ILO and UNICEF Joint Midterm Independent Project Evaluation of “Towards an Inclusive National Social Protection System and Accelerating Decent Job Opportunities for Syrians and Vulnerable Jordanians”

• Country: Jordan
• Summary: ILO and UNICEF Joint Midterm Independent Project Evaluation of “Towards an Inclusive National Social Protection System and Accelerating Decent Job Opportunities for Syrians and Vulnerable Jordanians”
• JOT Ref No: 69837779
• Deadline: 21 Aug 2022
• Financier: World Bank (WB)
• Purchaser Ownership: Government
• Tender Value: Refer Document
• Notice Type: Tender
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• Description:
• Tenders are invited for ILO and UNICEF Joint Midterm Independent Project Evaluation of “Towards an Inclusive National Social Protection System and Accelerating Decent Job Opportunities for Syrians and Vulnerable Jordanians” in Jordan Jordan-s geographical location made it the third country in the Region in terms of hosting Syria refugee influx since 2011. As per the official data, in 2021, Jordan hosted around 672,952 Syrian refugees registered under the UNHCR-s mandate. However, the total number of Syrians is estimated at around 1.3 million, when taking the unregistered Syrian refugees into account. That same year, Jordan-s population was estimated at approximately 11.06 million, with registered Syrian refugees comprising a 6.1 percent share of Jordan-s entire population. This rate is even higher when considering unregistered refugees, with Syrian-s comprising an approximate 11.8 percent of the country-s population, taking a major toll on the country-s economy, infrastructure, and social landscape. According to Jordan-s Department of Statistics, in 2010, prior to the Syrian conflict, Jordan had a labour market participation rate of 63.5 percent among men and 14.7 percent among women. Unemployment rates stood at 12.5 percent of the Jordanian labour force, with a higher average for females and youth, at 21.7 percent and 28.1 percent respectively. Based on recent data, in 2019 15.7 percent of Jordanians were living below the national poverty line, compared to 14.4 percent in 2010, as the pressure of the Syria crisis, and deteriorating economic conditions translated into increased poverty. Over the past decades, Jordan has progressed in developing its social protection system. At present, the different social protection programmes implemented can be categorised as social assistance, social insurance, labour market interventions, the fiscal subsidy system and food security/nutrition programmes. Several amendments of the Social Security Law over the past decade helped to expand coverage. Social security is obligatory for all working entities, and in 2014, Jordan was the first country in the Middle East to ratify the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) (ILO, 2020b). In 2019, the Jordanian Government embarked on a process of developing a new National Social Protection Strategy - NSPS (2019-2025) under the leadership of the Ministry of Planning & International Corporation (MoPIC) and the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) with technical support from UNICEF at that time. The strategy represents a recent effort towards the formulation of a comprehensive national policy for social protection, providing an overarching framework for the sector to maximize synergies and ensure effective integrated approaches by considering the following areas of the SP system: social assistance, social services, social insurance, and labour market policies. The NSPS aimed at a decent life for all Jordanians and is organized around three pillars: Pillar 1; Opportunities - decent work and social security, focuses on opportunities for families to be economically self-reliant through the labour market. Pillar 2; Empowerment - social services, focuses on the empowerment of the population through affordable education and health care as well as social services that support people with special needs. Pillar 3: Dignity - social assistance, focuses on targeted social assistance for the poor to maintain dignity. Within this pillar falls as well, the Takaful programme launched in May 2019, which seeks to expand the National Aid Fund (NAF) cash assistance provided to Jordanians and to provide complimentary services to the most vulnerable families nationwide (on energy, transportation, health insurance, and school feeding). This ILO-UNICEF Joint Programme serves to support the operationalization and implementation of the Jordanian National Social Protection Strategy (2019-2025), with a view to contribute to the achievement of a sustainable social protection system, in policy as well as institutional set-up, with strengthened links between social protection and employment for both Jordanian and refugee populations and enhanced outreach into the informal sector. Based on long-standing relations with the Jordanian government and other partners, lessons learned and extensive experience of both ILO and UNICEF in the area of social protection and employment promotion for youth as well as adults, women as well as men, Jordanian host communities as well as refugees, the project serves to achieve three outcomes: Outcome 1: Enhanced coordination, integrated planning and monitoring for government wide efforts