Synopsis
In Jordan, a World Bank-supported Program for Results (P4R) has worked to increase formal employment—key to economic stability for families—for Syrians as well as Jordanians. Jordan improved regulations and employment conditions across many sectors, including the garment industry and agriculture, which also affected private sector entrepreneurship and boosted business creation significantly. Overall, the project improved a) access to formal work opportunities, b) access to entrepreneurship by reducing the burden of licensing, c) investment climate, and d) access to finance and formal banking. This all contributed to expanding women’s economic opportunities and access to work, especially with the promotion of improved access to childcare.
Beneficiary Quote
“The program is a recognition by the international community that Jordan is doing a global public good by hosting Syrian refugees and expanding their access to work. The program’s reforms and results covered investment climate and promotion, along with work formality, women economic opportunities, and financial inclusion to ensure that economic opportunities for Jordanians and Syrians are expended through employment and entrepreneurship amid economic shocks and limited growth.” - Omar Fanek
Director, Reform Secretariat, Jordan Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC)
“When I came to Jordan with my family in 2013, I worked in different professions, but mainly in supermarkets. At the beginning I worked illegally like all other refugees, but when I had the chance to get the work permit, I applied for it,” Hraki told The Jordan Times on June 2019. “[Now] I feel safe and I can look for a job anywhere with the work permit that I have. Many refugees still do not have permits, fearing that aid they receive from UN agencies will stop, but I obtained one and I still receive some aid,” he added.
Challenge
The Syria crisis, which entered its twelfth year in 2023, continues to be one of the most significant refugee crises in the world, with over 6.8 million Syrians in Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Jordan is currently hosting almost 1.3 million Syrians, most of whom are in cities and use existing social and physical infrastructure and services. The economic challenges of the Syrian refugee population in Jordan have been exacerbated by several external shocks that affected economic growth over the past decade, including the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the economy has not been able to create the large number of productive jobs required to meet the needs of its young and fast-growing population. The situation of most Syrians living in Jordan is highly precarious. A large proportion of refugee households are headed by women and are considered extremely vulnerable.
Approach
Launched in 2016, the World Bank Program-for-Results (PforR) titled Economic Opportunities for Jordanians and Syrian Refugees has been supporting the implementation of the economic opportunities component of the Jordan Compact, an agreement that brings together concessional financing from multiple partners to provide support for Jordan as a host country for a large number of Syrian refugees. Ongoing implementation of the Economic Opportunities PforR initiative has been instrumental in executing the economic opportunities facet outlined in the Jordan Compact, which was established during the "Supporting Syria and the Region" Conference, which took place in London in 2016).
The overarching project encompassed a spectrum, with major areas of focus including policy enhancements to improve the investment climate and increasing access to finance, to transformations in the labor market for Jordanians and Syrian refugees, along with improvements in the investment climate. In 2020, the Economic Opportunities PforR introduced pioneering measures aimed at enhancing flexibility in the labor market for Syrian refugees and fostering economic opportunities for all, with a special emphasis on fostering women's economic participation.
An important pillar of the project was to enhance the access of refugees to the labor market through issuance of work permits, including flexible work permits which grant Syrians the flexibility to work in various occupations and sectors. The project also aimed to promote financial inclusion, which is vital to enable families and businesses to plan for long-term goals and unexpected emergencies. As account holders, people are more likely to use other financial services, such as credit and insurance, to start and expand businesses, invest in education or health, manage risk, and weather financial shocks, which can improve the overall quality of their lives. Therefore, the project worked to promote expansion of bank accounts and e-wallets for Jordanians and Syrians alike. The Central Bank's flexible “e-Know Your Customer” measures, digitization of humanitarian cash transfers, and comprehensive communication campaigns contributed to this boost.
With regard to enhancing women’s economic opportunities, the Jordan National Commission for Women executed three impactful campaigns addressing women's work.
These campaigns disseminated information about legal rights at work, and details on labor and financial rights, particularly targeting Syrian women. One of the campaigns employed a behaviorally approach to promote greater involvement of men in childcare responsibilities. The government of Jordan also worked to expand child-care options by reforming the process for licensing childcare facilities; the bylaw on nurseries, introduced in 2024. The new bylaw adopted a progressive licensing process with streamlined conditions and less stringent requirements for home-based childcare. It also allowed childcare centers to provide after-school care for children above the age of five years and allowed the licensing of childcare operators who can operate childcare facilities at workplaces. These reforms are expected to encourage the growth of childcare services.
