Jordan Times
Thursday, October 20, 2005
World Bank officials briefed
on Jordanians' views on assistance strategy
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — Opinions of ordinary Jordanians and
members of NGOs active in the rural and badia areas will be taken into
consideration in the World Bank's (WB) 2006-2009 strategy on the Kingdom,
currently being negotiated with the government.
The outcome of a series of dialogues, NGOs held with members and leaders of
local communities on the projected aspects of the strategy, was presented to
World Bank representatives at the Amman-based Queen Zein Al Sharaf Institute for
Development (ZENID) on Tuesday.
Joseph Saba, director of the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa region,
said his organisation, which builds its Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) on
priorities set by the targeted country, wanted to listen to ordinary people and
know what they think of the CAS components this time.
The World Bank prepares CAS for active borrowers, taking the country's own
vision for its development as its starting point, according to the WB website.
“Oriented towards results, the CAS is developed in consultation with country
authorities, civil society organisations, development partners and other
stakeholders. The purpose of the CAS is to set out a selective programme of Bank
Group support linked to the country's development strategy and based on the Bank
Group's comparative advantage in the context of other donor activities,” the
website says.
Saba said the WB would base its CAS on the National Agenda, which was drafted by
a committee set up by His Majesty King Abdullah earlier this year.
The National Agenda, which outlines the basics of the Kingdom's policy-making
for the coming 10 years, will release its recommendations soon.
Meanwhile, to ensure that a representative sample of Jordanians take part in the
effort, the WB resorted to the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Development (JOHUD),
the Jordan River Foundation and Noor Al Hussein Foundation, all active NGOs with
facilities spread across the Kingdom and easy access to local communities.
The three organisations held nine meetings in the various districts of the
country, WB officials told The Jordan Times. These included Taybeh in Maan,
Irbid, Ajloun, Zarqa, Wadi Araba, the Northern Badia and Madaba.
The WB strategy, in the version communicated to the participating Jordanians, is
based on four aspects. These are: Supporting local development and the creation
of income-generating projects for residents; enhancing the investment climate
within the context of a knowledge-based economy; reforming national aid,
especially the aid system run by the National Aid Fund (NAF), and restructuring
public expenditure and reforming the public sector.
Outlining their findings, leaders of the civil society institutions involved in
the survey told WB officials yesterday that Jordanians want decentralisation
through dividing the Kingdom into three administrative regions, opportunities
based on local resources and equality in the distribution of resources between
the districts, among other demands.
The local communities also demanded easy credit terms for small projects, more
foreign investment in their areas, sound coordination among the various state
agencies engaged in development efforts and separating NAF from the Social
Development Ministry to serve as an independent institution.
Participants in the discussions also insisted that restructuring of public
spending mechanisms “should not come at the expense of ordinary citizens,”
demanding reductions in the expenses of ministers, MPs and senators.
The WB will now take these recommendations and reflections to negotiate the
final version of the strategy with the government before the end of this year.