The CARE Jordan 2022 Annual Needs Assessment is the eleventh installment of a series that dates back to 2012. The aim of the assessment is to identify, analyze, and track the needs, vulnerabilities, and coping mechanisms of host communities and refugees in Jordan. It is targeted at addressing knowledge gaps related to a lack of longitudinal data on the needs of vulnerable population groups.
CARE Jordan conducts these annual assessments for the benefit of all humanitarian and development actors with the objective of building a better response that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable populations in Jordan.
The assessment is structured around the following themes: protection, livelihoods, education, durable solutions and, for the first time in 2022, climate change. Gender equality is a cross-cutting theme of the assessment. There are also several assessment groups, defined as, Jordanian host communities, Syrian refugees (including both those in Azraq Camp and urban areas), other refugees and asylum seekers (including Iraqis, Yeminis, Somalis and Sudanese refugees) and vulnerable groups including people with disabilities, boys, girls, women and older people. Participants in the 2022 CARE Jordan Annual Needs Assessment live across the northern parts of the country in Amman, Azraq Camp, Azraq town, Irbid, Mafraq, and Zarqa. The Annual Needs Assessment is confined to the areas where CARE works.
Despite entering the post-pandemic period in 2022, Jordan’s most vulnerable are under great economic pressure. This has exasperated existing inequalities among those most at risk, leading to lost ground on the empowerment of women and girls, hardship and destitution, a rise in negative coping strategies, greater indebtedness and greater reliance on humanitarian assistance.
The number of daily COVID-19 cases peaked in February 2022 with the infection caseload subsequently declining and remaining low.[1] Nevertheless, the pandemic is having a long-term impact on the Jordanian economy. Headline inflation in the country reached 5% in November 2022, down from 5.2% the previous month. In addition, the unemployment rate in the country remains high at 22.6%.[2] CARE Jordan’s 2022 Annual Needs Assessment tracks the effect of these important trends and changes in Jordan on refugees and Jordanians.
Jordan’s most vulnerable are in a crisis of rising violence and continued mental health challenges. All types of violence have increased since last year as the pandemic has had a long-term negative impact on economic stability and the cost of living. An estimated 43% of households reported some form of violence in 2022, compared to 22% in 2021. The reported incidence of economic violence – defined as controlling an individual’s financial resources, employment or school opportunities in attempt to make them financially dependent[3] – increased from 10% to 22% of households from 2021 to 2022.
Reasons why respondents do not feel safe in their community and neighborhood
2021
2022
Mental health and wellbeing, as measured by an index of reported negative emotions (anger, apathy, fear, hopelessness and upset) deteriorated between 2021 and 2022 (albeit improving overall since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020). The Annual Needs Assessment team detected in focus group discussions that anxieties related to climate change and stress due to economic pressure were particularly common.
Refugee children, in particular, are facing emotional challenges. One Syrian woman spoke of her concerns for her son’s wellbeing after he was rejected for a university scholarship: “Syrian youth have no future in Jordan,” she said. Children with disabilities and refugee children from countries other than Syria face discrimination, bullying, and racism. Approximately 32% of boys and 30% of girls do not attend school.
Refugee children continue to be more likely to be behind in school than their Jordanian counterparts, with only 57% of Iraqi students, 48% of Syrian students, and 54% of other nationality refugee students are in the education level appropriate for their age group—compared with 90% of Jordanians. However, investments in integrating refugees and asylum seekers into Jordan’s classrooms, overcoming displacement and other barriers, appear to be paying off, with the proportion of children held back a grade at school decreasing over time.
Most families are struggling to make ends meet, with nearly nine out of ten respondents (88%) in debt and debt levels rising for all nationality groups surveyed.
Households with children who are not attending school
Entrepreneurship, one strategy for increasing household income, remains confined to only a small minority of refugees and vulnerable Jordanians. Out of the 2,540 households surveyed in this assessment, there were only 41 (1.6%) who owned their own businesses. This is a similar proportion to both 2021 and 2020.
Food and housing costs are rising. Average monthly expenditure in a Syrian household on food, for example, has risen by 11% from 2021 to 2022. Moreover, Jordanians pay an additional 10% for housing and utilities on average in 2022 compared to 2021.
