 (2350 from Year 1 + additional 1175)
*Note: For second year, it is estimated that half of the beneficiaries from Year 1 would no longer be eligible (due to relocation to other places, more financial capacity to send children to school etc), and thus additional beneficiaries are included.