23/08/2023

23/8/2023

During the past six months, Jordan has completed 19 additional reform measures in the "Project to Strengthen Reform Management", which was launched in cooperation with the World Bank, to coordinate and follow up on a reform matrix that the government announced its commitment to.

According to data, these newly completed measures raised the completion rate of the project to 61%, indicating that 25% of the beneficiaries are women, within the reform matrix that was announced at the (London Initiative) conference in 2019. The World Bank agreed to finance the project, amounting to $6.5 million

. , in September 2019, under a multi-donor trust fund (supported by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Canada).

The World Bank agreed to provide additional financing for the "Strengthening Reform Management" project in Jordan, amounting to $9.3 million; This brings the total project value to $15.8 million.

The data indicated that the additional financing included restructuring the project by expanding the scope of its activities, and extending its closure to match the schedule of the updated reform matrix, as the closing date became June 30, 2024, instead of December 31, 2023. The bank made it clear in previous statements that the additional financing

includes $1.5 million to support public-private partnership projects, $2 million to support public procurement reforms, as well as recommendations to simplify project design by reducing the number of components from 3 to 2; A component to finance the Reform Secretariat, and another component to finance the Reform Support Fund.

The World Bank indicated that the new development objective of the project has become "strengthening coordination and implementation of reforms in Jordan, with a focus on the updated reform matrix" (2018-2024), indicating that the project is working "well" and has achieved many of the required indicators.

As of August, the World Bank's payments to finance the project amounted to $5.03 million out of $15.8 million, with a financing rate of 31.8%.

With the aim of following up, coordinating and facilitating the process of implementing the reform matrix, a unit to support the implementation of economic reforms (secretariat) was established in the Ministry of Planning in late 2019, which also provides the necessary technical assistance to ministries and government departments concerned with implementing reforms, and communicates and consults with the relevant authorities periodically to arrange Reform priorities, and prepare periodic reports on work progress.

The bank stated that the unit in the Ministry of Planning continues to support the ministries, departments and agencies implementing reform in reforming relevant policies through 12 pillars of the reform matrix using the reform support fund.

The Reform Support Unit is also actively supporting the implementation of key World Bank-financed operations such as the Inclusive, Transparent and Climate-Smart Investments Program and the Economic Opportunities for Jordanians and Syrian Refugees Project.

The updated reform matrix extends for two years, to expand the covered sectors from 9 to 12 pillars, as new pillars were added, most notably public sector efficiency, governance, and tourism, and the original water and agriculture pillar was divided into two separate pillars, bringing the total reform pillars that the project will cover to 44 areas. reformist.

At the London Conference in February 2019, the government announced its commitment to its plan for economic reform and growth within a 5-year reform matrix (2018-2022), which was later extended to 2024, based on a set of political and structural reforms related to the most important economic policy issues facing Jordan.