The project supported improvements in labor and environmental regulations, including through the disclosure the of Better Work Jordan dashboard to promote compliance with labor and environmental standards, and creation of a new IT system in 2022 to help the Ministry of Labor improve labor inspection practices. A new law for the Greater Amman Municipality helped facilitate the creation of home-based businesses (HBBs) and significantly reduced the licensing burden for all types of businesses in the capital city of Amman. A new Code of Governance Practices for Policies and Legislative Instruments in Government Departments bolstered the predictability of business regulations.
Results
The government program, backed by the Economic Opportunities PforR operation, has had a profound impact on job and entrepreneurship opportunities for both Jordanians and Syrian refugees. In 2021, the estimated number of Syrians engaged in formal or informal employment exceeded 162,000. The labor component of the initiative directed partners toward a distinctive approach to formalizing Syrian labor, introducing progressive flexible work permit schemes based on an expanded Labor Force Survey. Work permits for Syrians increased from 45,000 in 2019 to over 90,000 in 2023, with a cumulative total of 340,000 work permits issued free of charge.
Additionally, the program removed restrictions in the tailoring, food, and crafts sectors to facilitate the establishment of more home-based businesses (HBBs) by Syrian refugees, with a particular focus on women-owned HBBs. This initiative resulted in the official registration of over 4,900 HBBs.
Financial inclusion for both Syrians and Jordanians also improved. By January 2024, the number of E-wallets and basic bank accounts reached 2.9 million, including 929,360 for women—a significant increase from the 2020 baseline of 620,000, of which 202,000 were for women. The number of E-wallets for Syrians in the same period surged to 178,419, compared to the 2020 baseline of 18,000.
Campaigns promoted women’s economic opportunities and women benefited from initiatives to promote financial inclusion and HBBs. To further promote employment opportunities for women, the Ministry of Labor diversified employer-provided childcare modalities, while the Ministry of Social Development increased the number of e-licensed and operational childcare facilities to over 1,000.
Improvements in regulations catalyzed results; in particular the disclosure of the Better Work Jordan compliance dashboard catalyzed a remarkable shift in the exporting garment sector. The number of factories fully compliant with labor and environmental standards soared from two to 22 out of 84. Moreover, the Ministry of Labor, backed by its new IT system, conducted over 16,000 inspections by September 2023. Since September 2019, over 70 percent of legislation applied to the private sector followed predictability processes.
One World Bank in Action
Institutions from across the World Bank Group collaborated to deliver technical assistance to the government of Jordan. For example, the work on the bylaw for nurseries was made possible through technical expertise provided to the Ministry of Social Development under an International Finance Corporation (IFC) project. Also, the World Bank and IFC participate in the multi-partner Prospects program, an international partnership that brings the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the IFC, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank together with the goal of improving the hosting and protection of refugees in countries in their region of origin. Prospects supported the Ministry of Agriculture to form and train a team focused on new market opportunities for fresh Jordanian produce, and investor attraction work for cold chain logistics infrastructure, given the link between agriculture and economic opportunities for Syrian refugees.
World Bank Group Contribution
The Economic Opportunities PforR benefited from an exceptional IDA allocation, which aims to continue supporting the government of Jordan in honoring its commitments to the Jordan Compact. The allocation has also supported the ambitious reform and growth agendas set by the government of Jordan since June 2018. The IBRD’s net commitment is 149 million, and IDA’s commitment is 200 million. The project started with a total funding of $300 million, including $149 million in IBRD commitment, 100 million in IDA commitments, and $51 million in grants from the Global Concessional Finance Facility (GCFF). The program was expanded in 2020 and benefited from an additional 100 million in IDA allocations.
Partnerships
As the Economic Opportunities PforR aligns with the economic opportunities component of the Jordan Compact, it was a collaboration between various government entities spearheaded by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. This collaboration extended to close partnerships with United Nations agencies and donors, facilitated through the Humanitarian-Development Partners Group dedicated to the refugee response in Jordan. The project also involved multiple government agencies in its implementation, encompassing the Ministry of Labor, the Jordan Investment Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Greater Amman Municipality, the Jordan National Commission for Women, the Ministry of Local Administration, the Central Bank of Jordan, the Ministry of Social Development, and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Looking Ahead
The PforR started in 2016, and as a result of the success achieved, the government of Jordan requested an extension of its duration, as well as an expansion of its scope through additional financing, which took place in 2020. This allowed for the project to expand the result areas to financial inclusion, women’s economic opportunities, and export competitiveness. Results related to women’s economic opportunities through expansion of childcare service and addressing social norms are part of the World Bank’s Jordan Country Partnership Framework for 2024-2029, and inform components of a potential future operation on women's economic opportunities.
