Jordan is embarking on building a regional model through the implementation of a comprehensive reform agenda, with the aim of propelling growth and realizing a sustainable improvement in the welfare of citizens. Jordan’s vision is to develop a modern, tolerant, and open society, and to establish itself as a successful model of reform and development conceived and implemented from within. With this in mind, Jordan is moving towards a society that respects diversity and regards it as a source of national strength and pride, where majority rule is coupled with minority rights, where the right to politically organize is guaranteed, and where personal and public freedoms are upheld. Significantly, instituting the elements of democratization and sound governance are part of an evolutionary process which is reflective of the needs and aspirations of the Jordanian people.
POLITICAL REFORM
Key strategic objectives have been identified by the Government formed in October of last year, and entrusted by His Majesty King Abdullah II to implement a far-reaching program with political reform as its first priority. The premise behind placing political development as a prime priority stems from the belief that it is a necessary enabler of the overall reform agenda and would ensure that such policies address the real concerns of the people. Political development includes strengthening public and personal freedoms, including freedom of the press and assembly; empowering women and removing any legal discrimination against them; encouraging the development of political parties with viable platforms and popular support; enhancing the efficiency and independence of the judiciary; promoting a participative civil society through a vibrant national dialogue; and guaranteeing human rights.
Political reform in Jordan has entered a new and important stage of implementation. The Ministry of Political Development and Parliamentary Affairs (MOPD) was established to guide and oversee the process. The MOPD established a clear plan of action that rests on the pillar of promoting democracy through building and strengthening the institutional framework, including the parliament and the judicial system as well as the legislative and regulatory frameworks in which they operate.
The process aims to develop political parties and encourage the participation of all segments of society, particularly women and youth. Though there are over 20 political parties in Jordan of different political persuasions, they lack a solid base of support and a viable platform, with the notable exception of the Islamic Action Front (IAF). The MOPD is, therefore, spearheading the process of political development through active consultations and discussions with political parties and labor and trade unions. Significantly, the government is supporting the capacity building at nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which are an integral part of the process of developing the body politic and are actively involved in the national dialogue. Pursuant to the dialogue currently taking place at both the national and local levels, the new political parties and election laws are being drafted to ensure a more active, dynamic, and representative political body.
Media
The Ministry of Information was abolished as of last October, and several laws have been enacted, modified, or abolished to disengage state media organizations from direct government control through the establishment of independent boards to run them, including the Board of Directors of the Radio and Television Corporation. The government also sold its shares in the daily newspapers as a reassurance of the government’s determination to liberalize the sector. Laws have been passed to allow private TV and radio stations to operate in Jordan, with two such licenses already granted.
Moreover, in support of this policy, an independent Higher Media Council was established. The Council’s responsibilities encompass formulating media policy, overseeing the regulation of the media sector and assisting in the creation of a responsible and accountable media environment. This body, supported by amended media-related laws and regulations, has created a favorable climate for the press and other media outlets to create a vibrant and transparent media environment. The Audiovisual Commission has thus been established to regulate the media sector, set standards, ensure fair competition and the independence of outlets from government control, and to allow for private media organizations to operate.
Human Rights, Women’s Rights, and Youth Development
Although Jordan’s Constitution has guaranteed for decades the rights of citizens, freedom of speech, organization, assembly, and press among many others, and strictly prohibited racial or religious discrimination, Jordan continues to take acclaimed steps towards safeguarding human rights. The legislative underpinnings contain a wide-ranging array of provisions for human rights and freedoms, and the country has committed itself to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ratified a number of international instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
To give practical effect to these treaty provisions and to enable the government to meet its obligations, the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) was established in December 2002 as an independent institution, the first of its kind in the region. The work of the NCHR is focused on addressing complaints of human rights violations and infringements, ensuring that the appropriate procedures are adopted, and that citizens are duly informed of their rights and the available means and measures for protecting them.
