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Municipal work empowers Syrian women refugees in Jordan [EN/AR]

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Jordan
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World Bank
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • An estimated 80% of the 1.3 million Syrian refugees in Jordan live in local communities.

  • Investments executed by municipalities provide job opportunities for women, both Jordanian and Syrian, which challenge gender stereotypes.

  • The Municipal Services and Social Resilience Project is expected to benefit 3 million people in Jordan, 17% of whom are Syrian refugees.

With a broom and scraper in her hands, 24-year-old Sabreen paves roadside curbs and sidewalks in a city in Jordan. She fled the Syrian conflict with her mother and two sisters in 2012 and started looking for work after her father abandoned them and remarried. Now she is the family’s sole breadwinner.

"I am constantly searching for a job," she said. "[Paving roadside curbs and sidewalks] is currently my only opportunity."

Deir Abi Sayeed, the city where she lives, is in the Jordanian northern Governorate of Irbid, not far from the Syrian border. Its mayor, Ibrahim AlAideh, said his municipality had embarked on maintenance projects like this one with funds from the Municipal Services and Social Resilience Project (MSSRP).

"This type of work was previously restricted to men, but we opened it up to women also" he said, adding that this was the first project to challenge the gender stereotype, in his city.

The MSSRP aims to support Jordanian municipalities affected by an influx of Syrian refugees to help them deliver services and create employment for both Jordanians and Syrians. About 110,000 working days are expected to be created under the project, with Syrian refugees making up about 17% of the estimated 3 million beneficiaries.

Jordan is the second largest host of refugees per capita in the world, with a ratio of 89 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants (UNHCR, 2018). According to its census data, Jordan hosted nearly 1.3 million Syrian refugees in 2015. Refugees made up 14% of the country’s population, 80% of whom lived in Jordanian communities. The refugee crisis led to increased pressure on services, reducing overall access and quality of services in the country. Perhaps more importantly, there is a perception among Jordanians that the Syrian refugee crisis is partly responsible for rising unemployment.

In 2017, the country’s Department of Statistics calculated unemployment at 18.2%—splitting it into almost 14% for men and 33% for women. Recent World Bank figures estimate female labor force participation in Jordan at 14%, the lowest in the region.

Most of the country’s Syrian residents are struggling financially. According to UNHCR 85% of Syrian families in Jordan live below the poverty line, 81% live outside of camps and 50% are children.

To help combat the challenges Jordan faces, the MSSRP is now being implemented with support from the International Labor Organization. Within the project, an Innovative Fund for competitive grants requires a minimum of 30% of labor content, by adopting labor-intensive techniques. Municipal proposals under the project’s Innovation Fund receive preferential rating if they demonstrate female inclusion in the labor force. The project also adopts standards for decent work conditions, including ensuring fair daily wages and a safe working environment, especially for females. Furthermore, a minimum of 60% of the approved competitive grants is intended to benefit primarily women and youth.

From refugee to worker

The harsh life of being raised in a time of war in Syria forced Sabreen to leave school when she was a teenager in 9th grade. However, this did not deter her from leaving Al-Za’tari Refugee Camp where she initially settled. She later moved to the Kofer Al Ma’a area of Deir Abi Sayeed City to look for a job.

Her self-confidence enabled her to challenge society and the culture of shame inflicted on women for working side by side with men in a daily job. "The work is not hard; I only need to put the grouting [plaster] between the tiles to ensure water won’t leak under the curb," she said. Channeling a belief that work will improve her life, she said she had convinced other Syrian girls to link up and work too.

Sabreen now feels she is part of the Deir Abi Sayeed community. She has felt happier and more fulfilled since meeting other Syrian and Jordanian girls and is starting to communicate with them. Indeed, the story of Sabreen has had a ripple effect across MSSRP’s participating municipalities through demonstrating the large room for inclusion of women in the labor force in activities that have been largely considered male-dominant.

Deir Abi Sayeed Municipality is one of 21 municipalities that have received block grants under the on-going MSSRP. Block grants are provided to Jordanian municipalities that are currently hosting the largest percentages of Syrian Refugees, where funds are used to deliver community-prioritized municipal and social services. Deir Abi Sayeed Municipality has received a grant of around US $665,000 in Jordanian dinars. Within that, maintaining roadside curbs and sidewalks was granted the equivalent in dinars of around US $225,000.

The MSSRP is funded by the governments of United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States Agency for International Development, and administered by the World Bank. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Local Administration with technical assistance from the Cities and Villages Development Bank. All in all, 21 municipalities across Jordan are benefiting from the project. MSSRP has total commitments of US$32 million, and constitutes a Second Additional Financing to its predecessor, the Emergency Services and Social Resilience Project (2013 – 2018), bringing the total contribution to supporting Jordanian host municipalities since the launch of ESSRP until now, close to US$100 million.