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Publication
Jordan Economic Monitor, Fall 2015: A Hiccup Amidst Sustained Resilience and Committed Reforms
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-10-01)The Jordan economic monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Jordan. It places them in a longer-term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and other changes in policy for the outlook for the country. Its coverage ranges from the macro-economy to financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development. It is intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, business leaders, financial market participants, and the community of analysts and professionals engaged in Jordan. -
Publication
Access to Information in the Middle East and North Africa Region: An Overview of Recent Developments in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015)The right to access and request information is enshrined in article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights. Access to information (ATI) plays an essential role for promoting accountability and citizens ability to monitor the actions of the government, and it contributes to participatory development. The goal of this report is to provide an overview of the situation of access to information in the Middle East and North Africa (MNA) region, in particular the cases of Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. This report looks at previous and current efforts for promoting ATI in the region in order to facilitate knowledge exchange among ATI practitioners across those countries and to help them identify areas for collaboration in the region. For each country, this report will first examine the legal and or institutional framework, including a range of factors such as constitutional provisions, restrictive legislation, relevant regional and international conventions, and key administrative bodies. Government initiatives affecting the right of ATI are then considered in detail for each country. This report examines the practice of ATI for each of these four countries, including the use and implementation of ATI legislation or other applicable transparency provisions. Finally, a summary of recent developments of the ATI coalitions and campaigns in these countries is provided. -
Publication
Jordan Country Gender Assessment : Economic Participation, Agency and Access to Justice in Jordan
(Washington, DC, 2013-07)Over the last three decades Jordan has made substantial investments in its human resources, spending more than 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health and education. Like their male counterparts, women and girls have benefitted from these policies and their quality of life has improved. The Jordan Country Gender Assessment (CGA) has two primary objectives. The first is to assess gender imbalances in the areas of economic participation in the labor market, agency, and access to justice; provide a framework for policies or interventions to the Government of Jordan (GoJ) on addressing imbalances; and provide a basis for implementing the activities included in the Gender Action Plan (GAP). The second objective is to develop and strengthen partnerships with GoJ agencies, Civil Society Organization's (CSOs), and academic institutions to promote collaboration on addressing gender-related issues impacting development, and in particular to develop mechanisms for cooperation on implementation of the GAP. This CGA will further explore, in the Jordan country context, the argument that the considerable progress in human development in Jordan has not yet led to consistently higher women's participation in economic, political and social life, which in turn has slowed women's economic participation. Access to justice is directly linked to the issue of agency-whereas agency defines the legal and social boundaries of rights and practices, the concept of access to justice covers the tools and mechanisms aiding persons in exercising these rights. Obstacles to women exercising agency in Jordan are caused by a combination of the treatment of women versus men under applicable legal frameworks, with gaps further widened by restrictive social norms that can govern women's behavior. Recent legislative and regulatory reforms, if implemented effectively, have the potential to increase women's agency through expansion of rights and improvements in service delivery. Despite legal and social impediments to accessing land, levels of registration of land by women have been increasing in recent years. -
Publication
Jordan Corporate Governance Regulations: Comparative Study
(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2013-06-09)As the importance of Corporate Governance increases, an awareness and understanding of the different relevant regulations becomes of paramount value. The importance and value of Corporate Governance is not the core of this publication. The publication is built around the premise that Corporate Governance is important and increasingly becoming of significant importance for growth, continued success and sustainability. Accordingly, this publication aims to identify, highlight and summarize the different codes of Corporate Governance along with other relevant regulations that impact Corporate Governance that are available in Jordan. The authors intend to address the different codes with respect to the principles of Corporate Governance as defined by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); namely: ensuring the basis for an effective Corporate Governance framework; the rights of shareholders and key ownership functions; the equitable treatment of shareholders; the role of stakeholders in Corporate Governance; disclosure and transparency; and the responsibilities of the Board. This comparative study will provide an overview of how each code (or relevant regulation) addresses the different principles and to what extent. Since certain Corporate Governance practices tend to overlap across different principles and cover broad practices, we have found that it would be best in this study to provide a detailed assessment of different practices and requirements based on different dimensions. The dimensions the authors use are those defined based on best practices as identified by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as follows: commitment to Corporate Governance; board functioning; management control environment; disclosure and transparency; and shareholder and stakeholder relations. -
Publication
Jordan Workforce Development : SABER Country Report 2013
(Washington, DC, 2013)Human Development in Jordan has witnessed significant progress over the past two decades, in line with Jordan s vision to become a regional leader through leveraging its strong human capital base into a skills, knowledge and innovation driven economy. Evidence of progress on this front is provided by the advancement of the country s human development and education indicators. Between 1980 and 2011, the Human Development Index (HDI) value increased by 29 percent, the adult literacy rate reached 92.6 percent; the primary school completion rate hit 100 percent and combined gross enrolment reached 79 percent. In the decade prior to the global financial slowdown of 2008 and the subsequent political unrest in the region, Jordan experienced rapid economic growth, outperforming the MENA average. -