Families’ dependency on humanitarian assistance is becoming more pronounced over time. In 2020, 17% of Jordanians listed cash assistance from humanitarian actors as their primary income source in 2020. By 2022, this proportion had increased to 30%. At the same time, Syrian refugees’ reliance on cash assistance rose from 16% in 2020 to 42% in 2022.
Cash assistance from humanitarian actors as
primary income source
Women are far less likely to be engaged in the paid workforce than men; Jordan’s female labor force participation rate is one of the lowest in the world. Most (62%) female respondents gave their main occupation as “housewife.”
There do appear to be small gains in gender equality, however. Since 2020, CARE’s Annual Needs Assessment has measured agreement with the statement: “It is shameful for the family when women have to work.” In 2020, 14% of all respondents agreed with the statement, which decreased to 11% and 9% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
If you set a goal, the obstacles will be removed, and my goal is to include other women in my project.”
– Noha, 43, learned to make candles in a CARE training course and now sells them on Facebook and at bazaars
Refugees in Jordan continue to see benefits to being registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Those surveyed by CARE in 2022 were most likely to view access to World Food Programme food vouchers and other humanitarian services as the most important advantages of registration. The document and registration status of refugees varies by nationality. For example, only 7% of Iraqi refugees and 18% of other refugees (i.e., from Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen) have a Ministry of Interior (MOI) card compared to 87% of Syrian refugees in urban areas.
Preferred assistance
As in previous years, cash assistance remains the preferred modality of assistance for all assessment groups. In fact, the percentage of respondents who stated that receiving cash was their first preference increased from 51% in 2021 to 70% in 2022. Alongside reaffirming a preference for cash assistance, one recurrent theme in focus group discussions is the perception that humanitarian assistance is becoming scarce and increasingly inadequate due to rising living costs.
Access to reliable electricity and fuel remains a top concern for refugees in both urban and camp settings, particularly with more extreme temperature fluctuations. Participants also expressed concern for water scarcity, rising food insecurity, and poor water and sanitation facilities. Health assistance remains a top protection concern for refugees, especially vulnerable groups, such as older people and people with disabilities.
Violence at home and in the community
Preferred type of assistance
Focus group participants suggested that the reasons for increases in gender-based violence (GBV) include increased cost of living and economic hardship. Inflation and higher living costs have generated stress and tensions within the household. This has, in turn, increased cases of domestic violence among both refugee and Jordanian families.
Iraqis and other refugees and asylum seekers in Jordan have specific needs and their own challenges. They are less likely than Jordanians and Syrians to feel safe in their communities. Most notably, 18% of Iraqi respondents felt unsafe in their local areas, compared to only 9% of Jordanians and 6% of Syrians. Reported feelings of being unsafe due to discrimination rose incrementally from 33% in 2021 to 36% in 2022. Other refugees/asylum seekers were more likely to report feeling discrimination compared to Syrian and Iraqi refugees: 22% of this group reported feeling discriminated against, as compared to only 5% of Syrian refugees.
While a majority of Syrians who live in urban areas (87%) have an MOI card, the majority of other refugees do not. Only 7% of Iraqis and 18% of other refugees reported holding an (MOI card. Without this documentation, refugees are unable to access particular benefits or assistance from the government.
Although a majority of women (76%) stated they feel safe seeking help if they experience violence, and a similar proportion (73%) know how to report violence, many focus group participants highlighted key barriers to speaking out when experiencing GBV including social normalization of violence, lack of family support, shame for reporting, and the fear of consequences for reporting. The reasons respondents gave for not feeling safe at home has changed since 2021; an increase in financial violence reflects protection concerns about economic hardship and scarce employment opportunities. Similar to findings in 2021, lack of income continues to strain individuals’ sense of protection.
Family members who answered “no” when asked if they feel safe and protected in their local community and neighborhood (%)
People with disabilities and older people
There are gaps in the provision of services to people with disabilities and older people. Less than 9% of participants in Amman, less than 7% in Irbid, 4% in Mafraq and 5% in Zarqa reported available services for older people and people with disabilities. Households with a person with disabilities were less likely to agree that activities and support were available for both older people and people with disabilities. However, 55% of respondents in Azraq Camp and 35% in Azraq Town suggested services are provided for older people.
