"Interview: How Flawed Policies Lead to Flawed Technology, People Fall Through the Cracks of Jordan’s Automated Cash Assistance Program"

A program financed by the World Bank called Takaful, a word similar to “solidarity” in Arabic. Takaful distributes cash transfers to households based on their socio-economic status...

The algorithm uses 57 indicators to assess people’s economic vulnerability. These include household size, whether they own assets like cars, livestock, or businesses, whether they are a female or male head of household, and various aspects of the family home – say, its size, or the family’s electricity and water consumption.

Some of these indicators are quite problematic...

The algorithm [also] uses inaccurate data. When applying, you have to submit your income and expense figures. But applicants we spoke with said that your income has to be the same or higher than your expenses for your submission to go through. Yet the government insists that they allow people to list expenses that are around 20 percent higher than their income.

The government said it designed the system this way so that people couldn’t artificially inflate expenses to get more support. But for households applying for this program, expenses can far exceed what they’re bringing in. To cope, they do odd jobs, borrow money, take out loans, ask friends and family for assistance. There is no way to reflect this in the application. Instead, the system compels people to make up their figures if they are facing a significant shortfall.

The underlying problem is that this type of poverty targeting doesn’t work, and it undermines people’s right to social security and other economic and social rights...

Out of ten countries in the Middle East and North Africa where the World Bank has active projects, eight received World Bank loans to introduce or upgrade poverty targeting technology.

Also, the World Bank said that between 2013 and 2022, the number of countries operating poverty targeting technology jumped to 60 from 23. Automated poverty targeting in these countries could be affecting millions of people...

What we want is a fundamental shift in the way social protection systems are built. Using better technology and data to try and fix poverty targeting is like trying to replace the hubcaps when the wheels are falling off – a woefully insufficient way to address a fundamental flaw.

We want to see countries transition to universal social protection. In practice, this means all people in certain life situations get support, regardless of income or wealth. For example, all families with children below a certain age, or people with a disability, or people above retirement age, would be eligible for benefits. We are not ruling out targeting some programs based on socio-economic status, but these programs should be part of a comprehensive social protection system that supports everyone.