Jordan Watch
An update and analysis of development and reform challenges in Jordan from a social democratic perspective.

Participating in "We are Jordan" Forum
Thursday, July 13, 2006

In my capacity as a writer and journalist, I was invited to participate in the "We are all Jordan" forum along with other 699 people in the gathering that took place yesterday along the Dead Sea coast.
The Forum had a major objective, stated by the King in his opening remarks which is to "prioritize" the main challenges and political and socio-economic priorities facing Jordan and having a national consensus around them. The King said that the reason why previous national efforts failed to deliver the expectations was due to their inability to prioritize issues of major concern.
 
 
The forum was truely participatory. It has been organized by the Office of the King and spearheaded by Dr Basem Awadallah. There were 70 tables, each with 10 participants plus a selecetd university student who should take the notes on the table. Each table had a minister, deputy, private sector representative, political party representative, academic professor, journalist, local community representative..etc.
On each table there was a paper with a list of 30 proposed priority issues selected by the office of the King based on the results of the King's meetings with 350 Jordanian figures in the Royal Court in the last three months, plus issues raised at various meetings between the King and national institutions.
The participants on each table were asked to prioritize the 30 issues, starting with the most important (given no 1) and going down to the "least". After each tables finishes, the results were distributed along the e-network and calaculated for a total collective "listing" from the 70 tables.
Now, this system is called "logical Framework Analysis" and it is used for strategic planning for companies, NGOs, projects and some policies and action plans. This is the first time that I learn such a method can be used to prioritize national issues!
The top 15 priorities selcted by the 70 tables will be discussed in depth on 26th and 27th of July, to develop a "national action plan" for each priority, along with indicators of success and time measurements.
This is where the tricky part will begin. For example, the main priority that was selected in the Forum is "instilling the values of citizenship and the sense of belonging"!
Ok, how will we be able to develop an action plan for "instilling values of citizenship" and how can we go deep and frank to analyse and identify the root causes for "reduction of citizenship values" and how can we develop "indicators" and time frames for citizenship and loyalty to Jordan? How can we say that you may be more loyal and have more citizenship values than me, based on what indicators?
I am really interested to know how such analysis will take place and would love to participate in that event.
For the record please find below the list of 15 priorities for Jordan as identified in the Forum:
1- instilling the values of citizenship and the sense of belonging
2- state’s sovereignty and protecting the national interest
3- national security
4- good governance
5- independence of the judiciary
6- alleviating poverty
7- human rights
8- the fight against terror and takfiri ideology
9- educational development
10- Establishment of an independent Palestinian state
11- financial stability
12- healthcare and comprehensive health insurance
13- political party development
14- attracting investments.
15- unity and sovereignty of Iraq
 
Two very important priorities were missing from the initial list of 30, and they were fighting corruption and water management. Other 30 priorities that were not considered among the main 15 were "empowerment of women, independence of media, empowerment of youth, empwerment of local communities, social responsibility of private sector and public sector reform.

posted by Batir Wardam in Political Reform @ 5:48 PM

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(11) comments


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On July, 13, 2006 5:21 PM , Khalaf
from Jordan said:

Batir: With all due respect, I think the whole exercise is a waste of time. Like many, many efforts in the past, it will end up as a large folder on a dusty shelf. The 700 people could have done more for Jordan simply staying at work and doing the jobs that they are paid to do.

On July, 13, 2006 5:27 PM , Batir
from Jordan said:

Khalaf I think I also agree to a large extent especially after seeing the open lunch the participants had. I always believe in the full half of the cup and I will still keep my fingers crossed for a real political decision to give momentum to the reform process. However< i think the second stage will be very interested if they are really willing to tackle the "hardcore" issues of analysis.

On July, 13, 2006 5:47 PM , Queen Rania's fan
from Italy said:

Batir, I'm not Jordanian and I have never come there (I hope to visit your country soon), but I liked your article so much, expecially because you stressed the importance of empowerment of women in Jordan.
...So did you meet the king at the Forum?? :))
...Out of topic: I heard that Alaa, the Egyptian blogger is free now!

On July, 13, 2006 5:55 PM , Batir
from Jordan said:

QRF: thanks for the note and I hope you will be able one day to visit Jordan. I was in Italy in December (Trieste) and it was such a fanatstic time, although it was freezing cold.
The King was for a brief period. he gave a keynote speech and then went to set at 3-4 tables and talk with the participants.
Alaa is free and he is blogging at full force now.

On July, 13, 2006 6:19 PM , Queen Rania's fan
from Italy said:

Yes, I saw in your blog that you came to Trieste: I have never gone!!! :) ...I live near Milano.
I hope to come to Jordan too: it's a must for me.
Queen Rania will be in Italy in August, but I'll be away for holiday!!! It has been since 2002 that I hope to see her!!!!
W Alaa.

On July, 13, 2006 7:12 PM , Abu Shreek said:

Hilarious. Very funny post.

I think there was more effective “strategic planning” in our fifth grade class meeting.

On the other hand, I hope you enjoyed the lunch (of course the highlight of the day), and I hope that everybody got a pat on the back on the way home.

“state’s sovereignty and protecting the national interest”…LOOOL

On July, 13, 2006 8:32 PM , Jordanian said:

Objectives 1&2 class head to head, not a very good start for any agenda. Objective 1 promotes opposition in the name of belonging while objective 2 promotes muzzling in the name of soverneigty. It is puzzling to see 2&3 being issues about solidifying the power grip of the state over the people, done in a democratic way of course!

Instead, we should be talking about power devolution, not concentration.

And by the way, who the hell is Awadallah to set or organize talks about the national agenda? Do we have an unelected person prioritizing and programming our future for us or what?

On July, 14, 2006 1:54 AM , Hamzeh N. said:

I think this excersize can only be useful if it is revisited and approached in a way that is different in two regards:

1) instead of prioritizing goals, we should prioritize tasks.

2) we should identify interdependencies between the different tasks at different stages. Which task depends on the completion (or partial completion) of another and so on and so forth.

The outcome of that would be much more valuable than an excersize that says "we want to get here first, and then get there".

The focus should be on tasks executed in parallel. Where a higher priority task doesn't necessarily mean that task will end first. It will get to execute more, that's all.

On July, 14, 2006 3:25 PM , Huda said:

"We are Jordan" makes sense except that those who are telling to buy this keep subordinating Jordan's interest to US and Israel's interest even if it meant getting Jordanians killed in terror attacks. I am tired of the doubletalk and BS slogans.

On July, 18, 2006 1:35 AM , Batir
from Jordan said:

Huda I am afraid your statement "those who are telling to buy this keep subordinating Jordan's interest to US and Israel's interest even if it meant getting Jordanians killed in terror attacks" is completely flawed. The Jordanians who were victims of terror attackes paid the price for a ruthless ideology that supports killing people to go to paradise. Al Qaeda has long targeted Jordanians and all arabs long before the Iraq war. By this statement you are providing the terrorists who target innocent people with "intellectual ammunition" to do so, as if you are justifying their actions. That can never be acceptable.

On September, 01, 2006 7:21 AM , Charles Buell
from United States said:

This is obviously a very late comment to this July piece, but I just read about the "We are all Jordan Youth Forum" in the Jordan Times for Sept 1&2. It was very interesting to see that "Logical Framework Analysis" was used to have the youth pinpoint their priorities. And what was Number 1? Fighting corruption, one of the options in the adult program that was not included there and which you wanted included. Good for the youth! (Two of our group visited Jordan in March and we hope to generate exchanges between Americans and Jordanians.)
Charlie Buell



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