One older male stated, “Old people cannot work, there is a discrimination against older people, where a person who is more than 45 years old will not be given any work opportunities.”
Without access to specialized activities and recreational activities, older people and people with disabilities are at higher risk of having a poor quality of life. Households with older individuals (76%) reported that the older people in their families most often spend their day doing nothing or praying. Similarly, 64% of households with people with disabilities reported that people with disabilities “do nothing all day.”
Of those surveyed, three out of ten respondents (31.4%) were unemployed. Some groups are much more likely to be unemployed than others.
Quality and secure jobs
Quality and secure jobs were largely unavailable for all assessment groups, irrespective of nationality or location. Reflecting this, only 8% of respondents were employed on the basis of a written contract, while 16% have an oral agreement with their employers and the remainder (76%) had no contract at all. Female participation in the paid workforce is low: 62% of all female respondents gave their main occupation as “housewife.” This compares to only 19% of male survey participants who said that their principal job was “househusband.”
Refugee access to formal employment is constrained. Moreover, there are inequalities related to the provision of work permits. Men are still more likely than women to have a work permit: 18% of male-headed households have one, compared to only 11% of female-headed households. Moreover, only 10% of people with a disability have a permit compared to 16% of respondents with no reported disability. As in previous years, the work permit system continues to favor Syrians over other nationalities. Approximately one out of five Syrian households (20%) in 2022 has a work permit, compared to only 3% of refugee/asylum seeker households from other countries.
Over half (51%) of all respondents report that they have no secondary source of income, with 17% of survey participants relying on borrowing money from informal lenders as a secondary income source. Only four respondents (out of a total of 2,540) said that they had savings. Approximately 6% of survey participants have a retirement plan or a pension. Males and females were equally likely to have savings or a pension.
Who is unemployed?
Financial inclusion
Financial inclusion is low for all assessment groups. Only 9% of households surveyed have a micro-finance or small business loan. The same proportion have access to a bank account. There is a lack of demand for financial products: more than one-third (35%) of respondents without a bank account said the main reason was, “I don’t want a bank account.”
Households have on average increased their indebtedness continuously since 2020. Nearly nine out of ten respondents (88%) are in debt. Debt has risen for all nationality groups. For Jordanians, the mean level of debt has increased to 2,993 Jordanian dinar (JOD) from a baseline of 1,000 JOD over the last two years. Likewise, only 14% of survey participants indicated that they were able to meet their basic needs through household earnings. Syrians are most likely among refugee groups to be able to fulfil their basic needs through household earnings—15% are able to do so compared to only 9% of Iraqis.
Entrepreneurship
There is some evidence that Jordan could better optimize and use the skills and work experience of refugees. Entrepreneurship continues to remain limited to a small proportion of the sample (see above). Women are more likely than men to be business owners: an estimated 3% of females who participated in the survey own their own businesses, compared to only 1% of men. Six percent of female survey respondents had home-based businesses in their countries of origin. This is double the percentage of female entrepreneurship in Jordan.
What barriers do you face in finding work?
When I stopped working two years ago, I was about to take Muhammad out of school because I was unable to make the payments.”
—The father of Muhammad, 12, an Iraqi refugee living in Zarqa
Gender and disability intersect to disadvantage boys with disabilities in school. About one-half of boys with disabilities are not in school, while only about one-tenth of girls with disabilities have dropped out. Families with children with disabilities have requested physical accommodation (for example, transportation support) (50%), financial support (41%) psychosocial support (39%) and accommodative equipment and assistive devices (32%).
Child Labor
Boys are more likely than girls to drop out of school for work activities. In this assessment, males (4%) were found to be more often engaged in work activities than female children (2%) of those who were not attending school. Notably, a higher proportion of Iraqi girls (6%) and refugees/asylum seekers from other countries (8%) were working, compared to only 1% Syrian and Jordanian girls. With increased living costs, inflation, and food prices, vulnerable communities are relying on negative coping strategies such as removing their children from school so they can participate in the labor force. In addition to reducing education attainment, child labor remains a key protection concern for children in Jordan. Working in the informal sector, children are particularly vulnerable to working long hours and heavy manual labor.
