Large Scale Informational Sessions - Financial Literacy for the Takaful Program

In 2019 the Government of Jordan (GoJ), through the National Aid Fund (NAF), launched the Takaful Program - the biggest national program for social protection in the history of Jordan - as part of the new National Social Protection Strategy (2019-2025). Initially, Takaful was a three-year project (2019-2021) that was later supplemented by the Unified Cash Assistance Program (2020-2023). The objective of the program was to enhance social protection and care directed at the underprivileged citizens of Jordan. It provides direct financial support to selected households across the kingdom, and the program's scope also encompasses health insurance, energy-saving projects, public transportation, and school food programs directed at children. The program is implemented with technical and logistical support from NAF's support partners: the World Bank, the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Higher Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), and the European Union (EU).

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Takaful was implemented in three phases: registration, home visit validations, and informational sessions. The third phase aimed to introduce all accepted beneficiaries to the basic principles of financial literacy and enroll them in either an electricized payment system of their choice (bank account or e-wallet) through which they would receive the aid.

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Supporting the first two phases of the program's implementation, Mindset was hired by WFP to conduct informational sessions in order to build the financial literacy of NAF's beneficiaries under the Takaful/Unified Cash Assistance Program. Upon receiving training on the different modalities of payment, our field team trained between 2,000 and 23,000 beneficiaries through in-person, virtual and phone sessions enabling them to access new financial resources and aid options. For each session, all beneficiaries were trained over just ten days. Participants received training on how to choose their preferred modality (e-wallets or basic bank accounts), how to use their modality, and how to sign up for their modality. Armed with new financial skills, participants were able to electronically access cash aid from NAF. This exercise was implemented in nine rounds over the course of the program, between 2019 and 2023.