Moreover, laws currently under review include family protection, civil status, citizenship, penal code, and the civil service by-law. Concrete steps are also being taken to encourage more participation by women at all levels of public life through mainstreaming gender development. The present Cabinet, for instance, includes three women out of 20 Cabinet ministers, a first in Jordan’s history. A minimum participation level for women in parliament has also been guaranteed through instituting a quota of six seats, while seven women were appointed to the 55-member Senate. Furthermore, under a new temporary law announced at the closing the of the second Arab Women’s Summit in November 2002, Jordanian women are now effectively entitled to pass citizenship on to their children.
Government efforts are also geared towards sponsoring excellence and innovation of youth in all spheres of life. Investments are being channeled towards establishing social and sport facilities throughout the country to further a well-rounded development of youth and a keen sense of community. The Social and Economic Transformation Program, for instance, has allocated US$13.5 million for such projects over the period 2002-2004.
To correctly diagnose and address the challenges that youth are facing, a direct link between youth and the decision-making process has been established and nurtured. For example, the first Jordan Youth Forum was held in May 2003 to provide Jordan’s youth with the opportunity to present their views and discuss developmental challenges as they see them. In parallel, the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) has been working towards youth development through its Financial Window to Support Creativity and Distinction that seeks to direct student’s thinking towards new horizons based on innovation, creativity, research, and development. KAFD has also established career counseling centers at universities to help guide student in their career choices and assist in job placement.
In recognition of the pivotal role of youth in Jordanian society and their importance to development, university students are selected on a regular basis to accompany His Majesty King Abdullah II on many of his trips abroad to widen their horizons and learn, firsthand, about the experiences of other countries.
ECONOMIC REFORM
Economic reform efforts began following the economic crisis that Jordan faced in 1989, and were primarily focused on attaining macroeconomic stability and rectifying fiscal imbalances. By 1999, the stringent reform efforts were successful in sustaining a prudent macroeconomic management policy, which included the gradual reduction of high fiscal imbalances, and the implementation of a structural reform agenda.
However, despite the deep structural reforms and success in achieving macroeconomic stability during the 1990s, Jordan was faced with many challenges including low growth in real output, a still high external debt and budget deficit, a chronic water deficit, and an unproductive private sector, and the economy remained highly vulnerable to external factors.
Challenges, though, were not used as an excuse for inaction, but rather were the impetus for further reforms. There was thus a realization that reforms must continue and be targeted to address the challenges that Jordan was facing. Reform efforts were therefore revisited in 1999 when His Majesty King Abdullah II ascended to the throne, prompting an accelerated pace of reforms and the launch of new strategies and initiatives aimed at realizing sustainable socioeconomic development.
Fiscal reforms, therefore, led to significantly lowering external public debt as a percent of GDP from 96 percent in 1999 to 70 percent. Additional measures in the pipeline include further actions in the context of pension reform and the rightsizing of the public sector in order to curb the level of current expenditures. These measures are aimed at developing a budget that is responsive to socioeconomic development needs, and is capable of self-financing and covering the recurring costs of projects.
Furthermore, monetary stability has been a cornerstone of the development agenda, as official foreign currency reserves have been constantly rising and are currently at US$4.44 billion, while inflation has been successfully contained at an average of less than 2 percent over the past five years.
Jordan also witnessed a dynamic privatization process which succeeded in enhancing the efficiency of privatized firms and in creating a competitive market where demand and supply can freely interplay. To date, the privatization process has injected US$1.1 billion into the economy through the privatization of 55 state enterprises, which include the Arab Potash Company, Jordan Cement Factories, and Jordan Telecom. The government is keen to continue the thrust of the process, and projects under consideration include the Jordan Phosphates Mining Company and Royal Jordanian, the national airline carrier. The government is also committed to supporting the implementation of major development projects, including residential and commercial development, the Disi water conveyance project, water treatment plants, as well as the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ).
