The brief explores the local communities’ understanding of the procedures enabling access to cash assistance provided by the government of Jordan during COVID-19 and makes recommendations that aim to improve access to aid programs during crises. It focuses on the benefits of an effective partnership between local CSOs and government entities and provides policy recommendations guided by insights from 11 local CSOs, members of the JONAF coalition, regarding issues faced by vulnerable individuals who apply for assistance to the Takaful program and the National Aid Fund.

This brief comes as part of the action research within the framework of the project “Strengthening the Capacities of Women-led CSOs in Evidence-Based Advocacy and Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda”, supported by UN Women with the generous funding of the governments of Canada, Finland, Norway, Spain, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom. ARDD would like to thank the civil society partners and individuals that supported the development of this study, which was carried out by the research team of the Al Nahda Thought Center.