59408 October 2010 . Number 32 JORDAN NOW: NEW WORK OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN Tara Vishwanath and Nandini Krishnan 1 Introduction: Improving women's access to economic opportunities remains an important development challenge for the Middle East and North Africa Region. Although impressive strides have been made region-wide in improving women's educational and health outcomes, the region's low female labor force participation rates are not commensurate with these achievements. The youth, especially young women, are very vulnerable, facing significantly higher rates of unemployment. Productive use of this increasingly well educated portion of the labor force promises faster and more sustained economic growth for the region as a whole. In this context, MENA countries are looking at various policies and programs to change this situation. This Quick Note looks at a pilot program in Jordan which is attempting to tackle this challenge. In light of these challenges, discussions were The Jordanian Context: Jordan is a relatively held between the World Bank President, Mr. small country with a population of 5.9 million Robert Zoellick and H.E. Former Prime and a per-capita GNI of US$3,300. Life Minister of Jordan, Nader Dahabi. The expectancy at birth is 73 years on average. Jordanian government requested assistance There are significant gender gaps, however, in from the World Bank to design and implement measures of economic participation. While a pilot initiative focusing on: 1) female senior male unemployment hovers around 10%, year community college students; and 2) female unemployment is around 24%. Labor private sector firms. force participation rates are only 23% for females compared to 70% for men. Pilot Overview: Jordan NOW is a pilot Furthermore, female youth unemployment program that aims to increase female labor stands at 38% and young women account for force participation. Part of the Adolescent Girls only 9% of the economically active population. Initiative, the pilot involves two main interventions: (i) Job vouchers: 600 young women have been 1 Tara Vishwanath, Regional Poverty and Gender offered a job voucher, which is a short-term Coordinator, Middle East and North Africa Region, the incentive for firms to take a chance on hiring World Bank. Nandini Krishnan, Economist, Middle East new graduates, provide them valuable on-the- and North Africa Region, the World Bank. job training and the opportunity to accrue work Industry, the World Bank team, counterparts experience. Moreover, it also provides firms and the Business Development Center. with an opportunity to overcome stereotypes by directly observing young women working Initial feedback from the information sessions for them; and indicates very enthusiastic interest from the (ii) Employability skills training providing 600 young graduates. Information about this new graduates with interpersonal and other program is spreading through friends; even basic job skills that employers identify as students who have not been selected to receive constraints which make them reluctant to hire the free training are calling in or showing up at young women. This training will be provided the training sessions. Even more telling is the by the Jordan-based Business Development fact that many are willing to pay for these Center (BDC). training sessions- an indication that the training we are providing may fill a critical gap! Similarly, firms are calling in asking for more information on the job voucher scheme and expressing their interest in hiring these young women. It is heartening to note that this initial feedback precedes major information outreach efforts to employers. Whether these indications translate into sustained employment remains an open question: this is precisely why Jordan NOW is underpinned by a rigorous impact evaluation. Funding: Jordan NOW is supported by a $1 million grant from the World Bank's Contact MNA K&L: Adolescent Girls Initiative. In-country project Emmanuel Mbi, Director, MNA Operational Core Services Unit Co-ordination is co-financed by the David Steel, Manager, MNA Development Development Impact Evaluation Initiative. The Effectiveness Unit current funding gap is $1.8 million. Regional Quick Notes Team: Omer Karasapan, Roby Fields, Hafed Al-Ghwell and Implementation and Timeline: Since securing Aliya Jalloh initial funding of $1 million from the AGI in Tel #: (202) 473 8177 MENA K&L Quick Notes: March 2010, implementation of the Jordan http://www.worldbank.org/mena-quicknotes NOW pilot has moved at a rapid pace. The July The MNA Quick Notes are intended to summarize 2010 cohort of female graduates from 8 lessons learned from MNA and other Bank community colleges across Jordan were Knowledge and Learning activities. The Notes do surveyed to identify the target population and not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, benchmark outcomes. In August, a lottery was its board or its member countries. conducted and selected graduates were informed through outreach activities led by Impact Evaluation: This pilot has an Community colleges, the World Bank and experimental design to allow learning for counterparts. College information sessions for future policy. The randomized lottery design graduates concluded on September 21, 2010. allows the program to compare young women Multiple sessions of employability skills who participated in the intervention to similar training are currently underway targeting young women who did not. This is an smaller groups of selected graduates which will innovative pilot not only because the conclude on 2 November, 2010. Dissemination evaluation design allows us to compare job and outreach activities are a continuous part of vouchers and training to determine which is the initial phase of implementation to ensure more effective; it also measures joint maximum participation in the pilot. These effectiveness of both training and the job activities are undertaken with the support of vouchers. the Jordan Chambers of Commerce and October 2010 · Number 29· 2