The privatization process has been coupled with a rapid integration into the world economy, including Jordan’s accession to the WTO, the signing of the FTA Agreement with the United States, the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) Agreement with the United States and Israel, the Partnership Agreement with the European Union, the Arab FTA Agreement, and the most recent FTA Agreement with Singapore. The overall reform strategy focuses on export expansion, private-led growth through competitiveness, and minimizing government intervention in the economy.
The results of the ongoing economic reform process are encouraging. Despite the disruption caused by the Iraqi conflict and the continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, real GDP growth is expected to reach 5.5 percent in 2004, while domestic exports – which have grown to more than US$2.3 billion in 2003 – grew by almost 40 percent in the first quarter of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003.
JUDICIAL, LEGISLATIVE, AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM
In parallel, the judicial reform process is aimed at enhancing the efficiency of the court system, strengthening its autonomy, training judges and lawyers, establishing an integrated information system network, and ensuring transparency and accountability. This is to be achieved through (i) strengthening the independence of magistrates; (ii) simplifying and rationalizing legal procedures with a view to reducing delays; (iii) setting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, with particular emphasis on commercial matters, to reduce the case load of judges; (iv) increasing the transparency of judicial decision-making and predictability of judgments; (v) increasing competency of the present and future judicial corps in matters of business law broadly defined; (vi) improving the judicial system’s enforcement capacity; (vii) ensuring broader and more timely dissemination of legal information through electronic access to speed archiving and dissemination; (viii) broadening the participation of stakeholders to the drafting of new legislation; and (ix) modernizing the Ministry of Justice’s work processes, including but not limited to, the judicial inspection unit within the Ministry.
Creating an enabling environment for increased investment and sustained growth has also required sweeping legislative reforms, which focus on creating an enabling legislative environment that is responsive to the needs of the private sector, and the evolving global market trends. The reforms encompassed passing new laws and amending a number of existing ones related to intellectual property, companies, e-transactions, securities, copyrights, patents, telecommunications, anti-money laundering, and others.
Administrative reform, on the other hand, focuses mainly on decentralizing the decision-making process and eliminating red tape. This continuous process aims at improving the quality of civil servants through training and education, in addition to enhancing the efficiency of the system through the introduction of information and communications technology (ICT) into every facet of government work, as well as a transparent and effective tax system and improved tax collection mechanisms.
EDUCATIONAL REFORM
Jordan recognizes that only through harnessing the potential of its young population will it achieve its development goals. The focus on educational reform as a necessary enabler for sustainable growth stems from the realization that having a young population (61 percent of the population under the age of 25) presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Over the next three years, to achieve the objectives set, the government will need to channel almost US$600 million into developing human resources with the objective of reshaping the educational system to be better aligned with the requirements of the knowledge-based economy through providing better learning environments and resources and nurturing the skills of creativity, responsibility, and critical thinking, as well as better matching the output of the educational and vocational and technical training systems with the emerging requirements of the labor market.
The main vehicle for government investment in public education is the Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy Program (ERfKE), which was devised by the government in close coordination with the World Bank and other donors. ERfKE sets an integrated plan of action to meet the current and future needs of society in Jordan in the context of the knowledge economy and aims at promoting lifelong learning, responsiveness of the educational system to the economy, increased incorporation of ICT to support effective learning and system management, and enhanced quality learning experiences and environments throughout the country.
THE WAY FORWARD
In building this new Jordanian model, the government has been keen to institutionalize the roles of the private and public sectors, and foster a vibrant partnership between them by engaging the private sector at the highest decision-making level. By identifying the private sector as the engine of economic growth, it is being encouraged to take a more proactive role in the development process, through spearheading innovation, creativity and dynamism.
