ABSTRACT
The provision of formal micro-credit for refugees has been promoted as a dignified way to improve their ability to generate income through small-scale enterprises and reduce poverty. As humanitarian funding declines in protracted displacement situations, such approaches are sought to transform refugees into self-reliant, resilient, entrepreneurial agents who are no longer dependent on aid and can overcome a crisis with their own resources and financial confidence. The paper in hand questions this claim on the basis of new, comprehensive empirical insights on the financial lives of refugees in non-camp settings in Jordan. By applying the perspective of the credit users, not the suppliers, our evidence shows that the pervasive use of debt (mostly informal) does not signify latent demand for formal micro-credit. In a context where refugees face restrictions on right to work, move, set up businesses, and imagine a future in the host country, formal credit cannot improve self-reliance. The paper sheds light on a larger variety of sources of debt that are crucial for refugees to manage their lives. In conclusion, the paper argues that the rhetoric around micro-credit as a path to refugee self-reliance has to be re-visited as problematic, even damaging, and humanitarian actors should push this agenda with caution.
ABSTRACT
Emergency Ordinance no. 130 / 31.07.2020provides for 3 main forms of financial support from non-reimbursable external funds, related to the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014 - 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, for SMEs whose activity has been affected by the spread of the virus or whose activity has been prohibited by military ordinances during the state of emergency and / or during the state of alert: 1. Micro-grants granted from non-reimbursable external funds in the form of a lump sum;2. Grants for working capital granted to beneficiaries in the form of a lump sum and as a percentage of turnover;3. Grants for productive investments granted to SMEs, necessary for the expansion / rehabilitation / modernization of existing production capacities, the realization of new production capacities, the purchase of equipment, machinery and installations, as well as for the modernization, rehabilitation, expansion existing buildings or the purchase of buildings for new production activities, including for the purchase of land necessary for investments up to 10% of the value of projects subject to financing applications.