In addition to external factors to school attendance, respondents highlight that poor quality of education continues to impact education. Post-pandemic, parents in focus group discussions stated that online education “left scars” which has affected their trust and the perceived quality of the education system. Respondents in all locations indicated students’ need for remedial support due to lost teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barriers to education
Financial barriers remain a key barrier to accessing education for boys (55%) and girls (60%) of school age. Increases in living costs and limited economic opportunities within households constrain the family’s ability to find available funds for transportation (in urban areas) and pay for uniforms or books (in both areas).
Respondents in both urban and camp settings identified the poor physical conditions of the school environment as a factor contributing to a reduced quality of education. These factors include overcrowding, dirty classrooms, poor water quality and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. These physical barriers affect 11% of girls, and 10% of boys.
Barriers to attending school for children with disabilities
Bullying and harassment also contribute to reduced quality of education: 24% of respondents stated their child has experienced harassment or abuse at school. This remained consistent across sex and nationality. Focus group discussions show that children and youth with disabilities also face discrimination and harassment at school.
Educational Achievement
Educational attainment has improved. Iraqi (43%) and Jordanian (42%) respondents were slightly more likely to describe educational performance as higher, than were Syrians (37%) and other refugees (38%). On average, 40% of all respondents described their children’s educational performance as “good.”
Vocational training remains limited in Jordan. Only 13% of households with young people and 7% of youth with disabilities participated in vocational training. However, in focus group discussions, participants highlighted an interest in vocational training and suggested that digital skills for content creation, online marketing or e-commerce were perceived as most useful in creating a livelihood. Financial barriers continue to be the greatest challenge to both vocational studies (83%) and university (70%). This remains constant across age, disability, and gender. Scholarships for higher education are limited and highly competitive, further contributing to diminishing interest in these educational opportunities within vulnerable communities. However, 75% of participants perceive higher education as improving employability.
Attitudes towards the need for girls to be educated before marriage differed between locations. Respondents in Zarqa (41%), Irbid (35%), and Azraq Camp (30%) were the most likely to agree that a primary education was enough to qualify a girl for marriage. In contrast, fewer individuals in Amman (16%), Azraq Town (18%), and Mafraq (15%) agreed with the statement that “having a primary education can qualify a girl for marriage.”
The overwhelming preference for all refugee groups in Jordan is for third-country solutions to their displacement. This inclination has become more pronounced over time. In 2022, 64% of all respondents said that their preferred durable solution was to emigrate to a third country or apply for resettlement, up from 57% in 2021 and 35% in 2020. Local inclusion in Jordan is increasingly less popular: only 33% of respondents said that this was their preferred durable solution in 2020, compared to 40% in 2021 and 58% in 2020.
Reasons for wanting to leave Jordan
The most important push factors leading refugees to want to leave the country are related to economics, livelihoods, and education, with protection and family reunification considered less important. Two-thirds of respondents cited financial and economic factors (such as an ability to access work permits or quality employment). Nearly half of the individuals surveyed said their preference was related to livelihood considerations (for example, job opportunities or business ownership). Only a quarter of respondents were influenced by protection considerations. People with disabilities were much more likely (at 44%) to say that their personal circumstances had deteriorated since arriving in Jordan, compared to 32% of people with no reported disability.
Preferred durable solution for respondent and household
Most refugees (64%) stated that their relations with Jordanians were “mostly positive” while a further 34% of respondents described relations as “neither positive or negative.” Only a negligible proportion (2%) said that relations were “mostly negative.” An estimated 21% of respondents agreed with the statement that “over the past year, tensions between Jordanians and refugees have increased” while over half (54%) disagreed. A large proportion (58%) of Jordanians think that refugees have had no impact on their lives or the lives of their family. Housing and employment were the most commonly cited areas affected by the presence of refugees.