The latest initiative by the private sector and civil society institutions, in which Jordanian participants were instrumental, is telling of this fact. Leading members of the Arab private sector and civil society institutions met in Amman, Jordan, on the eve of the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Dead Sea, Jordan, to lay the groundwork for the launch of a process that will define the vision for the Middle East in 2010. The initiative comes on the heels of a series of recent initiatives and research on the state of Arab development, including the UNDP Arab Human Development Reports, the work of the Arab Business Council of the WEF, as well as the Alexandria Library conference and the Sana’a meeting on Democracy and Human Rights. This initiative is conceived to consolidate earlier initiatives and provide a clear and time-bound plan of action, expected to be officially launched at the WEF in January 2005 in Davos, Switzerland. It will provide a constant flow of innovative ideas and solutions to the challenges that both Jordan and the region in general are facing.
The way forward for Jordan has been well defined through the design of Social and Economic Development Plan (2004-2006). The Plan is an investment in reform that builds on past achievements and responds to emerging socioeconomic needs. The Plan continues the reform process through the implementation of sectoral development strategies, which encompass a number of policy measures and time-bound action plans in several critical domains at the micro level, developed by related ministries, in coordination with leading stakeholders from the private sector and civil society institutions, including NGOs.
By 2006, the Plan aims to achieve and sustain a GDP growth rate of 6 percent per annum and per capita income growth of 3.6 percent. The government will also work on reducing poverty and unemployment at the grassroots level through increasing investment in rural development and introducing programs that aim to empower and enable citizens, especially youth and women, in addition to encouraging more private investment.
In order to complete the reform agenda detailed in the Plan over the three year period 2004-2006, the government must invest a total amount of US$4.4 billion in development projects, as follows: US$593 million in human resource development, US$2.7 billion in basic government services, US$842 million in rural development and poverty alleviation, and US$334 million in institutional and structural reform. The total secured and expected funding for the three year period 2004-2006 amounts to US$3.2 billion, thus giving rise to a funding gap of US$1.2 billion (about US$400 million per year).
G-8 SUPPORT FOR REFORM
The support of the G-8 is critical to the full implementation of Jordan’s development agenda and, as thus, is a necessary requisite for the continuation, and acceleration, of reforms. Support is most needed through (i) providing direct financial assistance to support project implementation; (ii) encouraging foreign direct investment and supporting export industries; (iii) facilitating further economic integration, both within the region and globally; and (v) providing technical assistance.
Jordanian experience with reforms, the regional dynamics, and donors, has shown that donor support is most needed, and indeed most effective, in (i) human resource development, through supporting the development and modernization of the educational and vocational and technical training systems; (ii) improving the healthcare system; (iii) supporting sustainable enterprise development, through developing financing mechanisms for small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as developing rural and impoverished areas; (iv) enhancing the legislative and regulatory environment; (v) supporting the creation of an enabling investment infrastructure; (vi) supporting the capacity building of civil society institutions; and (vii) providing technical assistance in the design and implementation of policies, including those in political, economic, judicial, administrative, and other areas.
The Jordanian model is a testament to the fact that homegrown reforms are both necessary for a public buy-in and are more reflective of the priorities, concerns, and challenges of each country. Ownership gives the people a stake in the implementation of reforms, and it is necessary for people to be entrusted with such a task should they be willing to make the sometimes painful compromises necessary for their implementation. Significantly, a public buy-in of the reform process will give people a stake in a peaceful and stable future.
Though much progress can be achieved through enhanced cooperation and the forging of viable partnerships, regional instability remains the prime cause for the lack of a region-wide move towards sustainable development. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict belies much of the instability, and it is necessary for the international community to engage in this issue. A conducive environment for investment, and thus the opportunity to realize sustainable socioeconomic growth, can only be achieved within a stable regional framework, and namely the rise of a viable Palestinian state living in peace with its neighbor Israel.
In summary, the G-8, Jordan, and the Arab world as a whole share the same interests, and as thus cooperation towards realizing regional objectives will be most effective in a multilateral setting based on cooperation and consultation, as opposed to imposition. In that regard, Jordan will continue to count on the support of its partners as it forges ahead towards building a modern model state that articulates the aspirations of a young civil society for democracy, opportunity, and future promise.
