Jordan has received thousands of Iraqis displaced by the invasion of 2003. Since 2007, the international community (donors, UNHCR and NGOs) has provided significant support to mitigate the effects of this situation. The current number of displaced Iraqis registered with UNHCR and requesting assistance is around 30,000 people.
Care has supported Iraqi refugees in Jordan since 2007. The aim of this support was described in a Care booklet in 2008:
“To support the restoration of competence and confidence of refugees in their period of displacement in Jordan through psychosocial programming that combines social counseling, material assistance support and community activities.”
The current ECHO project summarizes the program’s objective as:
“Assisting vulnerable Iraqis coping with their displacement in Jordan”
The support has included:
- Counseling, social work, eligibility assessment and advice for refugees,
- More specialized ‘case management’ (helping refugees access health and other services)
- Provision of material assistance (mainly non food items and cash assistance)
- Psychosocial and community development activities
- Training (e.g. livelihood, skills and language training)
Increasingly, the program is run in partnership with local Jordanian community charities (community based organizations – CBOs). The program therefore includes non food item (‘NFI’) distributions through CBOs and capacity building efforts and activities in the CBOs (training and infrastructure support, funding small community projects). A small proportion of the beneficiaries of the program have been poor Jordanians.
ISG, in partnership with Tandem Consulting, was tasked with providing an assessment of the impact of the Care refugee program on displaced Iraqi beneficiaries in Jordan.
