Jordan

Final Evaluation – Promoting Constructive Relationships with Youth and Local Authorities in Jordan – March 2022

Youth continue to be amongst the most marginalised groups in Jordan with unemployment and exclusion from decision making being two major challenges. The importance of addressing youth needs and increasing their participation in local and national governance became a central concern for Jordan notably with the deterioration of the situation following COVID-19. The National Youth Strategy (2019-2025) and the Kings’ decree are two major steps taken to support young people and increase their presence in decision making.

The National Youth Strategy (2019-2025) outlines concrete steps to strengthen youth participation with a focus on increasing their presence in local governance. This is expected to be achieved through capacity building and offering opportunities for young people to directly work and intervene in public life affairs. In addition, to support young people, the King of Jordan commended local and national officials to engage more frequently and have youth participate in making decisions. The established royal commission for political reform was tasked with a job to come up with actionable recommendations to support youth participation and engagement in political affairs. Recommendations included decreasing the age of candidacy and working on a more decentralised decision-making process. This helped revitalise the political scene in Jordan granting people the opportunity to influence and participate in decision making.

In line with the National Youth Strategy (2019-2025), outlined by the MoY in Jordan and its objective to increase youth civic participation, Search implemented a project titled “Promoting Constructive Relationships between Youth and Local Authorities in Jordan”. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen youth participation in local governance by developing their skills to collaborate and negotiate with local authority (LA) members in order to achieve positive change on community-level issues.

Key Findings:

  • The intervention was seen as relevant given that youth participation in local governance continues to be a challenge in Jordan despite the favourable contextual changes. The project’s two specific objectives are found to be essential. For instance, the insight collected shows that young people in Jordan are in need of capacity building with regard to their skills to participate in local governance (i.e., knowledge on the governing system in Jordan, communication skills, leadership skill, and advocacy campaign management).
  • The project design was considered of high quality with sequential activities, contributing to the overall transformation aimed by the project objective. The project design utilises the learning by doing approach which, according to Hoskins et al. (2019), is essential to teach youth about participating in local governance.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged , on .

Jusoor (‘Bridges’): Building Bridges between Local Authorities with Youth and  Communities

Funded by: the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and implemented in partnership with Al-Thoria Center for Studies, Consultancies, and Training. Term: December 2021 – September 2023 (Phase II). Objective Search for Common Ground (Search) is implementing a 20-month initiative with the overall goal of strengthening youth-centered participatory approaches […]

This entry was posted in MENA, Projects and tagged , on .

TechCamp Jordan (Hakkerha!): Entrepreneurial Approaches to Countering Disinformation & Misinformation

Funded by: the US Embassy in Jordan, Public Affairs Section (in partnership with US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs).Term: September 2021 – October 2022. Objective Search for Common Ground (Search) is implementing a 12-month initiative to empower young Jordanian women and men to play […]

This entry was posted in MENA, Projects and tagged , on .

Final Evaluation – Tourathna – Our Shared Heritage In Jordan – August 2020

This report captures findings from the final evaluation of the project “Tourathna – Our Shared Heritage,” implemented by Search Jordan in partnership with Royal Institute for Interfaith Dialogue (RIIFS) . The project was funded by the U.S Department of State, and implemented from October 2018 to May 2020 in targeting six historical and religious sites in five governorates of Jordan: Irbid, Ajloun, Madaba, Aqaba, and Salt.

The project aimed to empower local communities, increase mutual respect, preserve religious-cultural heritage, and foster inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. This goal was supported by two specific objectives. Firstly, to increase local communities’ understanding of the importance of a shared national heritage, and secondly, to empower local communities to preserve and promote diverse religious and cultural heritage sites to national and international audiences.

The final evaluation highlights how the project successfully promoted a shared recognition of the interfaith value of cultural heritage sites in six historical and religious sites around Jordan. 80% of interviewed CBO staff members reported an increase in cooperation between community stakeholders, 90% of interviewed youth storytellers believed the project activities had promoted cultural heritage in target areas, 90% of interviewed youth storytellers believed the project activities had promoted cultural heritage in target areas, 95% of interviewed youth storytellers believed the project had a significant impact on youth. Moreover, the majority of staff interviewed from Search, RIIFS, and CBOs, as well as youth storytellers, agreed that more efforts are needed to ensure the project’s sustainable impact.

This entry was posted in Evaluations, MENA and tagged , on .

Our Shared Heritage in Jordan –
Storytelling for Social Change

At Search for Common Ground, we believe that media and storytelling can lift diverse perspectives, shed light on societal issues, and build emotional connections that inspire people to take action. Our project Our Shared Heritage in Jordan is an example of our approach to mobilizing storytelling and media […]

This entry was posted in MENA, Projects and tagged , , , , on .

Promoting Social Cohesion through Peace Camps

Through a partnership with Caritas Jordan, we are enabling the creation of safe spaces for youth through a peace education program. Promoting Social Cohesion Through Peace Camps builds nonviolent and conflict resolution skills for 600 Syrian girls and boys through dynamic 4-day “peace camps” in five locations throughout […]

This entry was posted in MENA, Projects and tagged , on .

Ana La’abah: I am a girl and a football player

Jordan has welcomed over a million Syrian refugees since the beginning of the neighboring conflict. In some instances, this rapid influx has led to tensions between refugees and host communities. As one way to address this while empowering girls at the same time, the project ‘Ana La’abah’ engaged 96 girls from Jordanian and Syrian backgrounds living in the north of Jordan in football training. The football training gave the girls new confidence, widened their social circle and allowed them to build lasting friendships across dividing lines.

This entry was posted in Videos and tagged , , , , on .