in the social protection and employment sector. Outputs delivered serve to strengthen mechanisms for coordinated implementation of national employment and social protection interventions in the context of the NSPS. Outcome 2: Strengthened national systems/mechanisms to enhance access to labour market, decent work and employment based social protection schemes. Outputs delivered serve to provide support towards effective and cost-efficient implementation and realisation of access to employment (work permits), enhanced capacity for the implementation of mechanisms to ensure increasingly decent work (labour inspection) and access to social security expanded to workers in the informal economy. Outcome 3: Vulnerable Jordanians and Syrians transition from cash assistance to sustainable jobs. Outputs are directed towards the design and implementation of a graduation mechanism to support the transition of vulnerable people on cash assistance (provided by NAF and UNHCR) to employment, by providing and tailored package of services, delivered primarily by ILO and UNICEF service centres. The project is aligned with the Jordan 2025 National Vision and Strategy, government priorities, executive development program, and sectoral strategies and goals for the social development, health, education, labour, and other related sectors In addition, the Action will also contribute to: The HRD Strategy, and specifically the following objective: “By 2025, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant technical and vocational skills for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.” The 2018-2022 Economic and Growth Plan objective under the Labour sector - Restructuring and organizing technical and vocational education and training (TVET), by proposing and institutionalizing new forms of training, including On the Job learning and Apprenticeship. The National Employment Charter, and specifically the parts related to the graduation of NAF beneficiaries to sustainable jobs. The Jordan Response Plan National Youth Strategy Alignment with UN Strategic Development Framework in Jordan The Project matches the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDF) 2018-2022 commitments to support economic growth, job creation and quality service delivery in Jordan. Additionally, the 2018-2022 UNSDCF gives particular priority to serving youth, women and the most vulnerable, through strengthened institutions, empowerment and increased opportunities. This project will directly support the three interconnected outcomes. In particular, it will work with the NAF, SSC and MOSD, among others, to increase linkages in the area of social protection and employment, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of national systems. It will equally work at the local level to strengthen knowledge of social protection entitlements, and contribute to a culture of social protection, particularly among youth, women and persons with disabilities. Enhanced knowledge of rights is also a key objective of Jordan-s Vision 2025. Enhanced and targeted employment services will also facilitate greater work opportunities that cater to a variety of abilities and needs. The project will contribute to the following ILO-s P&B Outcomes (2020-21): Outcome 3: Economic, social and environmental transformations for decent work for all, but also to some extent to Outcome 5: Skills and lifelong learning to facilitate access to and transitions in the labour market In Jordan, the project will contribute to corresponding Country Programme Outcome (CPO) JOR105: Improved existing programmes to extend social security coverage through the progressive establishment of a national Social Protection Floor (SPF). Under the ILO 2018-2022 Decent Work Country Programme for Jordan, agreed with the tripartite constituents, the project will contribute to; Priority 1: Employment creation contributes to economic and social stability and Priority 2: Decent working conditions for all create a level playing field for male and female Jordanians, refugees and migrants, and more specifically Outcome 2.3: Sustainable and adequate social protection coverage is extended for all in need and contributes to formalizing the informal economy. The Joint Programme is led by the ILO (Lead Implementing Agency and Administrative Agent for financial management) and implemented in partnership with UNICEF. The project is headed by the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) for the ILO-s Programme of Support to the Crisis Response and receives technical and programmatic backstopping from the ILO Regional Office of Arab States on periodical basis. Purpose and Scope of the Evaluation Evaluation Background and Purpose ILO considers evaluation as an integral part of the implementation of development cooperation projects. Provisions are made in all projects in accordance with ILO evaluation policy and based on the nature of the project and the specific requirements agreed upon at the time of the project design and during the project as per established procedures. The Regional Evaluation Officer (REO) at the ILO ROAS supports the evaluation function for all ILO projects. Evaluation in UNICEF serves interrelated purposes in support of the organization-s mandate. It
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