Publication
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan : Options for Immediate Fiscal Adjustment and Longer Term Consolidation
(Washington, DC, 2012-11)This report aims to provide options for immediate fiscal adjustment to the government of Jordan and to set the foundations for longer term consolidation. To that effect, an analysis of the dynamics of revenues and expenditures over the years 2000-2011 is undertaken. Specifically, this report attempts to provide options to stop and reverse the declining trend in revenues observed since 2007. Indeed, domestic revenues declined by 9.4 percentage points of GDP between 2007 and 2011. This steady and structural decline in revenues increased the vulnerability of Jordan s public finances to any exogenous shock. Hence, the strong fiscal stress at the eve of the Arab Awakening, due to the pressures to finance widening power sector deficit following the disruption of Egyptian gas supply, and to meet popular demand for additional spending and subsidies. The report also examines: 1) potential sources of savings from current and capital spending, 2) scenarios to reduce power sector deficit including tariff simulations, 3) options to reduce consumer subsidies and target them more efficiently to the poor, and 4) options to reduce the financial deficit of the water sector. The report ranks the measures according to a rating mechanism that takes into account the magnitude of savings, the efficiency improvements in the use of public resources, the distributional impact, previous dynamic of the spending or revenue item in question, the poverty and social impact, and the growth impact. Finally, the report proposes a matrix of policy objectives and actions that identifies areas of policy reform, policy objectives, actions needed to reach this objective, and time horizon. -
Publication
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - Development Policy Review : Improving Institutions, Fiscal Policies and Structural Reforms for Greater Growth Resilience and Sustained Job Creation (Vol. 1 of 2)
(Washington, DC, 2012-06)Jordan's quest for long-term, inclusive and sustainable growth has remained largely elusive. By the Growth and Development Commission's measure of success, namely, an average growth rate of 7 percent over 30 years, Jordan's growth record cannot be dubbed 'successful'. This Development Policy Review (DPR) shows that sustaining growth and reducing unemployment is possible: Jordan has a strong human capital base, a large endowment in engineers, doctors, accountants, Information Technology (IT) specialists and a substantial highly-skilled diaspora (500,000 educated Jordanians abroad, 8 percent of the population). Furthermore, the market-oriented reforms of the early 2000s have made Jordan one of the most open economies in the Middle East and North Africa Region and have led to the emergence of dynamic non-traditional sectors (e.g., information and communication technologies, health tourism and business services). What is missing are: (i) an adequate and stable institutional framework for policymaking and long-term business development; (ii) good fiscal policies to manage shocks and maintain macroeconomic stability; good institutions and macroeconomic stability were identified by the growth commission as two of the five common characteristics of successful growth experiences; and (iii) further growth-enhancing structural reforms. -
Publication
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - Development Policy Review : Improving Institutions, Fiscal Policies and Structural Reforms for Greater Growth Resilience and Sustained Job Creation (Vol. 2 of 2)
(Washington, DC, 2012-06)Jordan's quest for long-term, inclusive and sustainable growth has remained largely elusive. By the Growth and Development Commission's measure of success, namely, an average growth rate of 7 percent over 30 years, Jordan's growth record cannot be dubbed 'successful'. This Development Policy Review (DPR) shows that sustaining growth and reducing unemployment is possible: Jordan has a strong human capital base, a large endowment in engineers, doctors, accountants, Information Technology (IT) specialists and a substantial highly-skilled diaspora (500,000 educated Jordanians abroad, 8 percent of the population). Furthermore, the market-oriented reforms of the early 2000s have made Jordan one of the most open economies in the Middle East and North Africa Region and have led to the emergence of dynamic non-traditional sectors (e.g., information and communication technologies, health tourism and business services). What is missing are: (i) an adequate and stable institutional framework for policymaking and long-term business development; (ii) good fiscal policies to manage shocks and maintain macroeconomic stability; good institutions and macroeconomic stability were identified by the growth commission as two of the five common characteristics of successful growth experiences; and (iii) further growth-enhancing structural reforms. -
Publication
Middle East and North Africa Economic Developments and Prospects, September 2011 : Investing for Growth and Jobs
(Washington, DC, 2011-09)The report highlights the important links between good governance on a level legal and regulatory playing field, and the ability of investment to stimulate growth. Investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been strong over the last two decades in comparison with Latin America and Eastern Europe. However, in the oil exporting countries, it has been primarily supported by large and expanding public investments. Oil importers, in contrast, have shown more strength in private investment, which has increased in recent years. A concern with reliance on public investment is that in economies with weak governance there is no evidence that public investment stimulates growth. In contrast, in countries with an adequate level of protection of property rights and legal institutions, public investment is strongly linked to growth. The report also makes a strong case for private investment in services and manufacturing as engines of job creation and income growth in the region. -
Publication
Middle East and North Africa Economic Developments and Prospects, January 2011 : Sustaining the Recovery and Looking Beyond
(Washington, DC, 2011-01)The impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the Middle East and North Africa region was relatively mild. Lack of integration and a large public sector helped insulate the region to some extent, but now these and other factors are slowing down the speed of its economic recovery. The report examines the major factors threatening the recovery and those that obstruct long-term growth – especially non-oil export growth, which in net terms contributed little to regional growth during the past decade, with non-oil exports remaining below potential in many countries in the region. The report emphasizes several major areas in need of policy makers’ attention, including restrictive trade policies, particularly those affecting trade in services; governance issues linked to uneven application of rules and regulations; inefficient and inflexible labor markets and scarcity of skills, innovation and technological capabilities.