JORDAN: USAID Global Engagement Follow-up

UNCLAS AMMAN 002517

SIPDIS

FOR IIP/NEA-SCA HIGGINS; NEA/PPD AGNEW; NEA/ELA GREGONIS (ADDRESS)
STATE PASS UDAID

E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: EAID PREL PHUM ECON SOCI JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN: USAID Global Engagement Follow-up

Ref: A) Amman 2516 B) Amman 2515 C) Amman 2487 D) Amman 1676


1. This cable is the fourth of four cables following up on the
October visit to Amman of NSC Senior Director for Global Engagement
Pradeep Ramamurthy. It outlines aspects of Embassy Amman's efforts
to advance goals emphasized in the President's June 4 speech in
Cairo.


2. USAID/Jordan is actively engaging with Jordanians to advance the
President's vision that "education and innovation will be the
currency of the 21st century." This year alone, the Mission's
education and economic growth programs reached more than 85,000
Jordanian youth with job and life skills training, internships, and
job placement help. With the launch of an innovative,
cross-sectoral partnership with the International Youth Foundation,
this number will grow each year with the expansion of services and
training to Jordan's most marginalized young people. This sharp
focus on opportunities for youth is complemented by USAID's broader
emphasis on women's rights, human rights, and economic opportunity,
three other priority Global Engagement themes.

ENGAGING YOUTH
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3. President Obama said in Cairo, "no development strategy can be
sustained while young people are out of work." In Jordan, a
majority of the unemployed are ages 15-29, and over 70% of the
population is under age 30. Paired with increasing urbanization,
resource scarcity, and gender issues, Jordan faces tremendous
challenges as it enters the 21st century. USAID/Jordan enjoys a
strong and longstanding partnership with the Government of Jordan
that is focused sharply on addressing these current and future
development issues.


4. USAID's strategy, linked closely to Jordan's action plan for
national development, the National Agenda, centers on a balanced
portfolio of human capacity building, policy, and infrastructure
investments in education, health, water, environment, governance,
economic growth, and energy. Crosscutting youth and urban poverty
alleviation initiatives unite these sectors to address Jordan's
pressing urbanization and demographic challenges.


5. USAID has had particular success in programs that provide
education for employment opportunities. These programs collectively
served more than 85,000 Jordanian youth in 2008 through job fairs,
internships, and job/life skills training. In 2010, this number
will increase with the addition of an International Youth Foundation
(IYF) program that equips Jordan's most marginalized youth with the
tools that they need to prepare for employment in competitive
industries. Engagement with youth includes:

- support to the Ministry of Education in graduating students well
prepared for the job market through school-to-career programs, a
management information curriculum stream, teacher training, and
giving the youngest students an excellent start through a modernized
early childhood education system. USAID also provides extensive
support for building and renovating schools equipped with up-to-date
facilities and technology;

- INJAZ, a Jordanian effort to boost entrepreneurship skills among
high school students that reaches 50,000 youth per year;

- MAHARAT, a similar effort on the university level that links
university graduates with the job market through training, mentoring
by local business leaders, and internships;

- a new youth program led by IYF that serves marginalized,
out-of-school, and/or unemployed youth ages 15-24 with programs
aiming to build job and life skills so that they may lead healthier
lives and engage more fully in economic and social life and in
Jordan's development; and

- a major public outreach push to connect youth with USAID-supported
programs. USAID support for International Youth Day in August 2009
brought over 2,000 youth from across Jordan to Jerash for a day of
awareness-building activities on USAID development initiatives.

PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION
-------------- ---


6. The Royal Court and Government of Jordan have publicly championed
girls' education and women's employment and empowerment, and taken
important steps to strengthen the criminal code to address "honor"
crimes and to increase sentences for rape and harassment (ref Amman
2307 and 1884). Both in government and the NGO community, Jordan
has increasingly strong voices for women's rights.


7. Yet challenges persist; girls and women in Jordan enjoy equal
opportunities for education, but are less likely than their male
peers to enter the labor force and to engage actively in leading
their communities, whether in politics or via informal networks.
Jordan ranked 113 of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum's
2009 Gender Gap report; the low rankings persist from previous years
and are largely due to women's low rates of employment and political
participation. Cultural attitudes towards women in the workforce
limit women's employment choices. Perpetrators of "honor" killings
have historically avoided harsh sentences, claiming their acts were
committed at the height of passion and thus merit judicial leniency.
USAID supports women's rights and participation through:

- capacity-building support for civic organizations engaged in legal
and social service provision and awareness-raising activities for
victims of violence;

- training a growing number of women judges. Over 50% of Judicial
Institute graduates in 2009 were women, up from 43% just two years
ago;

- rule of law assistance that has improved the Criminal Code to
prohibit judges from shortening sentences in "honor" cases and to
increase penalties for rape and harassment;

- support to civil society in improving legal protections for women
under the Personal Status and Labor laws;

- support for capacity-building training for women parliamentarians,
local officials, and candidates;

- an active focus on increasing women and girls' participation in
training activities across the portfolio of USAID engagement, with a
particular focus on workforce development. Examples include
promoting women's participation in the tourism and hospitality labor
force via training and job placement programs; and

- planned upgrades to local-level social services and assistance to
girls, women, and families in poor urban areas via a cross-sectoral
poverty alleviation initiative.

TOWARDS GREATER ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
--------------


8. King Abdullah envisions his country moving swiftly into regional
and global markets, as a center for 21st century information
technology and service industries. Jordan has indeed made
tremendous progress in this sphere, signing a Free Trade Agreement
with the U.S., joining the World Trade Organization, and increasing
both foreign and domestic investment markedly over the past several
years. Current challenges include a skills mismatch between
Jordan's labor force and its employers' needs, vulnerability to
global and regional downturns due to heavy dependence on imported
food and energy, extreme water scarcity, poorly controlled
government expenditures, and a less than fully supportive
macroeconomic climate for economic growth. USAID assists via:

- a wide range of workforce development initiatives that work form
the policy to the people level to enhance capacity in Jordan's labor
market. These programs include innovative public-private
partnerships at the local level that pair Jordanians with jobs in
their communities;

- tourism development programs that work with the Government of
Jordan, the private sector, and the Royal Society for Conservation
of Nature to enhance Jordan's competitiveness as an international
destination and attract students to jobs in tourism, Jordan's most
competitive industry. These programs are particularly notable for
their contributions in reducing gender barriers that have
traditionally prevented Jordanian women and girls from looking to
this sector for future employment; vocational training programs
engage families to reduce the stereotypes and stigma often
associated with these jobs;

- planned local economic development initiatives linked to a broader
urban poverty alleviation effort that will unite government,
business, civic organizations, and city residents in improving their
neighborhoods and livelihoods through microenterprise activities,
training, investment promotion, and capacity-building;

- support for improved revenue collection and government budgeting;

- a water program that blends infrastructure investments in smarter
water sourcing including wastewater treatment/reuse with policy-side
interventions and public engagement to promote conservation and
efficient use; and

- a new energy program that balances policy with public-private
partnerships to leverage Jordan's tremendous potential to tap
renewable energy resources to meet its population's needs.

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
--------------


9. USAID is closely engaged with Jordan on multiple facets of Global
Engagement, notably youth, women's participation, human rights, and
economic opportunity. Cross-cutting energy, youth, and poverty
alleviation programs hold tremendous promise as new elements of the
U.S. assistance partnership with Jordan, and could benefit from
additional resources via Global Engagement.

BEECROFT