Why Poverty Targeting Algorithms in Jordan are Raising Concerns Over Human Rights

World Bank’s Poverty Targeting Algorithm in Jordan Undermines Rights

The World Bank, in collaboration with the Jordanian government, has developed a cash transfer program called Takaful, which aims to provide financial support to impoverished families in Jordan. However, a newly-released report titled “Automated Neglect: How The World Bank’s Push to Allocate Cash Assistance Using Algorithms Threatens Rights” by Human Rights Watch shows that the program is plagued with errors, discriminatory policies, and stereotypes about poverty. Many families in Jordan are missing out on cash transfers because their difficulties fall outside an algorithm’s flawed poverty model.

Flawed Targeting Excludes People from Cash Support

The Takaful program assesses families’ eligibility by first analyzing whether their income falls under the poverty line and whether they are headed by a Jordanian citizen. For households that meet these criteria, the program applies an algorithm that uses 57 socio-economic indicators to evaluate the family’s wealth and rank them from least poor to poorest. Cash transfers are distributed to households deemed poorest as available funding permits.

However, Human Rights Watch’s report argues that the algorithm is erroneous and fails to fully capture people’s economic hardships. For instance, owning a car less than five years old or businesses worth over 3,000 Jordanian dinars automatically disqualifies families from the cash assistance. Additionally, families that consume more water or electricity can also be less likely to qualify for support, as can families of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanian men, since these families would not be assessed as larger households under the program.

Discriminatory Policies and Stereotypes About Poverty

The report also revealed some discriminatory policies and stereotypes surrounding poverty that Takaful exhibits. The program ranks people based on their perceived level of poverty, which pits one household against another. This has added to social tension, triggering widespread perceptions of unfairness. For instance, a woman from Al-Burbaita in Tafilah, one of the poorest villages in the country, claimed that her family’s car played a role in the government’s decision to deny them aid.

Moreover, the algorithm assigns weightage to criteria to create the ranking, and not all the indicators assigned equal value. Human Rights Watch argues that some of these indicators fail to capture the complexity of people’s economic circumstances. As a result, the World Bank’s approach is depriving many Jordanians of their right to social security, leading to hunger, unpaid rent, and mounting debt.

Recommendations

Human Rights Watch recommends that the World Bank and the Jordanian government phase out their targeting approach based solely on income and socioeconomic status. Instead, they should establish a universal social protection system that ensures that everyone receives income support at key moments throughout their lives. The report claims that the shift to universal social protection can be facilitated by financing relevant technology, such as population registries and vital statistics databases.

In conclusion, the Takaful program in Jordan has been established to provide financial support to impoverished families. However, the automated cash transfer program is riddled with errors, discriminatory policies, and stereotypes about poverty, depriving many Jordanians of their right to social security. The World Bank and the Jordanian government should phase out their targeting approach on income and socioeconomic status and move towards a universal social protection system.