| Overview : In response to the present crisis, the Government of Jordan has requested the support of the donor community and the United Nations Development Programme to address the impact of the Syrian refugees on host communities, particularly in the Northern Governorates.
UNDP’s Program – Mitigating the Impact of the Syrian Refugee through Support to Host Communities – is funded from various United Nations agencies, the Swiss Development Corporation, the World Bank, DANIDA and the Governments of Japan and Kuwait as well as the USA. The program seeks to support the immediate livelihoods stabilization for vulnerable Jordanians in host communities as well as to provide the sustainable livelihoods opportunities to build resilience in host communities.
Towards this objective, UNDP-Jordan adopts a three-phased approach called “3X6 (three-by-six)”. The 3x6 is an innovative UNDP programme approach to promote sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable groups living in transition countries and/or affected by crises triggered by disasters or violent conflicts. The approach builds on elements of socio-economic interventions – putting both women and men to work, injecting money into local economy – while introducing innovative dimensions: promoting individual savings and engaging emerging entrepreneurs in joint economic ventures based on compulsory savings, promoting social cohesion by encouraging members of the community in all their diversity to organize themselves into collective economic activities and creating ownership at both individual and community levels through sharing risk investments.
In Jordan, the 3X6 approach is currently implemented in three municipalities in Mafraq governorate with targeting a total of 300 men and women. These selected three municipalities are the most affected municipalities as they are neighboring to Za’atari Refugee Camp which accommodates 54% of refugees out of a total of 158,296 refugees in Mafraq (UNHCR, June 2014). UNDP Jordan plans to expand the 3X6 project to additional two municipalities in Mafraq.
In this context, UNDP-Jordan aims to conduct livelihoods and economic opportunities mapping through an in-depth market assessment to identify the areas/sectors for the feasible and sustainable microbusiness development and employment creation in the targeted local communities in Mafraq. The list of promising commodities/sectors will be provided to the 3X6 project’s beneficiaries to develop their own business ideas based on such a feasibility study. At the same time, it will help employment creation through the sector-targeted vocational training in partnership with the private sector. |
