Impact by Regions, Countries & Territories

UNDP’s Global Programme supports crisis-affected contexts across all regions to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. In this section, we present five regional overviews, detailing our priorities and approach depending on the context, as well as feature select country and territory results from 2021.

Five contexts from the list (Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali and Yemen) illustrate the achievements of the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP). In peacekeeping missions and transition settings, UNDP’s Global Programme works through the GFP to deliver integrated assistance with our UN partners.

GFP Global Focal Point Highlights

Jordan

The issue of indebted women – gharimat – in Jordan became acute in 2017. While international human rights standards advise against this provision, Jordan remains one of the few countries that criminalizes debt. Since 2019, the deteriorating economic situation made the numbers of people in debt rise exponentially, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation even further. In 2021, the Minister of Justice reported that around 60,000 women were indebted, of which 23,000 were wanted for failure to repay loans not exceeding the equivalent of US$1,410.

UNDP supported women living in poverty in Amman and Irbid, enabling them to have improved access to and control over legal and financial resources addressing their socio-economic vulnerabilities. In 2021, the UNDP-implemented project “Gender justice to increase women’s economic opportunities and income” contributed to advancing SDG16+ and its key targets such as the improved access to justice, reduction of all forms of violence and building inclusive institutions.

To capacitate women, equip them with resilience tools and to prevent their imprisonment for unpaid debts, UNDP provided financial and legal assistance and advice to both women debtors and applicants for the microloans through two legal and financial counselling hubs based in Irbid and Amman. Forty women (30 Jordanians and 10 Syrians) reached out to the hubs to seek counselling for loans they had already contracted or to inform themselves about potential implications of the loan process. Twentynine women received information and counselling on loan policies in the hubs, while the eleven women in more complex situations were referred to legal service providers to get support with their existing loans.

Through the network of partners, UNDP collected the baseline data about the indebted women defaulting on loans and identified preventive strategies to avoid imprisonment for failure to repay debts. Having assessed the barriers to financial inclusion of women and vulnerable groups, UNDP identified pathways to unlock inclusive local economic development and increase socioeconomic resilience in Jordan. These include (i) leveraging social entrepreneurship through innovation and technology to advance women’s economic empowerment; (ii) developing a toolkit to support capacity development of women beneficiaries and loan officers on the small claims process in Jordan; (iii) supporting a national outreach campaign to advocate self-regulation best practices and innovative gender friendly financing products; and (iv) introducing inclusive community-based saving schemes.

Open day in partnership with the Tahfeez
Open day conducted in partnership with the Tahfeez for Entrepreneurship and Development Association in Irbid Governorate in Jordan to raise awareness on debts and offer legal counselling to women willing to obtain microloans.Photo: UNDP
  • 1 SDG16+ includes 12 targets from SDG16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and 24 targets from seven other goals that directly measure an aspect of peace, justice and inclusion.

Key Results: Jordan

40 women (30 Jordanians and 10 Syrians) received counselling for their loan situation in the two legal and financial counseling hubs in Amman and Irbid.

11 community organizers from two community-based organizations were capacitated to provide guidance and support to women willing to obtain a microfinance loan or those already indebted on the nature and legal implication of such loans.

164 women living in poverty received knowledge on legal and financial tools for their economic empowerment during an Open Day held by UNDP in Irbid to raise awareness on the financial and legal implications of microcredit loans.