Resettlement program
The resettlement program suffers from too much demand, as well as a lack of trust and accountability. In focus group discussions, one recurrent theme was that the selection criteria for resettlement was unclear or perceived as a “secret.” Participants reported that it was unknown why they had not been selected and this lack of clarity leads to discord between households. The resettlement application process was also described as slow and some participants reported making complaints to the UNHCR hotline about the process and receiving no response. Over half (55%) of those surveyed do not know if they are eligible for resettlement.
This project saves water, and a home garden can be built in every house to be self-sufficient.”
—Abdul Ghani Khalaf, 39, is a Syrian refugee living in Azraq camp who has been instrumental in developing a hydroponics project to grow fresh vegetables
Jordan is ranked 68 out of 181 countries in the Climate Change Vulnerability index, with 1 being the least vulnerable.[4] Jordan faces several climate‑related shocks and stressors, including significant temperature increases, rainfall decline, and increased incidents of drought. It is among the most water-poor countries in the world.
Health and wellbeing
Participants in the CARE 2022 Annual Assessment—both refugees and Jordanians—are concerned and are affected by climate change. A higher proportion of respondents from Zarqa expressed climate change as a concern (83%) compared to 55% in Irbid and Mafraq. Attitudes about climate change differed between vulnerable groups: 73% of Jordanians perceived climate change to be a major concern, while 62% of Iraqis, 66% of Syrians and 67% of other refugees and asylum seekers agreed with this concern.
An increase in extreme heat and extreme cold temperatures were the most common environmental changes noticed by respondents in the last five years. More (60%) respondents reported an increase in extreme heat temperatures over the last five years, compared with 53% who reported an increase in extreme cold temperatures. Other climate events (i.e., severe rainfall and storms) were perceived as unchanged.
Participants highlighted a range of negative impacts of climate change on health, emotional wellbeing, and natural resources. A majority (66%) of respondents reported knowing someone in their community, their household, or they themselves who experienced health impacts from heat waves. In focus groups, refugees and vulnerable Jordanians mentioned an increase in headaches, allergies, inability to sleep, and an increase in diarrhea, dehydration and dermatological conditions among children due to the temperature extremes.
Extreme weather has impacted the mental health of…
Respondents also highlighted impacts on emotional wellbeing. A higher percentage of Jordanians (61%) compared to refugees (50%) reported knowing either someone in their community, household, or themselves directly as having negative emotional wellbeing due to extreme weather. These trends were related to being forced to remain indoors, fatigue from lack of sleep, boredom, and anxiety and stress related to loss of employment or natural resource scarcity.
Climate expectations
Almost half of respondents (48%) agreed that climate change has negatively impacted their household income. Jordanians (50%) and non-Syrian refugees (55%) were more likely to agree. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions highlighted that some professions will be impacted more than others. For example, agricultural livelihoods in particular have been affected by high temperatures and increased water scarcity, which has negatively influenced yields.
A majority of participants agreed that insufficient rainfall (62%) and an increased frequency of prolonged drought (61%) are highly probable in the future. However, these perceptions varied by location. More respondents in Zarqa (85%) and Azraq Camp (71%) agreed with this likelihood. Respondents expected that resources including water, agricultural, and other natural resources would be impacted by climate change in the future. In rural Zarqa, 92% of respondents were concerned that water sources will be impacted by climate change, and 95% agreed that agricultural sources will be affected. In other regions, on average only two-thirds of respondents agreed on this impact.
Mitigating climate change
Overall, across the CARE 2022 Annual Needs Assessment sample, there was little awareness of how to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Only 45% of respondents believed they could use simple tasks at home to reduce their household risk to climate change. In contrast, 60% of participants in Azraq Camp believe that there is nothing humans can do to prepare for future weather events and their impact. Between half and 40% of respondents in urban areas reported they “don’t know” or neither disagreed or agreed with this statement. This suggests vulnerable communities are unsure about the impact of climate change and their ability to become climate resilient.
Television and WhatsApp/mobile SMS were identified as the two main sources of information on climate change by 50% and 30% of respondents, respectively. TV was also an important source for early warnings about potential disasters (30%), followed by social media (20%). Although the majority of respondents do not feel prepared for a climate change event (60%), they did feel confident in the ability of the government of Jordan (62%) and humanitarian organizations (73%) to assist in both prevention and mitigation strategies for future climate-related events.