Policy Briefs
Does Social Protection in Jordan Ensure Coverage for Vulnerable Groups?
No.
PB 160
Publisher
ERF
Date
June, 2026
In a nutshell
- Jordan’s social protection system has made important strides since 2010, with effective coverage recovering to 63 percent of households in 2025 after a notable dip in 2016.
- Yet aggregate coverage masks structural gaps: access to contributory schemes remains strongly shaped by wealth, gender, household structure, and employment status, with poorer and female-headed households relying disproportionately on non-contributory assistance that is both limited in reach and declining in real value.
- Coverage disparities that persist across wealth, gender, age, and disability underscore that social protection outcomes are shaped by intersecting vulnerabilities rather than single factors.
- Jordan’s National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) 2025–2033 is a critical policy vehicle to address these disparities and coverage gaps towards realizing the ambition of a unified, inclusive and shock-responsive system.
- Achieving this ambition requires moving beyond aggregate coverage targets to track who is being left behind, stronger integration of employment and social protection policies, and sustained investment in reaching those who remain structurally excluded: the poorest female-headed households, women outside the labor force, informal and outside-establishment workers, own-account workers, disabled individuals, and the growing share of elderly Jordanians still living without any form of social protection benefit.
Authors
Ibrahim Al Hawarin
Associate Professor, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University
Research Fellows
Irène Selwaness
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics and Political...